Following Turkey shooting down a Russian military jet in the last week of November, Russian officials have resurrected accusations by rivals of Turkey’s most powerful leaders that Ankara has covertly fueled the rise of Islamic State.
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His comments came after Moscow accused Ankara of profiting from the trade.
Turkey depends on outside suppliers for 90.5 per cent of its oil and 98.5 per cent of its natural gas, the president said.
“There is no sign yet that the problems with Russian Federation will affect projects like natural gas and the Akkuyu nuclear power plant”, Erdogan said in a speech to businessmen that was broadcast live by NTV news channel.
Russian Federation has slapped a set of sanctions on Turkey in response to its refusal to make any apology for the downing incident, but stopped short of cutting off gas supply to Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Ankara could find alternatives to Russian oil and gas, as bilateral tensions escalated over the downing of a Russian warplane. “It is possible to find different suppliers”, Erdogan reportedly said.
Maintaining his tough stance on Russia, Erdogan indicated that Ankara is now looking to energy-rich allies like Qatar and Azerbaijan to fulfill domestic demand. The sanctions cause irreparable damage to the economies of both countries. “We frankly see no evidence, none, to support such an accusation”, State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said.
“There is no indication that mega projects or large scale energy infrastructure projects will be halted or paused”, Erdogan said. “We discussed all issues in a positive atmosphere”.
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Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called for dialogue with Moscow to “narrow our differences” after meeting with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Thursday, in the first high-level contact between the two sides since the plane was shot down.
