TURKEY-AZERBAIJAN TALKS TEMPORARILY HALTED OVER ARMENIA

March 23 2010
Turkey

Armeniah still occupies territory owned by Ankara’s traditional
ally Azerbaijan.

Talks between Turkey and Azerbaijan over securing gas for Europe
have temporarily halted due to disagreements over Turkey’s efforts
to normalise relations with Armenia, Turkey said on Tuesday.

Armeniah still occupies territory owned by Ankara’s traditional
ally Azerbaijan.

The talks over gas supplies from Azerbaijan’s Shakh Deniz II gas
project are crucial to help filling the European Union-backed
Nabucco pipeline project, which aims to reduce Europe’s dependence
on Russian gas.

Turkey have put a temporary stop to the talks.

"We have not talked with the Azeris for between a month and a month
and a half, the fundamental issue here is politics," said Energy
Minister Taner Yildiz, speaking at a news conference.

Turkey signed protocols late last year with Armenia to establish
diplomatic relations and reopen their frontier.

Yildiz said it was unclear whether a previous offer to transit the
Azeri gas to Europe at less than markets prices had been accepted.

The accords however have been slowed as Turkey accused Aramenia of
trying to re-write the texts after top court ruling.

Nuclear talks with Russia

Yildiz also said fundamental issues regarding the building of a
nuclear power plant would have to be worked out with Russia by May.

Turkey wants to build at least two nuclear power plants to reduce
dependence on foreign energy imports and cover a looming shortfall
in electricity.

Energy Ministry sources have said the government may forego a tender
for one of the plants and hand the project to a Russian-Turkish
consortium after a previous nuclear tender, won by a Russian-Turkish
partnership, was annulled over power pricing issues.

"The fundamental issues regarding the building of a nuclear power
station with Russia need to be resolved by May," said Yildiz.

Yildiz also said that he hoped to boost crude oil supplies via tthe
Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline from Iraq to 70 million tonnes per year from
a current annual 25 million tonnes.