Turkey is taking advantage of Russia's gas shortage; former ambassador

Commenting on Turkey's plan to become a gas hub and Russia's help to achieve Ankara's goals, Firouz Dolatabadi told ILNA that for nearly two decades, Turkey has been trying to be the hub of energy transfer from Iran, Turkmenistan, the Caucasus and Russia to the European Union, but so far it has not been successful, and the reason for this is that the Russians, as gas exporters to Europe, had direct routes at their disposal. However, Russian gas has always been sold to Turkey, and now several lines are operating and providing an important part of the country's gas needs.

"Recently, due to the problems that have happened in Europe, Turkey tried to use or abuse this opportunity by creating a storage structure; to buy gas both for domestic use and to store it for transit and transfer to Europe, so it is natural that it plans in line with its past efforts in this area", he added.

"Iran is not participating in this game at the moment, because due to the discontent and lack of gas in the country, we cannot look to Europe, we are now meeting the gas needs of Turkey and other destinations with difficulty", he elaborated.