BY GUNTAY SIMSEK
SABAH- Before coming to Turkey, Russian President Vladimir Putin took some important steps on issues important to us. On one, Russia will reject moves to make traffic in the Straits heavier.
Turkey’s close relations, cooperation, and mutual trust with Russia are to our benefit. Let’s talk more about reports of Russia bypassing Turkey and how Putin will reply when Turkey says the Straits can’t deal with the existing traffic. ‘You’re right,’ he’ll say. ‘Therefore, we recently agreed with Bulgaria and Greece on a Trans-Thrace Oil Pipeline. So you needn’t worry about the Straits.’ Russia knew that Turkey was worrying about oil tankers from the port of Novorossisk and was working on projects to bypass the straits. Thus Turkey and Russia could have worked on this project together, but Ankara didn’t like Russia’s Trans-Thrace Project and was developing alternatives to it. Ankara favored a pipeline through Samsun and Kirikkale to Ceyhan. But Ankara obviously didn’t have enough time to persuade Moscow. Russia bypassed both the Straits and Turkey. Will the project turn to Turkey’s favor after some hard bargaining with Russia? This will be seen in two days.