Nationwide Power Outage in Turkey; 'Sabotage is Possible'

A power outage in vast areas of Turkey has disrupted transportation systems and subways in the cities of Istanbul and Ankara. Government officials have not ruled out the possibility of sabotage. The Turkish Electricity Transmission Company stated that the outage, which began at 10:30 AM local time in 49 provinces, is the most extensive incident of its kind in the last 15 years in the country. The blackout affected areas from the border with Greece to the southeastern regions and the borders with Iran and Iraq. According to AFP, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said that the power outage has impacted the lives of 76 million people in the country, and all causes of the incident, including potential terrorist attacks, are under investigation. The Prime Minister mentioned that a crisis team has been formed in the Ministry of Energy. Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız also stated that experts are investigating whether the incident was due to a technical failure or cyberattacks. The Energy Minister emphasized that the ministry's efforts are currently focused on restoring normal conditions. The power outage caused people to get trapped in elevators, and the failure of traffic lights in cities disrupted timely fire services. However, it has been reported that three hours after the power outage, the metro and tram services in Istanbul resumed operations. Reports from Turkey indicate that nearly all provinces of the country, except for Van province, which receives its electricity from Iran, experienced this disruption.