Turkish Forum

Category: Southern Caucasus

  • Turkey balances Azeri, Armenian links

    Turkey balances Azeri, Armenian links

    By Orhan Coskun
    ANKARA, May 5 (Reuters) – Turkey’s efforts to normalise relations with Armenia will not harm planned energy projects with Azerbaijan, including the Nabucco gas pipeline, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said on Tuesday.
    Turkey’s traditional ally Azerbaijan has objected to U.S.-backed talks with Armenia because it wants to first resolve a dispute with Armenia over its occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave before Turkey opens its borders.
    “Energy will play the role of catalyst in bringing relations between Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey to a more positive level,” said Yildiz, who took over the government’s energy portfolio after a cabinet reshuffle at the weekend.
    “There’s no plan to delay the projects with Azerbaijan” because of the Armenian normalisation talks, he said.
    Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is due to meet President Ilham Aliyev in Baku next week and is expected to try to allay some of Azeribaijan’s concerns over the thaw in Turkish-Armenian ties.
    Partners in the 7.9 billion euro Nabucco project, which has European Union backing, want Azeri gas to fill the pipeline initially when it opens in 2013.
    The 3,300-km-long Nabucco will eventually carry about 30 billion cubic metres of gas from the Caspian and Middle East to meet about 5 percent of European demand.
    Botas the state pipeline operator in Turkey, Germany’s WE, Austria’s OMV, Budapest-based MOL, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz and Romania’s Transgaz are partners in Nabucco.
    Turkey already buys about 6 billion cubic metres of Caspian natural gas annually after a pipeline from the Azeri Shakh-Deniz field opened in 2007. Some of that gas, which Turkey buys at a discount, is shipped on to Greece.
    Turkey is seeking an additional 8 billion cubic metres of gas from Azerbaijan to meet domestic needs, according to Energy Ministry sources.
    Botas officials are in Baku this seek to discuss the Turkish request for more gas, Yildiz said. (Writing by Ayla Jean Yackley)
    Source: www.guardian.co.uk, May 5 2009
  • Chief of Russia’s Intelligence in Armenia

    Chief of Russia’s Intelligence in Armenia

    Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan received Director of Russia’s External Intelligence Mikhail Fradkov on Tuesday, said Sargsyan’s press office.

    The sides reportedly agreed that such meetings within the framework of Armenian-Russian strategic partnership helps focus attention on political, economic and security issues in the world, region and both countries with the view to outlining further ways of cooperation in meeting the new challenges of the modern-day world and finding effective ways out of the current situations.

    The prime minister introduced Armenian government views on the economic situation, negative impacts of the global financial and economic crisis and ways of overcoming them, as well as relations with neighboring countries among which are Iran and Turkey.

    Source:  www.armenianow.com, 05 May, 2009

  • Armenia withdraws from NATO drills in Georgia

    Armenia withdraws from NATO drills in Georgia

    MOSCOW, May 5 (Xinhua) — Armenia will not participate in the NATO-led military exercises in Georgia, Russian news agencies reported on Tuesday, citing the Armenian Defense Ministry.

    “Due to the current situation, Armenian troops will not take part in NATO’s exercises in Georgia,” the ministry was quoted by Itar-Tass and RIA Novosti as saying in a statement.

    A spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that Russia is satisfied with some countries’ decision to pull out of the drills, Itar-Tass reported.

    The planned exercises, scheduled for May 6 to June 1, have drawn strong opposition from Moscow. About 1,300 soldiers from over a dozen NATO member or ally states were originally scheduled to participate, but Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova and Serbia have already withdrawn.

    Source: news.xinhuanet.com, 06-05-2009

  • Armenian Genocide Motion Passed in South Australia

    Armenian Genocide Motion Passed in South Australia

    “That, whereas the genocide by the Ottoman state between 1915-1923 of Armenians, Hellenes, Syrian and other minorities in Asia Minor is one of the greatest crimes against humanity, the people of South Australia and this House –

    (a) join the members of the Armenian-Australian, Pontian Greek-Australian and Syrian-Australian communities in honouring the memory of the innocent men, women and children who fell victim to the first modern genocide;

    (b) condemns the genocide of the Armenians, Pontian Greeks, Syrian Orthodox and other Christian minorities, and all other acts of genocide as the ultimate act of racial, religious and cultural intolerance;

    (c) recognises the importance of remembering and learning from such dark chapters in human history to ensure that such crimes against humanity are not allowed to be repeated;

    (d) condemns and prevents all attempts to use the passage of time to deny or distort the historical truth of the genocide of the Armenians and other acts of genocide committed during this century;

    (e) acknowledges the significant humanitarian contribution made by the people of South Australia to the victims and survivors of the Armenian Genocide and the Pontian Genocide; and

    (f) calls on the Commonwealth Parliament officially to condemn the genocide.”

    South Australia Passes Armenian Genocide Motion

    Soykırım Tasarısı Güney Avustralya’da Kabul Edildi

  • Turkish PM Erdogan to make a speech at Azerbaijani Parliament

    Turkish PM Erdogan to make a speech at Azerbaijani Parliament

    05 May 2009 [10:53] – Today.Az

    Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will visit both Azerbaijan and Russia next week as diplomacy traffic intensifies in efforts aimed at solving long-standing disputes in the region.

    pic52023 Recep Tayyip Erdogan will start his visit to Azerbaijan on May 12, CNN Turk informs. The Turkish prime minister will have meetings in the capital Baku on May 13.

    Erdogan’s visits come as diplomatic contacts gain momentum in relation to efforts aimed at solving long-standing disputes, including those between Turkey and Armenia, and Azerbaijan and Armenia.

    CNN Turk informs that the Prime Minister will also make a speech at Azerbaijani Parliament.

    Erdogan will later meet with Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on May 16.
    /ANS PRESS/

    URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/52023.html

  • Georgia’s top defense officers arrested in attempted coup

    Georgia’s top defense officers arrested in attempted coup

    nato-georgiaTBILISI, May 5 (Xinhua) — Several top Georgian Defense Ministry officials were arrested on Tuesday for an attempted coup, which ended without violence after most mutineers surrendered, officials said.

    “It’s over. Most of the people have surrendered,” Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said.

    Georgian officials said servicemen of an armored cavalry battalion based in Mukhrovani, 30 km from Tbilisi, mutinied earlier in the day. President Mikhail Saakashvili viewed the mutiny as “a very serious incident,” according to the Interfax news agency.

    Defense Minister David Sikharulidze said the mutiny had been planned “on a broader scale” and was aimed at foiling the planned NATO exercise in Georgia.

    “The general objective was to topple the government with an armed revolt,” he added.

    Officials of the Defense and the Interior Ministries were at the scene to negotiate with the mutineers at the base.

    “They know about our proposal,” he said, adding all commanders in Mukhrovani involved in the mutiny had been dismissed from their posts.

    Utiashvili, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said the organizers were former high-ranking Defense Ministry officials.

    “The preliminary investigation materials showed that the plot was coordinated with the Russians and was aimed at disrupting the NATO training scheduled to take place in Georgia on May 6,” he said.

    Georgian officials said one organizer of the coup is Giya Gvaladze, head of the special task unit Delta in the 1990s, while another is Koba Kobaladze, who was previously reported by Interfaxas Koba Otaradze.

    Kobaladze has been detained on suspicion of co-organizing the military mutiny, Interfax reported, citing local Imedi TV.

    The arrested officers will be charged with planning a coup and involvement in the Russian special services, Utiashvili said.

    The uprising unit has been confined to barracks, according to Utiashvili.

    A video seized by the Interior Ministry showed Gvaladze talking to his followers about the coup planned for Thursday.

    “The Russians will come to help us, a total of 5,000 people, who intend to liquidate such leaders as Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili,” Gvaladze said in the video, according to Interfax.

    “If the coup is a success, Georgia will reunite with Russia,” Gvaladze said in the video, adding that elections would be held in Georgia if the coup succeeds.

    Russia has denied accusations of involvement in the coup, the Itar-Tass news agency reported, citing a source in the Russian security services.

    Russia’s permanent representative to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, also called the accusations ridiculous and absolutely unfounded.

    “Of course we have slowly begun to get accustomed to mad accusations by Georgian political and military authorities that if there is hail or thunderstorms, this is all Moscow’s work,” Rogozin was quoted by Interfax as saying on Tuesday.

    A NATO military exercise under the Partnership for Peace program is set to begin Wednesday in Georgia. NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying that the exercise would go on despite the armed revolt.

    Georgian opposition leaders also called an emergency meeting upon the mutiny, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

    The opposition has been staging protests in Tbilisi recently demanding the resignation of Saakashvili.

    Source: news.xinhuanet.com, 05.05.2009