Nabucco said to be a force for peace
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Hürriyet Daily News
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Mayıs 07, 2009 00:00
ANKARA - The supply of gas, and its transit to Europe through the Nabucco pipeline project, has become an additional element in the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Anatolia news agency reported.
"The issue of energy is going to be a positive catalyst for the relations between Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan," Turkey’s new energy minister, Taner Yıldız, said during a press conference in Ankara yesterday, just two days after taking his seat as minister. "The negotiations over the gas and oil in the Caucasus will no longer be a burden on politics." Yıldız added that the issue of energy would be an important factor in resolving the differences between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Amid tense diplomatic traffic between the three countries, both to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue between Azerbaijan and Armenia and to establish diplomatic ties and open the border between Turkey and Armenia, Yıldız’s statement placing energy as a new catalyst raised eyebrows. Yıldız did not elaborate further on his meaning, but described the role of energy as a long-lasting and constructive tool between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Turkey and Azerbaijan have isolated Armenia from various projects in the region, including those in the areas of energy and transportation.
Armenia has occupied one-fifth of Azerbaijani lands since the early 1990s, after the two countries gained their independence from Soviet Russia. An international group of mediators, known as the Minsk Group, has been trying to find a solution to the problem for the last 17 years. Turkey sealed its border with Armenia and cut diplomatic ties after the occupation. A process to reconcile Turkey and Armenia started last year after a historic visit by President Abdullah Gül to Yerevan. The two countries issued a joint statement on the eve of April 24, the day that commemorates the mass killings of Armenians in 1915, saying that they have agreed on a road map for the normalization of ties.
A European Union summit set to take place in Prague tomorrow and Friday will gather the presidents of the three countries to discuss both the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the Nabucco project, a proposed multilateral pipeline that would carry Caspian natural gas to Europe to reduce the continent’s dependency on Russia. Planned to span 3,300 kilometers and cross Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, the Nabucco project faces difficulties due to its political complexity and cost.
"We are going to have our hands full at the summit. We think that we are surely going to take steps forward for a proposed solution [for Nabucco] with our friends from Socar [an Azeri gas company] and Statoil [a Norwegian gas company]," Yıldız said. President Gül is expected to meet with Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev on the sidelines of the summit, but a possible meeting between Gül and Armenian President Serz Sarkissian has not yet been confirmed.
Sarkissian and Aliyev will come together to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement following U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s meeting in Washington with the foreign ministers of both countries, at which she urged them to finalize their peace talks.
Amid tense diplomatic traffic between the three countries, both to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh issue between Azerbaijan and Armenia and to establish diplomatic ties and open the border between Turkey and Armenia, Yıldız’s statement placing energy as a new catalyst raised eyebrows. Yıldız did not elaborate further on his meaning, but described the role of energy as a long-lasting and constructive tool between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Turkey and Azerbaijan have isolated Armenia from various projects in the region, including those in the areas of energy and transportation.
Armenia has occupied one-fifth of Azerbaijani lands since the early 1990s, after the two countries gained their independence from Soviet Russia. An international group of mediators, known as the Minsk Group, has been trying to find a solution to the problem for the last 17 years. Turkey sealed its border with Armenia and cut diplomatic ties after the occupation. A process to reconcile Turkey and Armenia started last year after a historic visit by President Abdullah Gül to Yerevan. The two countries issued a joint statement on the eve of April 24, the day that commemorates the mass killings of Armenians in 1915, saying that they have agreed on a road map for the normalization of ties.
A European Union summit set to take place in Prague tomorrow and Friday will gather the presidents of the three countries to discuss both the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the Nabucco project, a proposed multilateral pipeline that would carry Caspian natural gas to Europe to reduce the continent’s dependency on Russia. Planned to span 3,300 kilometers and cross Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, the Nabucco project faces difficulties due to its political complexity and cost.
"We are going to have our hands full at the summit. We think that we are surely going to take steps forward for a proposed solution [for Nabucco] with our friends from Socar [an Azeri gas company] and Statoil [a Norwegian gas company]," Yıldız said. President Gül is expected to meet with Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev on the sidelines of the summit, but a possible meeting between Gül and Armenian President Serz Sarkissian has not yet been confirmed.
Sarkissian and Aliyev will come together to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement following U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s meeting in Washington with the foreign ministers of both countries, at which she urged them to finalize their peace talks.