Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 7 2007
Pipeline talks with France on track, says Turkey
There was no official suspension decision made by Turkey regarding
talks with Gaz de France on the French firm’s possible participation
in a major gas pipeline, diplomatic sources at the Foreign Ministry
said Friday.
The remarks came in response to a media report on Thursday saying the
state-owned Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAª) had
suspended talks with Gaz de France in reaction action to a French
bill on the mass killings of Armenians during Ottoman rule.
`There is no suspension decision yet. Besides, this is a commercial
issue, but it is not a political one and companies involved in the
process will make the final decision on the basis of financial
evaluations,’ the same diplomatic sources, speaking on condition of
anonymity, told Today’s Zaman.
The four other countries involved in the project, Bulgaria, Romania
and Hungary, have already approved their partnership with Gaz de
France in the project, which will transmit Caspian and Iranian gas to
Western Europe, bypassing Russia. The other partners reportedly
approved Gaz de France’s participation, but BOTAª opposed it because
of the French draft law on the killings of Anatolian Armenians.
The French National Assembly infuriated Turkey last October by
backing a bill making it a crime to deny that Armenians were victims
of `genocide’ at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, though it is
unlikely to become a law due to opposition from the Senate and
President Jacques Chirac.
Ankara said the legislation would strike a heavy blow to
Turkish-French ties and also accused France, one of the EU’s founding
countries known for championing liberties, of staining freedom of
expression with the bill.
Slamming the proposed legislation, the Turkish Parliament then
released a joint declaration, signed by all the parties with
parliamentary representation, and said that the bill was motivated by
calculations of domestic political gain. They said the bill would
also harm prospects for the normalization of relations between Turkey
and Armenia. Turkey also illustrated how seriously it takes the issue
when it said it would suspend military operations with France after
the vote.
07.04.2007
Emine Kart Ankara