ARMENIA SIGNS POWER SUPPLY DEAL WITH TURKEY

Hurriye
Sept 10 2008
Turkey

Armenia has signed a deal to supply electricity to Turkey from the
beginning of 2009, Energy Minister Armen Movsisian said Wednesday.

Movsisian told reporters that the deal will see electricity from
Armenian thermal power plants supplied to eastern Turkey.

"An agreement on this was reached during the recent visit of the
Turkish President Abdullah Gul," he said.

"Turkey is a new market for Armenia, as Armenia last supplied
electricity to this country during the Soviet period," he added.

Gul’s visit Saturday to attend a football match between the two nations
teams and meet his Armenian counterpart Serzh Sargsyan raised hopes
that Turkey and Armenia could help the resolution of conflicts and
establish diplomatic relations.

The deal was signed between Armenias state-owned High Voltage
Electricity Network

company and a privately owned Turkish firm called UNIT, Movsisian said.

He said the infrastructure was in place on the Armenian side to
deliver the electricity but that repairs to transmission lines and
the installation of a new transformer in Turkey would take four to
five months.

He said Armenia would initially supply 1.5 billion kilowatts per
hour of electricity to Turkey and that the amount would eventually
increase to 3.5 billion kilowatts per hour.

Turkey does not have diplomatic relations with its eastern neighbor
Armenia because of Yerevan’s invasion of Azerbaijani territory.