Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 29
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Today, cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey makes their strategic tandem a driving force in a large region that extends from Eastern Europe to Central Asia and the Middle East.
And, of course, this haunts other players in the region, which are trying to shake this "boat" from outside these two countries, as well as inside Turkey.
Implementation of a coordinated independent policy, major infrastructure projects, financial, energy and human resources of the two countries, and the great prospects that open up for them, irritates all the major world powers.
This is obvious, for example, in attitudes towards both Azerbaijan and Turkey.
And despite of the actions to "worsen" relations between Baku and Ankara from outside these two countries have become an everyday reality, the attempts to do the same thing inside Turkey is at least surprising.
Recently, Turkish media have begun a peculiar campaign, which has no grounds - for example statements about "inexpediency" of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) for Turkey.
Some bad "experts" say that Ankara will be paying for the pumping of Azerbaijan's gas across the country.
This fictional information doesn't correspond to reality, and it seems to be an outright stupidity.
Apparently, those "experts" aren't quite familiar with such a concept as transit tariffs.
That is, Turkey is not going to pay for pumping gas - it is going to get money for that.
And the more gas will be supplied, the more Turkey will receive. It should be stressed that Turkey will additionally receive few bcms of Azerbaijani gas via TANAP.
Of course, the fact that the TANAP project is being implemented rapidly bothers a number of countries wishing Turkey to remain energy dependent on them.
Currently, Turkey imports gas from Iran, Russia and Azerbaijan. Moreover, the country has signed agreements with Algeria and Nigeria for supplying 4.4 bcm and 1.2 bcm of liquefied gas per year, respectively.
But almost all countries, except Azerbaijan, had serious problems with Turkey regarding the gas prices.
Ankara appealed to the International Court of Arbitration regarding the price on Iranian gas supplied to Turkey in March 2012.
Turkey appealed to the International Court of Arbitration Oct. 26 over the prices of Russian gas supplied to the country.
No matter how the concerned forces try to harm the Azerbaijani energy projects in Turkey, all these attempts are doomed to failure. The reason is that Azerbaijani energy projects in Turkey, as opposed to other projects, are real. They are directed to the development of the region. They are not of political pressure in nature.
Edited by CN
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Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
