Energy Dependency and a Route Map Within the Context of the Recent Turkey-Russia Crisis

One of the most controversial issues raised in the aftermath of the Turkish-Russian crisis due to downing of a Russian jet on 24 November 2015 is the bilateral energy relationship between Turkey and Russia and their asymmetrical natural gas trade. Turkey’s dependency on imports for its energy consumption and the share of Russian energy resources within this context pose a great challenge for Turkey both today and in the possible future crises, requiring a closer investigation of the risks and particular instruments to handle this risk. Therefore, in this policy brief, the very concept of energy dependency, energy profiles of Russia and Turkey, and references to some major documents published by the EU on the question of energy dependency are provided. After that, instruments and measures for Turkey to handle its own energy dependency problem are analysed.