Russian Economy Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said on Tuesday that no decisions had been made on the project and on a nuclear power station that Russia is building in Turkey.
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The meeting took place at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries and follows a stern warning from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who on Thursday vowed to make Turkey regret its action.
Mr Davutoglu again insisted Turkey did not know the nationality of the plane when it brought it down inside Turkish air space.
The 40-minute meeting on December 3 was the first high-level bilateral talks between Russia and Turkey since the shooting down of a Russian warplane by a Turkish jet on November 24. “Work on formulating agreements on the Turkish Stream is suspended”, particularly because “an intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation has stopped meeting” under Russia’s retaliatory measures against Ankara, Novak said.
The $10-billion TANAP project envisages transportation of Azeri gas from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western border of Turkey. “Let’s reinforce our friendship by not preventing our Russian friends from coming to Turkey but enabling more Turks to go to Russia”, he said.
Russian Federation has in the last days also accused Ankara of importing oil from Islamic State jihadists in Syria, allegations that Turkey fiercely denies.
Speaking in Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku as part of an official visit, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu declared, “Neither our conscience, nor our history, nor our morals could have allowed [the plane] to bomb innocent people by violating [our border]”. Aliyev said it would also serve to export Azerbaijan’s gas further on to Europe.
The Turkish PM stated that the crisis hits Turkey.
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“We gave our response to the claims that have been raised”, Cavusoglu said after the talks. “In Turkey, that is 6 percent”, TEPAV researcher Aysegul Aytac wrote in a recent note. “We are working on the assumptions that they will be carried out as they were agreed”.
