Society, Politics, and Economy in Modern Turkey: Sociology of Turkey - Maintained by Tugrul Keskin
We are at a point in our work when we can no longer ignore empires and the imperial context in our studies. (p. 5)
― Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Disavowing Kurdish independence, Turkey prepares for Kurdish energy future

By MICHA’EL TANCHUM

The Jerusalem Post - 07/08/2014

Turkey seems to have officially disavowed any support for the independence of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, despite AK Party deputy chairman Hüseyin Çelik’s June 28 comments to The Financial Times to the contrary. However, the KRG’s recent export of oil to Turkey’s Mediterranean oil port of Ceyhan, which after transshipment arrived in Israel’s Ashkelon port, highlighted the economic benefit to Turkey of a Kurdish political entity in Iraq with sufficient autonomy to market its energy independent of the constraints of the Iraqi central government in Baghdad.
Indeed, Ankara’s far-sighted effort to become a leading energy transportation hub includes a new oil refinery on Turkey’s Aegean coast and the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline that respectively can accommodate oil and natural gas from the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq.
The new $5.6 billion STAR oil refinery is being built at the Petkim Petrochecmical Complex about 50 km north of the Turkish coastal city of Izmir. Petkim is the largest petrochemicals manufacturer in Turkey and currently accounts for approximately 30 percent of Turkey’s market share for refined petroleum products.

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