Russia helps Turkey go nuclear

Putin and Erdogan inaugurate the launch of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin yesterday launched the construction of Turkey’s first nuclear power plant in the Mediterranean Mersin region.

“In the name of God!” Erdogan said standing next to Putin at the presidential palace in Ankara as he ordered through a video link the launch of the $20 billion dollar Akkuyu nuclear power plant project.

State television TRT showed workers already starting work on the ground as fireworks went off to mark the event.

Meanwhile, the two strongmen leaders will be joined today by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for a summit devoted to Syria.

Putin’s visit to Turkey is his first trip abroad since he won a historic fourth presidential mandate in March 18 polls.

Putin and Erdogan, who have both led their post-imperial states out of economic crisis but also into a new era of confrontation with the West, have forged an increasingly close alliance in recent months.

Their meeting comes as ties between Russia and the West are nosediving to post-Cold War lows after the March poisoning of Russian ex-double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the UK.

While EU powers have rushed to join Britain in condemning Russia and expelling diplomats over the attack on Skripal, Turkey has been much more circumspect.

Erdogan, who in 2017 held eight face-to-face meetings with Putin, has said that Ankara will not act against Moscow “based on an allegation”.

In a move that has troubled Turkey’s Nato allies, Ankara has agreed to buy S-400 air defence missile systems from Russia.

But Ankara-Moscow relations were also tested by a severe crisis from November 2015 when Turkey shot down a Russian war plane over Syria, a confrontation both sides are trying to put behind each other.

Russia and Iran have joined with rebel-supporting Turkey to boost peace and also influence when the conflict ends.