Latest Articles about Turkey

Samsun-Ceyhan, Burgas-Alexandroupolis: Russian Options to Absorb Kazakhstan’s Oil Production
If implemented, the Burgas-Alexandroupolis and/or Samsun-Ceyhan projects would reinforce Russia's quasi-monopoly on oil transportation from Kazakhstan to international maritime ports. Approximately one half of Western companies' production from Kazakhstan is already being delivered through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium's (CPC) existing pipeline, via the North Caucasus,... MORE

PKK Forces Await Orders from Imprisoned Leader Abdullah Ocalan
Reports indicate that Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party (Parti Karkerani Kurdistan - PKK), will release a “roadmap” for resolving Turkey’s decades-old Kurdish insurgency on August 15 (see Terrorism Monitor, August 6). Branches of the PKK continue to operate in northern... MORE

Turkey and Russia Renew Bilateral Confidence
One retired Turkish ambassador told Jamestown that the latest energy deals signed between Turkey and Russia are as promising as the 1970 agreement on establishing an iron and steel plant in Iskenderun in southern Turkey, with the assistance of Soviet technology. Turkey and Russia, despite... MORE

Turkey Seeks Closer Economic and Political Integration with Iraq
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, accompanied by Zefer Caglayan, the state minister responsible for foreign trade, visited Iraq on August 11, as part of an emerging strategic dialogue between Ankara and Baghdad. Prior to departing for Baghdad, Davutoglu held a lengthy press briefing and outlined the... MORE

Turkish Economy Moves out of Freefall: Recovery Requires More Time
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) released its June figures on the industrial production index, which gave mixed signals concerning the influence of the economic crisis on the Turkish economy (www.turkstat.gov.tr, Press Release, August 10). The figures show that although industrial output is still down from... MORE

Gazprom, Turkey Revive and Reconfigure Blue Stream Two
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin wooed Turkey's AKP government with grandiose vistas of a bilateral partnership on energy during his visit to Ankara (EDM, August 7, 10). Along with his proposal to build Gazprom's South Stream pipeline to Europe via Turkey's Black Sea economic zone,... MORE

Progress in Turkish-Azeri Talks on Gas Prices and Transit
Following the signing of energy cooperation agreements between Turkey and Russia, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz continued his "energy diplomacy," by visiting Azerbaijan. Prior to departing for the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, the Azerbaijani enclave between Turkey and Armenia, on August 8 Yildiz stressed that his... MORE

Little Substance in the Russo-Turkish Agreement on South Stream
Putin's visit and gas offer to Ankara is first and foremost intended as a counter-strike to the Nabucco project. The Nabucco inter-governmental agreement was signed, also in Ankara, on July 13 ("they barely had time to clean the red carpet" - Die Presse, August 7).... MORE

Putin Entices Turkey with Grander Version of South Stream
On August 6 in Ankara the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, with a delegation of government ministers and state corporations' executives, announced vast plans for energy cooperation with Turkey (EDM, August 7). The Russian offers seem designed primarily for political effect in Europe, and secondarily... MORE

Ten Years at the Helm: Putin Holds a Photo Shoot and Visits Turkey
It appeared to be just another of ailing President Boris Yeltsin's oddities when on August 9, 1999 he appointed Vladimir Putin as prime minister and announced his support for this unknown bureaucrat as the next president of Russia. In a matter of a few weeks... MORE