May 12, 2010

Turkey’s Pact With Russia Will Give It Nuclear Plant

By SEBNEM ARSU
NYTimes

ISTANBUL ‘ Turkey and Russia signed 17 agreements on Wednesday to enhance
cooperation in energy and other fields, including pacts to build Turkey’s
first nuclear power plant and furthering plans for an oil pipeline from the
Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

The pipeline would allow Russia to expand its oil exports from the Black
Sea, bypassing the Bosporus, whose shipping lines are already at capacity.
The deal follows several rounds of agreements between Russia and Turkey in
recent years that have helped Russia maintain its dominance of Eurasian
energy routes.

On his first official visit to Turkey, the Russian president, Dmitri A.
Medvedev, met with his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul; Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan; and other top officials.

Mr. Erdogan saluted the progress on the pipeline, which is to run from the
Black Sea port of Samsun to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, and said it
would ease pressures on the Bosporus and reduce the threat of devastating
spills.

`Our shores are under severe danger during the passage of the oil tankers
through the straits,’ he said. `Once we realize the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline,
we would have the opportunity to reach out to the world from Ceyhan.’
For his part, Mr. Medvedev highlighted the expected increases in the $30
billion in trade between Turkey and Russia.
`Our trading capacity will not only improve but will exceed past records,’
Mr. Medvedev said. `We are aiming for more than $100 billion of trade in
future, which is very inspiring.’ His comments, in Russian, were translated
by Turkish television.

But most of that number comes from Turkish imports of Russian oil and gas,
and some Turkish energy experts cautioned that the increase would do more
good for Russia than for Turkey. The deal for the nuclear plant, scheduled
to be built over seven years in the Mediterranean city of Mersin, raised
further concerns among some Turks of relying too much on Russia.

`If we add dependency on nuclear energy on top of the current energy trading
from Russia, it’s inevitable that we get concerned,’ Necdet Pamir, an energy
expert, told the news channel NTV.

He said Turkey had energy options it could explore without Russian aid.
`Half of Turkey’s immense hydroelectric potential is on hold, so it’s
misleading to present Turkey as a helpless country,’ he said.

Moreover, Mr. Pamir added, the reactor suggested for the project in Turkey,
known as Model 1400, has not been given safety approvals by European
institutions.

A project by a Russian consortium to build a nuclear reactor in Akkuyu,
another Mediterranean town, was canceled by a Turkish court last year after
intense public complaints.

Other agreements signed after the first session of high-level meetings led
by Mr. Medvedev and Mr. Erdogan called for cooperation in combating drug
trafficking and in transportation and education, as well as a lifting of
visa requirements for visits shorter than a month.

Russian tourism to Turkey grows every year, with nearly five and a half
million tourists from the Commonwealth of Independent States in 2009,
according to Tourism Ministry figures, while Russia is a popular destination
for Turkish businessmen.

In addition to the agreements, the leaders pledged greater diplomatic
efforts toward a resolution of the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program and
called for stability in the Caucasus, acknowledging the delicate nature of
the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh
region, which both Turkey and Russia are closely monitoring.

Turkey has been a supporter of Iran’s right to develop nuclear energy but
strongly opposes nuclear weapons in the region and has been critical of
Israel on the matter.