Turkey, Azerbaijan to step up energy cooperation
Posted by meb at June 5th, 2008
In top-level talks yesterday regional allies Turkey and Azerbaijan agreed to step up cooperation on energy and vowed to maintain solidarity in their relations.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the autonomous Azerbaijani republic of Nakhichevan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Azerbaijan would increase natural gas supplies via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) pipeline to allow Turkey to meet part of its gas needs. “We have given the necessary instructions to our energy ministers. They will sit down and discuss the amount,” Erdoğan said.
Gas exports from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas fields to Turkey through the 430-mile-long BTE pipeline, also known as the South Caucasus pipeline, began in 2007.
The pipeline transmits Azeri gas through Georgia to Erzurum in eastern Turkey. The amount of gas transported through BTE currently stands at 6.3 billion per year. When the amount is increased as part of a new phase of the project, Turkey will be able to meet its growing natural gas needs from Azerbaijan.
Erdoğan said a certain amount of gas could also be supplied to Nabucco, a planned pipeline to transport natural gas from Central Asia to Western Europe. “It may be possible to supply some gas to Nabucco. We discussed this issue as well,” said Erdoğan.
The Nabucco pipeline is planned to transport natural gas from Turkey to Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. It will run from Erzurum in Turkey to Baumgarten an der March, a major natural gas hub in Austria. The pipeline, which is hoped to reduce European dependence on Russia for natural gas, is backed by the United States and the European Union.
Officials said the two countries also agreed for Turkey to provide electricity to Nakhichevan and launch direct flights between İstanbul and Nakhichevan and between Baku and Kars. Erdoğan said he discussed the issue of visa requirements for Turkish citizens traveling to Azerbaijan with Aliyev, adding that a consensus emerged, without elaborating. Officials said the two leaders agreed to ease visa restrictions.
Erdoğan is the first Turkish prime minister to visit Nakhichevan, a landlocked Azerbaijani enclave sharing a common border with Turkey, in 16 years. Turkey and Azerbaijan cooperate closely on regional issues. Turkey closed its border with neighboring Armenia after it invaded Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. It refuses to normalize its relations unless Armenia withdraws its troops from Nagorno-Karabakh. Erdoğan said Turkey will continue to support Azerbaijan on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in the future.
He also said the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline projects show how strong the relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan are. A planned railway that will link Turkey and Azerbaijan via Georgia are another piece of the cooperation, he noted.
According to Erdoğan, the fact that the meeting took place in Nakhichevan has a “message to the region and the world” about the depth of friendship between Turkey and Azerbaijan. “Our solidarity will continue with the same determination and same faith.”
On the economic front, the prime minister said the two countries aimed at increasing the trade volume from $1.2 billion to $3 billion in the next couple of years. He also noted that Turkey is the leading foreign investor in non-oil sectors of Azerbaijan, with the amount of Turkish investments having reached $5.5 billion.
Aliyev said the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum projects were important in uniting Azerbaijan and Turkey. He praised Turkish companies’ activities in his country, adding that more opportunities emerged for Nakhichevan from his talks with Erdoğan.
“We share happiness together; we are saddened together when there are injustices and we intervene in problems together,” Aliyev said. “Our enemies are the same, our friends are the same.”
Erdoğan said Azerbaijan backs Turkey’s bid to get temporary representation at the UN Security Council in 2009-2010 and that Turkey supports Azerbaijan’s drive for a seat on the council in 2011-2012. The two countries also support each other’s position in the Organiza-tion of the Islamic Conference (OIC), he said.
source: Today’s Zaman
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