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ANKARA: Turkey-Azerbaijan Talks Temporarily Halted Over Armenia

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  • ANKARA: Turkey-Azerbaijan Talks Temporarily Halted Over Armenia

    TURKEY-AZERBAIJAN TALKS TEMPORARILY HALTED OVER ARMENIA

    www.worldbulletin.net
    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.
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