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TURKISH PM TO VISIT AZERBAIJAN WITH HOT AGENDA
Sevil Kucukkosum
Hurriyet
July 26, 2011
Turkey
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to visit Azerbaijan
on Wednesday as Nabucco pipeline project, mutual visa exemptions,
facilities for businessmen and Nagorno-Karabakh issues placed on the
agenda. This will be his second trip abroad since the parliamentary
elections in July.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Nabucco pipeline project, mutual visa exemptions, facilities
for businessmen and the Nagorno-Karabakh talks are expected to top
Turkey's agenda as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepares to
visit Azerbaijan on Wednesday.
Erdogan, who is making his second visit abroad since forming a
new government after the June 12 elections, will discuss bilateral
relations and regional issues with Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev,
a senior Turkish diplomat told the Hurriyet Daily News on Tuesday.
The Nabucco pipeline, a multi-billion-dollar project to export
natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, is among those issues,
the diplomat said.
Azerbaijan and Turkey are at odds over the project, leaving Azerbaijan
the only project partner absent when the legal framework for Nabucco
was signed June 8 in Turkey's Kayseri province between Nabucco Gas
Pipeline International GmbH and the responsible ministries of the
five transit countries, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey.
An obligatory bilateral transit agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkey
was almost signed in May 2010, "but some minor and some important
things prevented the two parties from agreeing and finalizing it,"
Elshad Nasirov, the vice president of the State Oil Company of
Azerbaijan, or SOCAR, told the Daily News in a recent interview. Talks
between two countries over the transit of Shah Deniz II gas supplies
were also suspended in May because of Turkey's parliamentary elections
in June.
The issue of facilities for the two countries' businessmen will also
be discussed in the meetings, as will the long-standing bilateral visa
exemption issue, which has been at a standstill due to Azerbaijan's
insistence that if Baku lifts visa requirements for Turkish citizens
it would have to do the same for those from Iran. "Talks are ongoing
on visa exemption, yet have not resulted in an agreement," the Turkish
diplomat said.
Along with bilateral issues, giving momentum to the Karabakh talks
will be on Erdogan and Aliyev's agenda for discussion. Azerbaijan and
Armenia's failure in June to come to an agreement over the contested
territory has led to disappointment in the international arena.
A flashpoint of the Caucasus, the region known as Nagorno-Karabakh
is a constituent part of Azerbaijan that has been occupied by Armenia
since the end of 1994. While internationally recognized as Azerbaijani
territory, the enclave has declared itself an independent republic
but is administered as a de facto part of Armenia.
Another controversial subject is the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation
process that has been blocked by Baku, which indirectly threatened
Turkey that it would stop supplying natural gas and give Russia
preference as its main energy partner.
A set of confidence-building measures are planned between Turkey and
Armenia as part of efforts to keep the momentum of the reconciliation
process alive. One of these is the idea of starting direct flights
from Yerevan to Turkey's Van, a destination for many Armenians who
wish to visit an ancient Armenian church on Akdamar Island in Lake
Van. The proposal, though, drew a negative reaction from Azerbaijan.
"We do not interfere with the affairs of two [other] countries but
we still reserve the right to respond in case of the infringement of
the national interests of Azerbaijan," Elman Abdullayev, the first
secretary of Azerbaijan's MFA press service, told the Trend news
agency in response to the Yerevan-Van flight plan.
Sevil Kucukkosum
Hurriyet
July 26, 2011
Turkey
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to visit Azerbaijan
on Wednesday as Nabucco pipeline project, mutual visa exemptions,
facilities for businessmen and Nagorno-Karabakh issues placed on the
agenda. This will be his second trip abroad since the parliamentary
elections in July.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Nabucco pipeline project, mutual visa exemptions, facilities
for businessmen and the Nagorno-Karabakh talks are expected to top
Turkey's agenda as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepares to
visit Azerbaijan on Wednesday.
Erdogan, who is making his second visit abroad since forming a
new government after the June 12 elections, will discuss bilateral
relations and regional issues with Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev,
a senior Turkish diplomat told the Hurriyet Daily News on Tuesday.
The Nabucco pipeline, a multi-billion-dollar project to export
natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Turkey, is among those issues,
the diplomat said.
Azerbaijan and Turkey are at odds over the project, leaving Azerbaijan
the only project partner absent when the legal framework for Nabucco
was signed June 8 in Turkey's Kayseri province between Nabucco Gas
Pipeline International GmbH and the responsible ministries of the
five transit countries, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey.
An obligatory bilateral transit agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkey
was almost signed in May 2010, "but some minor and some important
things prevented the two parties from agreeing and finalizing it,"
Elshad Nasirov, the vice president of the State Oil Company of
Azerbaijan, or SOCAR, told the Daily News in a recent interview. Talks
between two countries over the transit of Shah Deniz II gas supplies
were also suspended in May because of Turkey's parliamentary elections
in June.
The issue of facilities for the two countries' businessmen will also
be discussed in the meetings, as will the long-standing bilateral visa
exemption issue, which has been at a standstill due to Azerbaijan's
insistence that if Baku lifts visa requirements for Turkish citizens
it would have to do the same for those from Iran. "Talks are ongoing
on visa exemption, yet have not resulted in an agreement," the Turkish
diplomat said.
Along with bilateral issues, giving momentum to the Karabakh talks
will be on Erdogan and Aliyev's agenda for discussion. Azerbaijan and
Armenia's failure in June to come to an agreement over the contested
territory has led to disappointment in the international arena.
A flashpoint of the Caucasus, the region known as Nagorno-Karabakh
is a constituent part of Azerbaijan that has been occupied by Armenia
since the end of 1994. While internationally recognized as Azerbaijani
territory, the enclave has declared itself an independent republic
but is administered as a de facto part of Armenia.
Another controversial subject is the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation
process that has been blocked by Baku, which indirectly threatened
Turkey that it would stop supplying natural gas and give Russia
preference as its main energy partner.
A set of confidence-building measures are planned between Turkey and
Armenia as part of efforts to keep the momentum of the reconciliation
process alive. One of these is the idea of starting direct flights
from Yerevan to Turkey's Van, a destination for many Armenians who
wish to visit an ancient Armenian church on Akdamar Island in Lake
Van. The proposal, though, drew a negative reaction from Azerbaijan.
"We do not interfere with the affairs of two [other] countries but
we still reserve the right to respond in case of the infringement of
the national interests of Azerbaijan," Elman Abdullayev, the first
secretary of Azerbaijan's MFA press service, told the Trend news
agency in response to the Yerevan-Van flight plan.