Fahrettin Altun, head of the Communications Department of the Presidency of the Turkish Republic, announced the suspension of the operation of a thermal power plant in the west of the country due to the arrival of forest fires to its site evacuation of all personnel working in it.

This came in a tweet Alton published at dawn Thursday on his account on the social networking site “Twitter”.

Commenting on the fire that reached the site of the “Kemrkoy” thermal power station in the “Yenikoy” neighborhood in the “Milas” district of the state of Mugla (west).

In his tweet, the Turkish official said, “Since it was expected that things would develop and reach this point, the (Kemerkoy) thermal power plant was suspended and all its employees evacuated immediately.”

Altun explained that efforts have been made to control forest fires in Milas district by land and air since Wednesday morning.

Pointing out that thanks to this, the fire was prevented from reaching the site of the aforementioned station and the fire was controlled in the entire area by the afternoon of the same day.

He continued, “After three o’clock in the afternoon, and due to the wind speed reaching 60 km per hour, the fire erupted again.

Then it was controlled again by interfering by land and air, but after the evening the wind speed increased and changed its direction, which led to the fire reaching some points at the station site.”

Altun indicated that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is following the developments with great interest and that the concerned ministers supervised the evacuation of the station, and after that, they left the place immediately.

He also pointed out that after the evacuation process was completed, the firefighting teams examined the place, and it became clear that the main units of the station were not seriously damaged.

He explained that efforts are continuing to take all necessary measures, including cooling operations.

Forest fires affected several southern and southwestern Turkey states, including Antalya, Adana, Mugla, Mersin, and Osmaniye, and President Erdogan had previously declared them “disaster areas.”

The death toll from those fires amounted to 6 deaths and dozens of injuries, while the relevant authorities were able to extinguish most of them.

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The Saudi Electricity Company, the monopoly of service in the country, has signed a green credit facility agreement worth $500 million for 12 years, financed and guaranteed by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation.

According to a company statement on the local stock exchange website on Thursday, the agreement was signed with 8 Japanese banks.

The facilities will be used to finance projects in the field of transmission and distribution networks, linking renewable energy plants and energy efficiency.

And “Saudi Electricity” is 81.22 percent owned by the government, 74.3 percent for the Public Investment Fund (the country’s sovereign fund), and 6.92% for Saudi Aramco.

Last December, the company announced the completion of an international green sukuk issuance worth $1.3 billion.

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Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez said on Wednesday that the value of Turkish investments in the African continent has reached 6 billion dollars.

This came in a speech by him via video conference during the second meeting of the Turkish-Angolan Joint Economic Committee.

He pointed out that the number of projects implemented by Turkish contractors in Africa has reached 1,500, pointing out that the economic volume of those projects exceeded $70 billion.

Donmez noted that economic and trade relations with Angola have developed rapidly in the recent period.

He explained, “Looking at the trade figures for 2020, it is clear that the volume of trade between the two countries is $250 million.

Turkey to Angola constitutes 183 million dollars and 67 million dollars from Angola to Turkey.”

He pointed out that they aim to increase activities that would bring the private sector in both countries together, and businessmen more together.

For his part, the Angolan Minister of Oil and Natural Resources Diamantino Pedro Asuedu expressed his confidence that the two sides will contribute to cooperation in the field of energy in the next stage.

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On Sunday, the Iraqi army announced that it had thwarted attacks with explosive devices targeting electric power transmission towers, in the north of the country.

According to a statement by the Popular Mobilization Forces (affiliated with the army), “a force from the 25th Brigade thwarted the attacks with three explosive devices targeting the electric power transmission towers in the south of Nineveh Governorate (north).”

The statement stated that “the forces intensified their security measures in areas south of Nineveh Governorate to secure electrical power transmission lines.”

And on Saturday, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi assigned the army to protect electric power transmission lines.

This is after a series of attacks over the past days, which led to frequent power outages throughout the country.

The Energy Facilities Protection Forces, which are affiliated with the Ministry of Interior, were previously responsible for protecting electric power transmission lines and power facilities.

Over the past days, the Iraqi authorities announced that several electric power transmission towers had been attacked in the governorates of Diyala (east), Kirkuk, and Salah al-Din (north).

On Friday, the Ministry of Electricity announced the restart of the country’s electric power system, after it was suspended for hours.

This follows the targeting of power transmission towers, while the authorities accuse the terrorist “ISIS” militants of being behind most of these attacks.

In turn, the Iraqi government announced on Friday that it had accepted the resignation of Electricity Minister Majid Hantoush.

In addition to the dismissal of Ahmed Khairy, director of the Electricity Transmission Company (South), from his post, following popular protests over the power outage in the country.

Following the recent outage, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi decided to form a cell to counter the lack of electricity.

Iraq has been suffering from a decades-old electricity shortage crisis as a result of successive wars, the instability of the security situation in the country, as well as rampant corruption.

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On Wednesday, Libya’s representative to the United Nations, Taher al-Sunni, discussed with Germany’s Christoph Heusgen ways to find a real international consensus.

This is to support the Libyan political track at the second Berlin International Conference on Libya on June 23.

Al-Sunni said that he discussed with Heusgen the “preparations before the Berlin 2 conference,” according to a series of tweets, which he attached to a photo of him and Heusgen.

He added that they stressed “the importance of working to find an effective and real international consensus to support the will of the Libyans and the outcomes of the road map of the Libyan Dialogue Forum, and to promote and implement the Joint Military Committee agreement.”

They also stressed “the need to end all kinds of foreign interference since 2011, the speedy exit of foreign forces and mercenaries, and the launch of the path of reconciliation and transitional justice.”

For several years, with the support of Arab and Western countries, mercenaries, and foreign fighters, the militia of retired Major General Khalifa Haftar fought the former internationally recognized Government of National Accord.

Al-Sunni and Heusgen stressed the importance of “establishing the principle of accountability for all those who obstruct the peaceful political path and the consensus of Libyans internally and externally,” according to the tweets.

In January 2020, Berlin hosted a conference in which countries and international and regional organizations participated to contribute to a solution to the Libyan conflict.

The outcomes of the conference stressed the need to respect the arms embargo and push the Libyan warring parties to reach a complete ceasefire.

For months, the oil-rich country has been witnessing a political breakthrough.

On March 16, it received an elected transitional authority that includes a unity government and a presidential council.

Its mission is to lead the country to parliamentary and presidential elections on December 24.

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Through his pursuit of a nuclear energy card, Erdogan is seeking a new position for himself in the region so that he will not be left behind by these nuclear power plant convoys.

Last week, Erdogan announced that he would soon join countries in the nuclear energy sphere.

In an Internet call between the Turkish president and his Russian counterpart Putin, the third reactor of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in the Turkish province of Mersin was inaugurated.

Erdogan indicated that the station will be built by the Russian state-owned company Atom under an intergovernmental agreement for a total electric power generation equivalent to 4,800 megawatts.

According to Erdogan, the first reactor of the power plant is scheduled to be operated by 2023.

Turkey says the plant will create 10,000 jobs and is expected to add $ 6 billion to $ 8 billion for the Turkish economy.

The nuclear power plant that Turkey is supposed to possess will transfer the country to the group of nuclear states in the Middle East.

But how will this situation change Turkey’s standing in the Middle East?

Turkey is not in a good position in terms of fossil fuels, especially oil and gas.

Although it is geographically located in the Middle East, in fuel production it imports most of its energy from its allies, Azerbaijan, Qatar, etc.

In recent years, Turkey has sought to become an energy center and energy routes crossing its territory to consolidate its position.

Inland, great efforts were made, especially in the eastern Mediterranean, which led to conflict with Cyprus and Greece.

But Turkey has always sought to reduce its dependence on fuel or at least increase domestic production.

In the field of nuclear fuel, Turkey has been seeking to solve this problem for more than a decade.

The fact that Turkey is not strong in terms of energy and depends on neighboring countries forced it to make concessions to these countries in the regional equations.

Hence the talk about reducing dependence on the outside in the field of energy. Erdogan is also seeking to improve his country’s standing.

Is there a view inside Turkey itself that considers nuclear armament useful? Could these measures help Erdogan increase in popularity?

Nationalism in Turkey has many supporters. Even the Islamic currents in this country have nationalist views.

Erdogan uses these views widely to gain legitimacy and weaken opponents and critics.

He also follows the same trend in the nuclear debate.

Part of the public believes that Turkey has been humiliated by the West in recent decades, and part of the public claims that the United States has betrayed them on issues such as the Syrian crisis.

These issues made Erdogan admire his actions, including the nuclear transition, describing it as an increase in influence and prestige.

Turkey is not the only country in the region that searches for a nuclear issue.

The Pakistanis have a long history and Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and even Sudan are making efforts in this regard. The same is true in Iran.

Russian-Turkish cooperation in the eyes of NATO

Turkey has long been a member of NATO. But other countries were concerned about the internal affairs of Turkey, the flow of Middle Eastern issues to NATO via Turkey, and so on.

Turkish analysts believe that the country has strategic isolation in the region.

They believe that although the Americans see themselves as partners with Ankara, they have left Turkey in critical situations. So did NATO.

Given that Biden is currently in power in the United States and the tense relations between Democrats and Erdogan. They were expected to take refuge in Moscow.

The fact that the Turks are moving towards the Russians is the result of this perception inside Turkey.

Biden’s rise to power is also influential, with Erdogan being one of the losers in Biden’s victory.

Because the Democrats will shed light on the debate over Turkey’s regional policies, and Ankara is trying to obtain concessions by approaching Moscow and Beijing.

Both Turkey and Russia have a tendency and desire to expand their power.

To what extent could this alliance be of concern to Westerners?

Just as Turkey and the Russians have common interests, such as trade disputes, the nuclear issue, etc., but there are differences and conflicts.

If we look at the history of the last 150 years, we see a Turkish-Russian conflict in the Caucasus and the Balkans.

Certainly, this difference of interests will in some cases lead to a challenge between Ankara and Moscow.

The Russians are big players, and they themselves are using their alliances to play with the United States, and they know that Turkey is also trying to score points closely with them.

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According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) report on Turkey for 2021:

Turkey’s energy policy has been assessed in the past 20 years, as population growth and economic growth have led to an increase in energy demand and dependence on imported resources.

In order to ensure the security of energy supplies in Turkey with the acceleration of oil and natural gas exploration, the discovery of natural gas in the Sakarya gas fields has emerged as an important benefit in this process.

In the event that the aforementioned field production begins in 2023, it will be possible to reduce 36 percent of Turkey’s dependence on importing natural gas, while 10 percent of the energy import bill will be calculated in the medium term.

The share of renewable energy in electricity generation increased to 44% in 2019

Renewable energy capacity increased by 50 percent in the last five years in Turkey in 2019.

Turkey is the fifth renewable energy producer in Europe, and it ranks 15th in the world.

The share of renewables in electricity generation reached 44% in 2019.

The renewable energy auctions held have also succeeded in reducing costs and increasing renewable energy investments.

Nuclear energy to enhance the low-carbon energy portfolio

According to the report, the installed capacity of renewable energy is expected to grow by 49 percent until 2024, with an increase of 21,000 megawatts.

On the other hand, the potential of solar energy is estimated at 3 percent, and it uses 15 percent of the potential of wind energy in Turkey.

Turkey’s first nuclear power plant to become operational in 2023

Turkey’s first nuclear power plant will be operational from 2023, as the country expects to boost its portfolio of low-carbon energy, electric vehicles, energy storage and digital technology.

All this led to the Turkish energy market in the past ten years being considered one of the successful steps that increased transparency and predictability of reforms supported by additional estimates that could increase investments in the electricity and natural gas sectors.

The increase in emissions must be watched closely

According to the report, for the energy sector to be sustainable and to create a competitive economy, Turkey needs to focus on reducing carbon emissions.

In this context, it is recommended to rethink the role of lignite power plants in a low-carbon future and set new goals.

Emissions from the energy sector have shown an increase of 43 percent over the past ten years in Turkey.

Whereas, the electricity and heating sector was among the most emitting sectors, followed by the transport and industry sectors.

Since 1997, coal has been Turkey’s largest source of emissions.

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According to local news agencies, citing Russia Today, the Kremlin announced the foundations for a televised meeting between the presidents of Russia and Turkey, Putin and Erdogan.

The Kremlin announced today (Monday) that preparations are underway to establish a television bridge between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, marking the start of construction of the third unit of the Akuvio nuclear power plant in Turkey.

Yesterday, Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez announced that Erdogan and Putin will attend a video conference to lay the foundation stone for the third reactor in the Aquivio Power Plant on March 10.

Confirming Donmaz’s statements, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Yes, preparations are underway to launch the main phase of building the third Aquivo unit.”

“Putin and Erdogan recently discussed in a phone conversation the possibility of establishing such a video call, but there are no plans to discuss issues other than the nuclear power plant,” Peskov said.

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The Turkish government announced that it will speed up the procedures for building the first nuclear power plant in Turkey, which was announced to be operational in 2023, on the centenary anniversary of the founding of the modern Turkish Republic, by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

It is worth noting that Turkey had signed the first agreement with Russia on the construction of the Mersin – Akkuyu nuclear power plant in 2010.

The agreement includes, the Russians must operate the plant by 2023 with a maximum of four nuclear reactors and a production capacity of 4,800 megawatts.

The cost of the project is about 20 billion dollars, and is said to be the largest investment in Turkey in one stage, providing 10 percent of the country’s electricity needs and creating job opportunities for 10,000 people.

The shares of Turkish companies in the project range from 35 to 40 percent and will bring between 6-8 billion dollars in added value.

The Akkuyu nuclear power plant was created by the Russian state-owned Atom company and is said to provide jobs for 3,500 people during the process.

According to the plans, the first phase of the power plant will start operating in 2023.

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