Talks between Moscow and Ankara on building a natural gas pipeline through Turkey to Europe are suspended, Russia’s energy minister said.
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Turkey will continue to support Azerbaijan in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said December 3 during a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku.
According to Lavrov, Kerry said that the US will examine the reports of the Russian Ministry of Defense about Turkey and the illegal oil trade.
Russia Today, however, reported that Lavrov said he heard nothing new from his Turkish counterpart regarding Ankara’s position on the downing of the Russian warplane. The president noted that the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) is a project of Turkey andAzerbaijan, which the two countries started to jointly realize.
Turkey was originally expected to get TANAP gas in 2018.
“If Russia cuts gas, it would effectively be shutting down the Marmara region and that would seriously hurt Turkey”, he said, adding he did not expect Moscow to take such a step as it would break a “contractual obligation”.
“We must leave all arguments and disagreements behind and make one powerful fist, a single anti-terror front, which would work on the basis of worldwide law under the aegis of the United Nations”, he said, addressing lawmakers and top officials in an ornate Kremlin hall.
“The most important element of establishing supply security in countries which have a high dependence on natural gas imports is to have a storage capacity equivalent to 20 to 30 percent of consumption”.
Since then, relations between North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey and Russia have deteriorated with the Russian side threatening sanctions. Russian Federation insists that the plane did not cross from Syria and accused Turkey of a deliberate provocation. Both pilots managed to eject and the plane crashed on Syrian territory. He said “the situation is too unsafe, and freedom and stability too fragile, for us to counter each other.” in an apparent reference to the relations between Russian Federation and Turkey.
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Ankara says the fighter bomber violated its airspace near the Syrian border, despite Russian Federation being repeatedly warned.
