Turks deride Berlusconi's "gas diplomacy"

Hydrotherapy may help Silvio Berlusconi feel better physically, but it won't help his political problems. Instead, the Italian Prime Minister yesterday sought to shift the spotlight away from his scandals by jetting to Ankara to join Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan for the signing of a major gas deal between the latter two countries. Berlusconi's government then claimed the deal as a "personal success for the prime minister" and Berlusconi told the (family-owned) Il Giomale newspaper, "It is a success that is also ours." Only one problem: Turkey's government had no idea he was involved.

A senior Turkish government source told the Times of London "that the deals had already been agreed, when the government received an unexpected last-minute request from Mr Berlusconi to attend the signing ceremony." While the energy agreement does include a major trans-Anatolian pipeline whose lead builder is Italian company Eni, there are other parts of the deal (such as talks on Russian assistance building Turkish nuclear power plants) that seem unlikely to have been negotiated by the beleagured Berlusconi.

Normally, such a stunt would raise eyebrows, but, as the Turkish source put it, "because it is Berlusconi it just made the two leaders smile."

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