Scores of provinces in Turkey suffered a massive power cut Tuesday, halting mass transportation, hospitals and the manufacture of goods, and closing down 11 of the country’s air traffic control receivers.
Officials told daily Hürriyet that the massive outage was caused by a technical problem in the system of the Turkish Electricity Conduction Company (TEİAŞ), which operates energy transmission lines.
Doğan News Agency reported that almost all 81 provinces were affected by the cuts, except for the eastern province of Van, which imports its electricity from neighboring Iran.
The power cut began at around 10:36 a.m. in Istanbul and continued for hours. Metro networks in Istanbul and Ankara, trams and the high-speed train in Eskişehir were all affected.
“Every possibility including a terrorist attack is being investigated” about the outage, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told reporters in Ankara.
Energy Minister Taner Yıldız also said the authorities were investigating whether the power outage was due to a technical failure or a “cyber-attack.”
“I also cannot say whether or not there was a cyber-attack. The most important thing for us is to bring the system back to life. This is not something we frequently experience,” Yıldız said.
Yıldız released another statement at 8:40 p.m. and announced that energy was finally restored throughout the country. “I got permission from our President and also talked to our Prime Minister. I’m returning to Turkey,” Yıldız said, stressing that he and his ministry’s officials “will spend the night to find out the cause of the problem.”
The Energy Ministry said that there was a problem with the main distribution lines and that the cut likely originated in the Aegean region. The blackout was the worst in Turkey since the since 1999 Marmara earthquake 15 years ago.
IBTimes UK offered five of the top explanations for the blackout. These included the claim, by the Turkish Electrical Engineers Board of Directors, that some private power suppliers had refused to sell electricity due to low prices, resulting in a mass shortage shortage.
Another possible culprit is Iran. Tensions between Turkey and Iran have intensified in recent days after Turkish president Recep Erdogan called for Iran and “terror groups” to get out of Yemen, where Shia militant groups have staged an insurgency.
Some believe that Iranian hackers may have targeted the Turkish infrastructure, disabling computer systems.
Hurriyet also reported that a large explosion had been heard in the industrial Kocaeli province, in northwestern Turkey, at about the time the blackout began. Authorities said that they were investigating the claims, and that terrorism had not been ruled out as an explanation for the attacks.