Assessment of Turkey's energy policies in the sense of national security (1990-2007)

Energy, as a must of human being, is the most important item of human life as well as economical, technological and social developments of countries.Fossil originated energy sources which are started using after Industrial Revolution has been an important factor in determining international relations, and countries which have those energy sources and which are controlling these sources have always directed world?s policy thanks to this power.The Natural Gas whose importance was increased after the oil crisis in 1970?s, started being considered as an alternative energy source for oil and with pipeline projects realized after 1980?s, it became a vital energy source in international energy policies. Also, in 21st century it is being evaluated that oil and natural gas will keep their importance by means of global scale.In 21st century, energy became a sector that should be handled with economy and security notions, not only countries own these energy sources but also countries on energy corridor (route) have a say in international relations.It is said that Turkey does not have enough oil and natural gas on its lands, but Turkey is not only a natural bridge which connects three continents (Asia, Europe and Africa) to each other thanks to its geographical location, but also located in the center of areas which are rich of natural sources (Middle East, Caucasia and Middle Asia) in the middle of 21st century?s energy competition. Besides its geographical location, Turkey became a passage country for delivering mentioned energy sources to West with its geopolitic and geostrategic characterizations.Despite this domination arising from its geopolitic location, Turkey has not secured its energy safety today. Energy safety is a notion which includes variability, reliability and uninterruption principles in supply sources and also a must of national security notion. Importing 70 % of its energy consumption and purchasing 63 % of its total natural gas consumption (of which almost totaly imported) provided from a single country (Russian Federation) and meeting 50 % percentage of its electricity consumption from this source, makes Turkey a country which has not completed its? energy safety.Furthermore parallel to the globalization process in the world, there are many privatizations, seperations and disintegrations realized in our energy sector starting from 1980s by means of neoliberal policies. For the purpose of being subject to International circulation system, upon demands / orders of organizations such as International Monetary Fund (IMF), The World Bank, World Trade Organization, etc., vertical integrated structure of our energys ector is interrupted so our national institutions are privatized and our national natural sources and institutions are sold to foreigners with very low costs.At the end of this process, there is decrease in the energy qualification, costs are continuously increased, our electricity generation is depended on import natural gas, external dependance has increased, domestic and renewable sources can not be used by means of their potential.