No cut in power transfer to Syria

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

Electricity transmission lines are seen at Turkey’s Akçakale border gate to Syria. A cross border deadly shelling escalated tension between Turkey and Syria. Yet, Turkey is not considering to cut off electricity to Syria, Turkish Energy Minister Yıldız says. AA photo

Turkey is continuing to transmit electricity to Syria, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said at the International Energy Congress and Fair in Ankara yesterday.

The already-tense relations between the countries have been further strained as Turkish troops pounded targets in Syria yesterday in reprisal for cross-border fire that had killed five Turkish civilians the previous day. He also said it was unlikely electricity and natural gas prices would go up due to the tension between the countries.

“We do not expect that. We know that Syria is not a large oil and natural-gas producer and that Turkey’s energy consumption is disproportionate to the energy figure in that country,” he said.

Electricity transmission to Syria continues, he said. “We do not talk about any sanctions regarding the Syrian people, the innocent people there.” He said he did not think that the tension would turn into a shooting war.

The incident marked the first time that Turkish citizens have been killed as a result of fire from the country’s war-torn southern neighbor.

‘KRG a potential partner’

Replying a question about relations between Turkey and Iraq, Yıldız said Turkey could not be indifferent to the petroleum-product needs of the country. He said the energy sector would not be involved in the occasionally tense relations between the two countries that are due to other issues.

Speaking at the same event Ashti Hawrami, natural resources minister of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq, said his government would become a real partner of Turkey as soon as possible for the energy supply market.

“We need schools, buses and ambulances. We do not need tanks and explosives now. We need more important things. We have to spend our money on reconstruction. We have to lay out a new Iraq, a country in peace,” he said, adding that the country should prepare its own constitution and share out its resources respecting the diversity of its people.