Update 2 - Turkey Experiencing Electricity Blackout

Turkey is currently experiencing electricity outages in many regions due to problems that occurred in the transmission lines, Turkish Electricity Transmission Company, TEIAS officials said early Tuesday.



The power outage in most of the country occurred after problems at the transmission lines started at 10.36 A.M. TEIAS has confirmed that 15 percent of the electricity has been restored to Ankara and Istanbul. Additionally the parliament and both Ankara's and some of Istanbul's metro stations now have electricity. 



Electricity transmission has restarted in some provinces including Erzurum, Erzincan, Ardahan, Agri, Kars, Igdir and Bayburt in the east and Trabzon, Rize, Gumushane, Artvin, Bayburt, Giresun, Samsun, Amasya, Ordu, Corum and Sinop in the Black Sea region.



According to a written statement from Thrace region's electricity transmission company, Tekirdag, Kirklareli and Edirne have restored electricity while transmission to the rest of the region will proceed gradually. 



TEIAS has started a technical investigation and continues to work towards restarting electricity transmission to the remaining parts of the country which are currently experiencing outages.



Turkey's Energy Minister, Taner Yildiz spoke during his visit to Slovakia on Tuesday at midday and said the cause is yet unknown and was unable to either confirm or deny if it was a cyber-attack that caused the outage. 



He said that what is important is to get the transmission back up and running to all regions in Turkey from the crisis center based in the Golbasi district of Ankara. 



Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, said that all possibilities are under investigation regarding a possible terrorist angle in Turkey's power cut.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Ankara