TURKEY REGRETS SPATS WITH AZERBAIJAN OVER GAS, FLAG

Agence France Presse
Oct 20 2009
ANKARA

Turkey regrets spats with Azerbaijan over gas prices and the removal of
a Turkish flag in Baku, officials said Tuesday amid tensions between
the two allies over Ankara’s peace efforts with Yerevan.

"We have been hurt by… the removal of the Turkish and Azeri flag"
from a cemetary in Baku, where Turkish soldiers who fought for
Azerbaijan in the early 20th century are buried, Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech to his lawmakers.

Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said he "regretted" comments by Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev that Baku was no longer happy with selling
cheap gas to Turkey and would consider other routes to ship gas to
Europe because of high transit fees Turkey demanded, Anatolia news
agency reported.

"I regret this statement," Yildiz said, rejecting that Turkey was
buying Azeri gas at low prices and asking for transit fees higher
than market levels. "I guess President Aliyev was given inaccurate
information," he said.

Azerbaijan, linked to Turkey with close ethnic and economic bonds, has
slammed the two protocols Ankara and Yerevan signed this month to end
decades of hostility, establish formal ties and open their border, wary
that Turkish support for its own conflict with Armenia will now wane.

Ankara sealed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of solidarity
with Baku after ethnic Armenian separatists, backed by Yerevan,
seized the Nagorny Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts
from Azerbaijan in a war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives.

Erdogan gave fresh assurances that Turkey’s efforts to normalise ties
with Armenia would not come at the expense of Azeri interests.

"It is absolutely out of the question for us to take any step that
will harm our Azeri brothers," he said.

Without giving names, Erdogan said some circles — both in Azerbaijan
and Turkey — were "sowing discord" between the two countries, whose
alliance is often described as "one nation, two states."

"No one should distort Turkey’s sincere efforts and no one should
try to test Turkey," he said.

Ankara’s bridge-building with Yerevan also faces strong opposition
at home, with nationalists accusing the government of selling out
Azerbaijan.

Erdogan has said progress in resolving the Nagorny Karabakh conflict
will be a determinining factor in the Turkish parliament’s ratification
of the deals with Armenia.

The protocols, which will take effect only after they are ratified
by the legislatures of both countries, are expected to be submitted
to Turkey’s parliament this week, but a vote is unlikely soon.