President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated that his country can make head or tail of energy supplies without Russia. He has found a substitute for Russian gas in Azerbaijan, Izvestiya writes.

Earlier, Erdoğan stated that Turkey is a key purchaser of oil and gas from Russia, but now he is sure that he can “find other suppliers” like Qatar and Azerbaijan.

Following imposition of anti-Turkish sanctions by Russia in response to downed Su-24 jet, Ankara launched talks with other potential partners. Specifically, on Thursday Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoğlu informed about the agreement with Azerbaijan to introduce the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) before 2018.

According to this project, gas will be transported from Shah Deniz to the border with Europe via the territory of Turkey. The construction of the pipeline was launched in March 2015. Its annual flow efficiency is planned to constitute 16 billion cu m.