TURKEY SAYS AZERI GAS TALKS STUMBLE OVER ARMENIA
By Orhan Coskun
Reuters
March 23 2010
ANKARA
Talks between Turkey and Azerbaijan over securing gas for Europe
have temporarily halted due to disagreements over Turkey’s attempts
to normalise relations with Azeri arch-enemy Armenia, Turkey said
on Tuesday.
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.
But Muslim Turkish attempts to normalise relations with Christian
Armenia, which still occupies territory claimed by Ankara’s traditional
ally Azerbaijan, 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 which agreed to
establish diplomatic relations and reopen their frontier, overcoming
a century of hostility stemming from the World War One mass killings
of Armenians by Ottoman forces.
The Turkish Armenian peace accords however have been slowed as both
sides accuse each other of trying to re-write the texts, and tensions
between the two countries have increased since the United States
passed a resolution branding the 1915 killings as genocide.
Turkey closed its border with Armenia in 1993 in a move of solidarity
with Azerbaijan during the conflict over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh
region.
Yildiz said it was unclear whether a previous offer to transit the
Azeri gas to Europe at less than markets prices had been accepted.
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. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun,
Writing by Thomas Grove)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
