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Russia endangering Turkish Stream

Oil&Gas Materials 27 April 2015 14:21 (UTC +04:00)
Despite the fact that the Turkish authorities urged for justice regarding the 1915 events, such countries as Russia and France blindly chose to hold Armenia’s side.
Russia endangering Turkish Stream

Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

Despite the fact that the Turkish authorities urged for justice regarding the 1915 events, such countries as Russia and France blindly chose to hold Armenia's side.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, commenting on the visit of President Vladimir Putin to Yerevan, said that "each country makes decisions on its own, and Russia, in turn, made this decision a long time ago." This justification could have calmed Ankara down, if not for Putin's words that the 1915 events are the so-called Armenian genocide. Ankara expressed serious resentment.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, commenting on the visit of heads of Russia and France to Yerevan in order to participate in activities in connection with the "centennial" of the so-called Armenian genocide, said that this decision casts doubts on the neutrality of the OSCE Minsk Group.

It is impossible not to agree with it, despite the fact that the Russian side said that Putin's visit to Yerevan would not affect relations with Ankara.

"It is quite natural that the president was with other counterparts in Yerevan," spokesman for the Russian president Dmitry Peskov said. "It is very important to thoroughly examine President Putin's speech. It is also very important not to forget that at the same time, Turkey is our strategic partner. We have diversified relations. We believe that the prospects for the development of our relations are wide."

This will not affect the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, however one must not forget that there is also the Turkish Stream project which Russia greatly needs.

Turkey has already made a statement that it will reconsider cooperation with a number of countries after April 24 that have lost neutrality on the issue related to the events of 1915.

Of course, along with Europe, Russia is also on the "black list" of Ankara. It is not ruled out that after President Putin's visit to Yerevan and his statements about the events of 1915, Ankara will reconsider the issue of the Turkish Stream construction.

The issue of implementation of Turkish Stream project causes controversy in Turkey. The main reason is Russia's demand from Turkey to make additional concessions. Media hasn't specified what kind of concession it is, but this led to refusal of Turkey's BOTAS company from signing an agreement on discount for Russian gas delivered to Turkey.

Although the sides were expected to sign the discount agreement in March 2015, Turkey hasn't signed it so far. Another disputed issue is that Russia has completely isolated Turkey's BOTAS company from the construction of the Turkish Stream, which doesn't meet Ankara's interests.

All these facts suggest that the visit of Russian president to Armenia and his remarks about the "Armenian genocide" first of all put Russia's energy interests under threat. Turkish authorities will unlikely miss the chance to use this for their purposes.

Edited by SI

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Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu

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