Gas Center Step by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan evaluated the issue of a gas distribution center in Turkey for Europe, which Russian leader Vladimir Putin put on the agenda. Erdoğan said, "Our Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the Russian side will carry out the study and present it to us and then we will take the step. There is no such thing as waiting here."

Answering the questions of members of the media on the plane returning from Kazakhstan, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that the most suitable place for the center is the Thrace region: ''As stated, for such a distribution center, of course Thrace is seen as the most important place for this work. Together with Mr. Putin, we have instructed our Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the relevant institution on the Russian side to conduct a joint study. They will conduct this study there. Wherever the most suitable place is, we will hopefully establish this distribution center there. We have a national distribution center, but of course now this will be an international distribution center. Our Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the Russian side will work on this issue and present it to us, and then we will take the next step. There is no waiting here. We immediately gave the decision to our Minister of Energy and Natural Resources today. Likewise, (Gazprom President) Miller from Russia was at this meeting at the same time, and he also received the instruction. Now our friends will start working in consultation with each other. While we are taking all kinds of steps in terms of security, of course, we are rapidly establishing our security network here, whatever security requires, and we continue our work accordingly. Currently, the trade volume in the world is 12 billion tons. By 2030, this will increase to 25 billion tons. Nearly 90 percent of the mobility of the trade volume is provided by sea. As a result, the problems in the Bosphorus today are obvious. This will increase much more in the coming years. We also have targets in the Central Corridor on the east-west axis. Due to the problems in the Northern Corridor, there will be a great burden on the Central Corridor. Considering all of these, Canal Istanbul is a must, especially on the north-south axis. This will be much more on our agenda in the coming days and years. On the one hand, our planning and feasibility studies are ongoing. The issue that the world is currently focusing on the most is environmentalism. With Canal Istanbul, we will teach the world an exemplary lesson in environmentalism. There is a serious environmental threat in the Bosphorus. Anything can happen at any moment. We never forget the Independenta fire in Sarayburnu, in front of Selimiye. We do not forget the ships that occasionally boarded mansions. But now with our Canal Istanbul, we will eliminate all these problems. Today, when you look at Bakırköy and Samatya beaches, there are waits and accumulations for days. There are also accumulations in the Black Sea. Tomorrow these will increase much, much more. Also, ship sizes have grown a lot. 30 percent of them carry dangerous goods. The dimensions of the risk have increased much more. Three ships 10 years ago have now become one ship. The number has decreased somewhat, but the risk has grown even more. The number of ships has decreased, but the amount of cargo carried has increased by 40 percent in the last 10 years. In fact, after my first statement, the new statement regarding this process was made on the land. What did we say? We consider the number of land as 1 million in the first stage. 1 million plots. How will we do this? We will distribute them by drawing lots. Our problem is that my citizen should build his/her house there with his/her own means, with low-interest loans provided by the banks, on plots with infrastructure. This is what we will do, It will bring another leap forward in Turkey. This, ground plus 1 or just ground, will hopefully bring the understanding of giving 1 million plots of land to our citizens with cheap opportunities. I met with my minister two days ago about this issue. He said 'we have made all the preparations as the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, we are ready, we can take a step on this at any moment'. As of now, I hope we will take this step under the follow-up of our Ministry. Currently, our friends, especially our professor Vedat, are working on this issue. Hopefully, I know that he is preparing something very different from the previous ones. But we will take steps that are firmly rooted in the ground, not flying in the air, so that they will be well-established in the minds.'' Follow Global Economic Developments on Social Media! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Facebook account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Instagram account! Click here to follow Ieconomy official Twitter account!