Anti-Nuclear Platform: 'We Won't Get Carried Away Until Project is Officially Canceled'

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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said yesterday (June 27) the nuclear power plant project in the Black Sea province of Sinop has been halted, in an interview with a newspaper from Japan.

Zeki Karataş from the Sinop Anti-Nuclear Platform told bianet that they don't want Sinop to be a subject of international negotiations.

"There similar claims and statements before but a statement on the essence of the matter did not come.

"What is important for us is to be transformed into an official statement. This is why we don't want to get carried away.

"It is a statement made in Japan. We don't want Sinop to be a subject of international negotiations. This is our priority."

CLICK - Erdoğan: Sinop Nuclear Plant Project Halted

The project was signed in 2013 and projected to be partly operational in 2023. However, there have been reports that the construction has been halted due to increasing costs. Erdoğan confirmed such reports for the first time in the interview he gave to the daily Nikkei.

"The halt of the process is, of course, important in terms of preventing possible outcomes [of the construction of the plant] but there is already serious damage in Sinop. This needs to be removed.

"We will continue our struggle. We hope to get positive results." (EKN/HC/VK)