Ceylan Holding is strongly resisting attempts to oust it from the joint venture with Bulgarian National Electric Company (NEC), which was awarded the contract to build the three-dam Gorna Arda cascade in November 1998. At a meeting of the joint Bulgarian-Turkish Commission on Economic Development in Ankara on November 8, Evgenii Chachev, the Bulgarian minister for regional development, said that Ceylan Holding would not be participating in the construction of the cascade at Gorna Arda because of its poor financial situation. According to Isamet Sever, director of Ceylan Bulgaria, the question was not whether Ceylan had financial problems but whether Bulgaria would adhere to the terms of the 1998 agreement under which Turkey would buy Bulgarian electricity and Turkish firms would be given construction contracts in return