The participants of the event were shown a video presentation of the project.
Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched the Turkish Stream gas pipeline. The official commissioning ceremony was held at the Haliç Congress Center in Istanbul.
On the Russian side the event is also attended by Alexander Novak, Minister of Energy and Alexey Miller, Head of Gazprom, who made presentations prior to the ceremony of starting gas pipeline supplies. In addition, the event participants were shown a video presentation of the project. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov were also present in the hall where the ceremony took place.
Erdogan invited all the distinguished guests of the gas pipeline commissioning ceremony to come on stage. When President Vladimir Putin, President of Serbia Alexander Vucic, Prime Minister of Bulgaria Boyko Borisov, Energy Ministers of Russia and Turkey and other distinguished guests gathered, the Turkish leader announced that a surprise was prepared for everyone.
At that moment he asked everyone to take a step forward to the two symbolic sections of the pipe installed on stage. One of them had the inscription “Turkish Stream” in Russian, the other had the Turkish “Türkakim”. According to the intention of the directors of the launch ceremony, another element of the pipe, marked in English “Turkstream” and equipped with a gas valve, rose from the space below the stage. It connected the two sections. Erdogan invited Putin, Vuchich and Borisov to join him and, symbolically, by scrolling the valve, give the start to the new gas pipeline. The distinguished guests gladly joined this show-ment on stage, after which they exchanged handshakes.