Armenian-Turkish Relations

[Federate]

Re: Armenian-Turkish Relations

Azeri leader lambasts Turkey as gas route to Europe

Azerbaijan may consider alternative gas routes

Azeri leader says may export gas to Russia, Iran

Backdrop of tensions over Turkish-Armenian thaw

By Afet Mehtiyeva

BAKU, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan said on Friday Turkish terms for gas transit to Europe were unacceptable and the country was considering other routes to Europe, heightening tensions over a thaw between Ankara and Azeri foe Armenia.

"We've run out of options and the current offers cannot be accepted," President Ilham Aliyev told a government meeting.

"We have been supplying gas to Turkey for a long time at a price which is one third of the world price," he said in televised comments. "What country, especially in such a difficult time, would agree to sell its resources at 30 percent of world prices?"

Russia is competing with Europe's proposed Nabucco pipeline for access to gas supplies from the second phase of Azerbaijan's multibillion-dollar Shah Deniz deposit in the Caspian Sea.

But Azerbaijan, a supplier of oil and gas to the West, is angry at a thaw in relations between Muslim ally Turkey and neighbouring Armenia, Azerbaijan's enemy in a festering conflict over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region.

Turkey and Armenia signed accords last week on the establishment of diplomatic relations and reopening of their border, the latest step in overcoming a century of hostility stemming from the World War One mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

The accords need to be ratified by parliaments in both countries, and face opposition from hard-line nationalists, and particularly the powerful Armenian diaspora.

In Armenia on Friday, some 2,000 supporters of the nationalist Armenian Revolutionary Federation, known as Dashnaktsutyun, rallied in the capital Yerevan, calling for a halt to the thaw without Turkish recognition of last century's killings as genocide.

GAZPROM

Turkey rejects the term genocide, saying many people died on both sides of the conflict.

Trying to satisfy Azerbaijan, Ankara says it first wants Armenia to make concessions over Nagorno-Karabakh before it will ratify the accords and open the border.

The mainly Armenian-populated mountain region broke away from Azerbaijan in the early 1990s with the backing of Armenia and has resisted 15 years of mediation to resolve its status.

Azerbaijan and Turkey are in the midst of protracted negotiations over the terms of future gas supplies from Azerbaijan. Aliyev said Azerbaijan would start gas supplies to Russia from next year and possibly Iran in the future.

Russian energy giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM) has secured a deal to import a modest 500 million cubic metres of Azeri gas from next year but has said it intends to increase volumes.

This could give Moscow the upper hand in its rivalry with the European Union for influence over the flows of gas from the former Soviet republic to European markets.

The EU-sponsored and U.S.-supported Nabucco pipeline is a rival to Gazprom's South Stream planned link, which envisages carrying Russian gas to Europe via the Black Sea to bypass transit countries, including Ukraine.

Industry and Energy Minister Natik Aliyev told the government meeting that Shah Deniz would produce nine billion cubic metres of has per year from 2013.

"The current production at Shah Daniez is 23 million cubic metres per day, and from 2013 Shah Deniz will produce nine billion cubic metres of gas per year and 40 million of gas condensate per year," he said. (Additional reporting by Amie Ferris-Rotman in Moscow and Hasmik Mkrtchyan in Yerevan; Writing by Margarita Antidze and Matt Robinson in Tbilisi)

http://www.reuters.com/article/energySector/idUSANT65959220091016?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=11604

[gegev]

Re: Armenian-Turkish Relations

When looking at Nalband-yan, I always wandered what seems to me strange in the guy’s photo and behavior proportion.

Now I know.

Thanks a lot.
This makes his image natural.

[Catharsis]

Re: Armenian-Turkish Relations

Good onelol, whats in Mrs. clintons pocket, milk?

Mrs. Clinton wrote a book with the borrowed African proverb - "It takes a village..."

[Gavur]

Re: Armenian-Turkish Relations

Good onelol, whats in Mrs. clintons pocket, milk?

[Gavur]

Re: Armenian-Turkish Relations

We know the Russian factor

Was this photo taken by Kharsh ?

[Catharsis]

Re: Armenian-Turkish Relations

Now I know - chess match didn’t fit to the spirit of the pre-signed outcome; the surrender “Protocol”.

[Alexandros]

Re: Armenian-Turkish Relations




Armenian-Turkish reconciliation process to be intensified in early 2010

15.10.2009 15:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian-Turkish dialogue has been constructive so far, according to Alexander Markarov, director of Yerevan branch of the Institute of CIS Studies.

“Given the position of the Armenian ruling coalition, I do not think that there will be problems with ratification of Protocols in the RA parliament. However, I can’t say the same about the Turkish parliament. The process is likely to be intensified in early 2010,” he said.

Markarov also emphasized that if Turkey wishes to be a democracy and not to fail talks with the EU, it should ratify the document.

Link

[Catharsis]

Re: Armenian-Turkish Relations

First, let us not forget that for too long the Tashnags were a part of the ruling coalition, despite its claims to be 'opposition' members and psuedo-criticisms of the 'government'.

Second, LTP has indeed proven himself to be a false opposition member, but I don't see the ARF taking a hard stance in Yerevan as they are in Los Angeles and Beirut.

Valid points, however, in both camps there are healthy forces and most of the constituencies in both camps are not blinded by the realities at hand and would demand that their leaders actually take more firmer steps in bridging their differences and unite. Literally, we do not have an alternative in stopping the ratification of the Turkish protocols - which if ratified, would turn into a legally binding international document, forestalling the Armenian Cause for years if not decades. The stakes are too high now, to look at past mistakes and grudges, all of the energy must be in trying to form this bridge of national unity.

Third, let's go back a few pages for some clear perspective...back when some of you acknowledged who really called the shots in Yerevan:

We know the Russian factor and the current so-called "reset" between Russia and the United States which led to the protocols. However, I doubt the "thaw" will last much longer as we already see Russian voices in the political establishment speaking out against letting a NATO country into its own sphere of influence.

Most importantly, we should not be fatalistic and view ourselves as only incapable observers or just simple pawns of the "great powers." The Armenian people worldwide are a power in their own right, and our power - and especially the power of our potential Unity coupled with All-Armenian determination - should not be underestimated.

[AlphaPapa]

Re: Armenian-Turkish Relations

First, let us not forget that for too long the Tashnags were a part of the ruling coalition, despite its claims to be 'opposition' members and psuedo-criticisms of the 'government'.

Second, LTP has indeed proven himself to be a false opposition member, but I don't see the ARF taking a hard stance in Yerevan as they are in Los Angeles and Beirut.

Third, let's go back a few pages for some clear perspective...back when some of you acknowledged who really called the shots in Yerevan:

[Catharsis]

Re: Armenian-Turkish Relations

Silly Because it doesn't fit your view of the "Real"'s. non the less true.
These guys are the establishment, true or not?
This LTP fool retires 2 years ago and says he's out of politics for good, and going to write a book on history, true.
He's immediately ushered back by the external powers a year ago to be the false opposition, and to give hes partners in crime oppurtinity to take the firmest control and eliminate any possibility of the true opposition (who BTW were asleep at the wheel)
Other then a few brave voices in the wild, true.
You won't want to see this because you are not for the people, just an opportunist riding the coat tales of the establishment for possible personal gain.
Now, hows about them apricots ?

Dear Gavur at this late hour believe it or not the only viable option is for ALL serious opposing forces to unite and ask for resignation of the president/government. Putting aside the petty differences (and they are petty compared to what will happen if unity is not achieved) and all the past mistakes that "open old wounds."

The new coalition government would be formed, and the very first thing would be the annulment of the Turkish protocols and all the conditions that have been forced upon Armenia and the Armenian people.

The ratification process would go through since the current three parties that form the coalition government hold the majority of seats in the National Assembly and are all but "yes men" who will certainly press the green button out of concern for not getting paid by their paymaster placing the future of Armenia and the Armenian people in a very short order.

All of the provocateurs that are prevalent in opposition camps (be it the Armenian National Congress or the National Front) placed by the oligarchs and their cronies will be put in check, because they will be the first to sabotage this from ever happening, thus assuring that the fragmented opposition never unites into one ever-powerful union.

Again at this very late hour we are literally losing not only the Armenian Cause but what is left of our Homeland. Only and only when the opposition unites into one camp we can assure victory. Otherwise, all of us as Armenians, will end up defeated, one by one, and we will indeed lose what is left of our Homeland to the Turks and the ever conniving "great powers" that are anything but pro-Armenian.