Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The epic entitled "Greece and the Eurozone" continues. The delay in refinancing from the EU and the European Central Bank has put Greece on the brink of the abyss. The reality is that Azerbaijan can restore Athens's stable position.
The media has reported today that the Eurozone countries are on the sly working out a plan to eliminate Greece. This is connected with the fact that a new "left" government which came to power in January is completely helpless amid the financial problems absorbing the country. Moreover, it holds the incomprehensible policy, turning away from the assistance carefully offered by Azerbaijan through the energy projects.
Greece has recently found the funds somehow and paid the IMF tranche worth 450 million euros. According to the agreements, Athens must repay 763 million euros more until May 12. It is not clear where the country plans to get these funds.
How can Azerbaijan help in such a situation? SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) intends to buy a 66 percent share in the Greek gas operator DESFA. This acquisition deal is still hanging in the air. By the way, the cost of one of them is 400 million euros. This is a little more than a half of the amount required for Greece.
And of course, the Southern Gas Corridor project that has also been initiated by Azerbaijan. By participating in this project, Greece can get much more than 400 million euros. The Southern Gas Corridor promises a long-term stable high income, guarantees gas supply, creation of jobs (urgent problem for the countries facing crisis) and eventually, a significant role of Greece in Europe.
Nevertheless, all these initiatives of Azerbaijan are undermined by the uncertainty of the Greek leadership and European bureaucracy.
The maneuvers of the Greek leadership between the Southern Gas Corridor and Turkish Steam cause more perplexity than any other emotion. It seems that the sense of reality has been absolutely lost there.
How one can understand Buridan's ass if there is only one really visible haystack in front of it?
This haystack is the Southern Gas Corridor: the project that is being implemented here and now. There are only talks about the second project and nothing concrete has been done for its implementation.
Naturally, Greeks could be understood if the country would really face a difficult choice. However, the irony of this is that there is no choice.
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Maksim Tsurkov is Trend Agency's staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov
