Turkish daily: US "deep state" uses Akkuyu NPP funding freeze to strain Turkish-American ties

Tensions surrounding the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant project have escalated following a recent report by The Wall Street Journal detailing the freezing of $2 billion in funds intended for the construction of Türkiye's first nuclear plant.

Turkish Hürriyet newspaper has suggested that a segment of the "deep state" in the United States is attempting to destabilize Turkish-American relations, citing the WSJ article, per Caliber.Az.

The US Department of Justice reportedly froze part of the funds intended for the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant project, which is a joint venture between Türkiye and Russia. This move, according to Hürriyet, is being used as a tool to put pressure on US President Donald Trump’s administration and influence his stance on the matter.

Hürriyet’s columnist Hande Fırat argued that the WSJ article is strategically aimed at influencing Trump. She pointed out that the US had initially expressed discomfort with the Akkuyu project, but the freezing of funds was never discussed at the hundreds of meetings between Turkish and American officials.

Fırat noted that the article's focus on the involvement of İbrahim Kalın, the head of Türkiye’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT), was no coincidence. Kalın was accused of being involved in sending money from Russia to Türkiye in 2022 when he was the Turkish president's chief security advisor. This reference, Fırat suggested, is connected to the increasing successes of MİT, particularly in Syria, which have clearly raised concerns in certain quarters.

The columnist emphasized that the Akkuyu project agreement between Türkiye and Russia dates back to 2010, long before the onset of the Ukrainian conflict, and there were no legal grounds to justify the freezing of $2 billion in US accounts intended for the project.

According to Fırat, the attempt to freeze the funds will ultimately fail to achieve its intended goals. The Wall Street Journal previously reported, citing unnamed sources, that the US Justice Department had frozen $2 billion from Russia meant for the Akkuyu nuclear plant construction. The funds were transferred through the US bank JPMorgan, with a portion of the money intended to be used for the construction. In 2022, Gazprombank had arranged for a $9 billion loan for the plant’s development, with $3 billion already transferred to the project’s account at Türkiye’s state-owned Ziraat Bank through US bank Citi. Another $2 billion was transferred via JPMorgan before the Justice Department intervened and froze the next scheduled $2 billion payment.

The Wall Street Journal report also suggested that some of the funds might have ended up in Russian companies with accounts at Ziraat.

Rosatom, the Russian state corporation responsible for the project, has stated that it is awaiting the resolution of the situation regarding the frozen funds, after which they plan to proceed with the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant project.

By Tamilla Hasanova