HEAD OF THE TURKISH PIPELINE COMPANY (BOTAS) SACKED

The rumors became true and Gokhan Yardim, the head of the Turkish Pipeline Company (BOTAS), was sacked by Energy Minister Zeki Cakan, Turkish Daily News reports.

Yardim will be replaced by Gokhan Bildaci, the deputy chairman of the company, who is a close friend of the Energy Minister, whose friendship goes back many years to their military service days, which Cakan and Bildaci spent together.

Cakan declared that the BOTAS chairman was removed from his post because the investigation being carried out by the Ankara State Security Court (DGM) had not reached a clear point and because BOTAS had been involved in too many international projects.

In order to not lead to a problem for the continuation of the projects, the chairman of BOTAS was removed from his post.

Kenan Veziroglu, one of the deputy undersecretaries of the Energy Ministry, will serve as acting chairman of the company for a while.

BOTAS not only lost its chairman but also one of the company's deputy chairmen, Nadir Biyikoglu, was dismissed from the office.

Friendship going back to military service days

Cakan and Bildaci have a close friendship going back to their days in the military, and later as roommates, it was said in the corridors of the energy ministry.

The Turkish Daily News earlier reported that Yardim would be removed from his position and be replaced by Bildaci.

Yardim told the TDN on Monday that he had shown the TDN article carrying the story about the shuffling of the BOTAS presidency to Cakan, and had asked him whether the rumors were true.

Cakan refused such claims saying that he was not planning to make such an appointment.

However, a senior energy official told the TDN that the minister was actually planning to change the chairman of BOTAS two weeks ago, but had postponed it for a short time.

Earlier this year, prosecutors investigating claims of corruption in the Blue Stream project, which will carry Russian natural gas under the Black Sea to Turkey, had barred Yardim from leaving the country. The Blue Stream pipeline, scheduled to come online in 2002, will carry 16 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year through a 1,200-kilometer pipeline from Russia.