Home
Turkey to boost security for energy infrastructure
8/8/2015
ISTANBUL:Turkey will deploy thermal cameras and horse-back patrols to heighten security around key oil and gas pipelines as Kurdish militant attacks increase, in a bid to safeguard energy supplies in the import-dependent country, energy officials said. Tighter security around energy infrastructure would be welcomed by Iraqi Kurdistan, whose oil exports to the world are piped through Turkey. A recent attack on the line has cost it more than $250 million by halting oil pumping. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said in mid-July it was stepping up attacks over what it said were ceasefire violations by the Turkish state.
Attacks have become almost daily since Ankara began air strikes on PKK camps in northern Iraq on July 24, in what Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has called a “synchronised fight against terror.”
Other energy infrastructure has also become a target.
“It seems PKK is going back to its old methods of damaging the energy infrastructure,” a senior energy official said.
“We have been seeing signals of this.These attacks hurt both our citizens and other countries using Turkey as transit hub.”
The 650 kilometre-long portion of the Iraqi pipeline stretching from the Turkish border town of Silopi to the southern port of Ceyhan will be protected with new thermal cameras.
They will be set up on locations along the pipeline identified as most vulnerable to attacks.
Horse-back patrols will also be dispatched to monitor the pipelines, officials said.
They declined to share more details on the planned measures for security purposes.
Meanwhile, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani told his Turkish counterpart that Iran and Turkey must work with one another to root out the threat of extremism in the region, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The two countries “should achieve a joint plan and a practical solution, with each other’s help, for uprooting terrorism in the region,” Rouhani told Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a Wednesday night telephone call.
“A consolidation and expansion of ties between Tehran and Ankara is of paramount importance to us,” he said.
“Any action that leads to the weakening of national governments can, in effect, encourage terrorist groups to fulfil their criminal actions,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said.
In his phone call, Rouhani also suggested Turkey should “coordinate” attacks with both Syrian and Iraqi governments.
Agencies
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
8/8/2015
ISTANBUL:Turkey will deploy thermal cameras and horse-back patrols to heighten security around key oil and gas pipelines as Kurdish militant attacks increase, in a bid to safeguard energy supplies in the import-dependent country, energy officials said. Tighter security around energy infrastructure would be welcomed by Iraqi Kurdistan, whose oil exports to the world are piped through Turkey. A recent attack on the line has cost it more than $250 million by halting oil pumping. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said in mid-July it was stepping up attacks over what it said were ceasefire violations by the Turkish state.
Attacks have become almost daily since Ankara began air strikes on PKK camps in northern Iraq on July 24, in what Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has called a “synchronised fight against terror.”
Other energy infrastructure has also become a target.
“It seems PKK is going back to its old methods of damaging the energy infrastructure,” a senior energy official said.
“We have been seeing signals of this.These attacks hurt both our citizens and other countries using Turkey as transit hub.”
The 650 kilometre-long portion of the Iraqi pipeline stretching from the Turkish border town of Silopi to the southern port of Ceyhan will be protected with new thermal cameras.
They will be set up on locations along the pipeline identified as most vulnerable to attacks.
Horse-back patrols will also be dispatched to monitor the pipelines, officials said.
They declined to share more details on the planned measures for security purposes.
Meanwhile, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani told his Turkish counterpart that Iran and Turkey must work with one another to root out the threat of extremism in the region, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The two countries “should achieve a joint plan and a practical solution, with each other’s help, for uprooting terrorism in the region,” Rouhani told Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a Wednesday night telephone call.
“A consolidation and expansion of ties between Tehran and Ankara is of paramount importance to us,” he said.
“Any action that leads to the weakening of national governments can, in effect, encourage terrorist groups to fulfil their criminal actions,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said.
In his phone call, Rouhani also suggested Turkey should “coordinate” attacks with both Syrian and Iraqi governments.
Agencies
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
