After grain deal
\nErdogan says he wants to avoid \u201canother Chernobyl\u201d
\nKYIV
\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered to mediate in the standoff over a Russian-occupied nuclear power station in war-torn Ukraine that has raised fears of an atomic disaster.
\nAlarm has grown in recent weeks over shelling hitting the area of Europe\u2019s largest nuclear plant, Zaporizhzhia.
\nErdogan on Saturday told his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin \u201cthat Turkey can play a facilitator role in the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, as they did in the grain deal,\u201d the Turkish presidency said.
\nDuring their phone call on Saturday, Erdogan and Putin agreed to talk further in Samarkand on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on September 15-16, the presidency said.
\nHowever, there was no immediate mention of Erdogan having also spoken to Ukraine\u2019s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday to offer his mediation.
\nUkraine on Friday claimed to have bombed a Russian base in the nearby town of Energodar, destroying three artillery systems as well as an ammunition depot.
\nAs Ukraine \u2014 one of the world\u2019s largest grain exporters \u2014 was forced to halt almost all deliveries after Russia invaded in late February, raising fears of a global food crisis, Kyiv and Moscow in July inked a deal, with the United Nations and Turkey acting as guarantors, for resumption of exports of grain across Black Sea ports.
\nLast month, Erdogan warned of the danger of a nuclear disaster when he visited Lviv for talks with the Ukrainian leader. The Turkish leader said he wanted to avoid \u201canother Chernobyl\u201d, referring to the world\u2019s worst nuclear accident in another part of Ukraine in 1986, when it was still part of the Soviet Union.
\nThis week, a 14-strong team from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) visited Zaporizhzhia, with the UN nuclear watchdog\u2019s chief Rafael Grossi saying the site had been damaged in fighting.
\nRussia\u2019s envoy to Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov, said six IAEA inspectors would stay behind for several days and that two more would remain there \u201con a permanent basis\u201d.
\nUkraine has accused Russia of storing ammunition at Zaporizhzhia and deploying hundreds of soldiers there. It also suspects Moscow is intending to divert power from the plant to the nearby Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.
\n\u2018Gas weapon\u2019
\nGroup of Seven (G7) major industrial democracies earlier on Friday vowed to move urgently to set a price cap on Russian oil imports, a crucial source of revenue for Moscow. As if on cue, Russian gas giant Gazprom said it had halted gas deliveries to Germany for an indefinite period, as there were leaks in a turbine. Its German manufacturer said that was not a valid reason to halt gas flows.
\nOn Saturday, EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, however, said the European Union was \u201cwell prepared\u201d in the event of a total halt in Russian gas deliveries, thanks to storage capacity and energy-saving measures.
\n\u201cWe are well prepared to resist Russia\u2019s extreme use of the gas weapon,\u201d he told reporters on the sidelines of an economic forum organised by The European House \u2014 Ambrosetti.
\nIn the EU, \u201cgas storage is currently at about 80 percent, thanks to the diversification of supplies,\u201d even if the situation varies from one country to another, Gentiloni said.
\nAegean islands
\nMeanwhile, Turkiye accused Greece of occupying islands in the Aegean Sea that have a demilitarised status, as Erdogan said Turkiye was prepared to \u201cdo what is necessary\u201d when the time comes.
\nHistoric rivals while also being fellow members of Nato, Turkey and Greece have been at odds over issues ranging from overflights and the status of Aegean islands to maritime boundaries and hydrocarbon resources in the Mediterranean, as well as ethnically split Cyprus.
\nAnkara has recently accused Athens of arming the demilitarised Aegean islands \u2014 something Athens rejects, but Erdogan had not previously accused Greece of occupying them. \u201cYour occupying the islands does not bind us. When the time, the hour, comes, we will do what is necessary,\u201d Erdogan said, speaking in the northern province of Samsun.
\nGreece reacted by saying it will not follow Turkey in its \u201coutrageous daily slide\u201d of statements and threats.
\n\u201cWe will inform our allies and partners on the content of the provocative statements … to make it clear who is setting dynamite to the cohesion of our alliance during a dangerous period,\u201d the foreign ministry said.
\nTurkey has recently been angered by what it said is harassment of its jets by Greek forces. Ankara has said that S-300 air defence systems used by Greece had locked on to Turkish jets during a routine flight.
\nTurkey celebrated Victory Day on Aug 30, a national holiday commemorating Turkish forces driving out Greek forces in 1922. Ankara says the Aegean islands were given to Greece under the 1923 and 1947 treaties on condition that it does not arm them. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has repeatedly said Turkey would start questioning Greek sovereignty over the islands if Athens persisted in arming them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After grain deal Erdogan says he wants to avoid \u201canother Chernobyl\u201d KYIV Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has offered to mediate in the standoff over a Russian-occupied nuclear power station in war-torn Ukraine that has raised fears of an atomic disaster. Alarm has grown in recent weeks over shelling hitting the area of Europe\u2019s largest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281538,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2442],"class_list":{"0":"post-281518","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-tayyip-erdogan"},"yoast_head":"\n