Major power outage hits Turkey leaving major cities helpless and in chaos
A major power outage hit cities and provinces across Turkey on Tuesday, including metropolitan cities such as Istanbul, Ankara and İzmir, paralyzing daily life with subway and tram systems shutting down and shopping malls falling dark across the country.
Electricity was reportedly cut in 79 of Turkey’s 81 provinces. Power transmission company the Turkish Electricity Production Company (TEİAŞ) could not immediately be reached. The eastern provinces of Van and Hakkari were the only two cities that did not see an outage on Tuesday.
TEİAŞ later cited a problem with the electricity power transmission network as the cause of the worst blackout in Turkey in several years.
Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said power restore in almost everywhere as of 9 p.m. local time.
The country suffered a power outage for around three hours on Tuesday when power was lost in many regions at 10:36 a.m. Transport services in many cities including İstanbul, İzmir and Ankara were canceled, such as the metro, tram and funicular railway systems and the Marmaray line. Traffic signal systems in a number of districts in İstanbul and İzmir also crashed due to the outage. Police officers were deployed to manage traffic at major junctions where traffic signals were disrupted. Firefighters were also called to rescue people stuck in elevators. Metro services and high-speed train services were halted in the capital, causing long lines in metro stations.
In his remarks to reporters during a trip to Bratislava, Yıldız said his ministry is working to restore the energy network across Turkey and will work to determine the reasons for the outage after power has been fully brought back.
“Our main target right now is to restore the network. This is not an incident that we see frequently. I can’t say at this stage whether or not terrorism is a big possibility. I can’t say either whether it is a cyberattack,” Yıldız said in response to questions from reporters. He dismissed allegations that the blackout took place due to low electricity prices and added that a government crisis center had been set up.
Such widespread power outages are rare. Energy officials quoted by Hurriyet said it was Turkey’s biggest blackout in 15 years.
SOURCE: MEDIA
