Turkey is looking for raw materials with all its might. Now Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced a new era "- but the reactions are bad. There is also a threat of a dispute about a further transformation of the church.
Istanbul / Paris - The Turkish search for natural gas in the Mediterranean has been causing a dispute for months . The actions of the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan are also causing concern in the Federal Chancellery and in the Elysee Palace . The situation in the eastern Mediterranean is very critical, stressed the Chancellor on Thursday after a meeting with Emmanuel Macron . Previously, Angela Merkel had mediated publicly. But on Friday Erdogan came up with news that could change the situation.
It is unclear whether they will do that; Experts doubt. The fact seems: Turkey stumbled upon natural gas deposits in its search for raw materials . And not in the Mediterranean, but in the Black Sea . "Turkey made the largest natural gas discovery in its history in the Black Sea," said Erdogan on Friday in Istanbul.
The drillship Fatih discovered a deposit with 320 billion cubic meters , he said. The goal is to supply the country with gas from the deposit in 2023, according to Erdogan. For experts, however, the findings primarily raise questions.
The markets do not seem convinced either: the Turkish lira fell after the announcement. Previous profits were completely lost. The stock markets have also come under pressure. According to traders, the markets were unsatisfied because double the amount of natural gas was expected. On Wednesday Erdogan announced that he wanted to announce “good news” on Friday, with which Turkey was entering a “new era”.
Turkish energy expert Necdet Pamir said it was too early to reliably identify the size of the deposit - which Erdogan had done shortly before. “That takes months of work.” High expectations could end in disappointment.
With the new finds, Turkey could possibly cover part of its own needs, said Simon Schulte from the Energy Economics Institute at the University of Cologne. “First of all, however, the question is, what does the development and extraction of the gas cost? Such a development in the Black Sea is difficult, ”said Schulte. He referred to a large Romanian find in the vicinity of the current location in 2012. It has not yet been fully developed.
Turkey: Natural gas dispute with the EU - Greece and Cyprus in turmoil
Given a lack of its own energy reserves, Turkey has to import a large part of the demand. It is one of the largest customers for Russian natural gas . The Turkish drilling ship "Fatih" has been drilling in the so-called Tuna-1 zone in the Black Sea since July 20. Turkey is also looking for natural gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean , but crosses it with neighboring countries such as Cyprus and Greece.
The European Union had asked the Turkish government on Sunday to stop the search for gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean "immediately". Shortly beforehand, the Turkish Navy had announced that it would continue the controversial drilling to explore gas deposits in the coming week off the southwest coast of Cyprus.
Greece and Cyprus see the explorations by Turkish ships in their territorial waters as a violation of their sovereignty. Ankara, on the other hand, insists that Turkey, as a coastal state in the Mediterranean, is also entitled to part of the gas reserves.
Erdogan meanwhile provided further fuel for the tense relations with the EU on Friday: Several weeks after the conversion of Hagia Sophia, the former Chora church in Istanbul is now a mosque. The building , which was declared a museum in 1945, will be opened for Islamic prayer, according to a decree published on Friday. According to official information, the history of the building goes back to the 6th century and is a popular tourist attraction, especially because of its frescoes and mosaics.
Athens sharply criticized the decision: "It is still a provocation of the international community that
respects the monuments of human culture," said the Greek Foreign Ministry on Friday. ( dpa / AFP / fn )