Putin courts Erdogan with offer to make Turkey Europe’s new gas hub
Turkey’s President Erdogan and Russia’s President Putin met this week in Kazakhstan, where Putin floated a proposal to turn Turkey into an energy hub that could feed Europe with Russian gas. On Friday, Erdogan gave the project the green light, saying that Turkey and Russia had instructed their respective energy authorities to immediately begin technical work on Putin’s proposal. This proposal raises concerns that Turkey will become even more dependent on Russia. Expert Sinan Ciddi joins Thanos Davelis to discuss this latest proposal to turn Turkey into an energy hub for Russian gas to Europe, look into why Erdogan and Putin - who have met a few times since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine - seem to need each other, and break down how this is viewed in Washington, DC.
Sinan Ciddi is a non-resident senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he contributes to FDD’s Turkey Program and Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP). He is also an Associate Professor of Security Studies at the Command and Staff College-Marine Corps University and Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:
‘No waiting’: Turkey, Russia to act on Putin’s gas hub offer
Why Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan need each other
EU official: East Med gas can wean bloc off Russian energy
Turkey: new ‘disinformation’ law could jail journalists for three years