Turks fling 'dung' at President Erdogan, mull life without Russian gas

he Turkish opposition has given the country's leader a cold shower, telling President Erdogan to heat his palace with dung instead of gas after he stated that Turkish people are used to suffering and can do without Russian supplies.

Answering a question about Russia possibly stopping supplies of natural gas to Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turks “are accustomed to suffering.”
The current crisis in Russian-Turkish relations is a result of a Turkish F-16 fighter jet shooting down a Russian Su-24M bomber in Syrian airspace, which prompted Moscow to introduce harsh economic sanctions against Ankara.

“As you know, we have not lived with natural gas our whole lives. We all know how long it has been since we began using natural gas. … Moreover we will not be doomed if we cannot acquire Russian gas,” Turkish daily Today's Zaman cited Erdogan as saying while returning home on December 1 from a climate conference in Paris.

Erdogan also said that Turkey could buy natural gas from other countries. Indeed, it was announced next day that Turkey’s gas monopoly BOTAS has signed a memorandum of understanding with Qatar on liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies to Turkey.

Last year Turkey bought 47.6 bln cubic meters of natural gas abroad, of which Russia supplied about 60 percent via existing gas pipelines going directly from shore to shore in the Black Sea. Yet the main difference between LNG and gas from a pipeline is its price, which is significantly higher for LNG.