Turkey relaunches natural gas flow to Greece

Speaking at a ceremony in the central Anatolian province of Kayseri, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said yesterday that Turkey would diversify the number of countries from which it has been purchasing natural gas in order to decrease natural gas expenditures. Reiterating that Turkey has been currently purchasing natural gas from Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Algeria, Yildiz said that Turkey would sign natural gas agreements with two new countries as part of its plans aimed at becoming self-sufficient in natural gas in the long term. Yildiz also denied some allegations in the Turkish press which quoted him as saying that he felt 'pity" about Greece and thus decided to relaunch the gas flow. 'I am the energy minister of a strong country, and a strong country would never use such offending words. I see some reports quoting me with insulting language; I have never used such wording and would never do so. My Greek counterpart called me and said they were facing a hard time. After meeting the natural gas demand of all our citizens and industrialists, we have started transferring the remaining to Greece. So we have not transferred free natural gas to Greece, because we have not only neighborly relations, but also commercial relations with Greece," Yildiz said.