Deputy minister: Armenia reckons on energy cooperation with Turkey
22.06.2015,
11:03
Armenia counts on establishing energy cooperation with the neighboring Turkey, Armenia’s deputy minister of energy Areg Galstyan said at the Rose-Roth seminar of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan on Saturday.
YEREVAN, June 22. /ARKA/. Armenia counts on establishing energy cooperation with the neighboring Turkey, Armenia’s deputy minister of energy Areg Galstyan said at the Rose-Roth seminar of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan on Saturday.
Regional cooperation and integration is a key target on the way of developing the Armenian energy sector, the deputy minister said, as cited by the parliament press office.
Expert from King’s College in London Tracey German stressed the importance of the South Caucasus to ensure Europe’s energy security, of the role the energy sector can play in promoting the regional cooperation, as well as of the impact that geopolitical realities have on the country’s energy security tied to national security tasks in general.
The expert pointed to the need to establish regional stability that is currently imbalanced as Armenia is left out of the regional energy projects.
There are currently no diplomatic relations established between Turkey and Armenia: official Ankara closed the border in 1993. The uneasy relationship between the countries is caused particularly by Ankara’s support to Azerbaijan on Karabakh problem and Turkey’s overreaction to international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Empire.
Some reconciliation in the relations started in autumn 2008 initiated by Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan. Foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey signed protocols about establishing diplomatic relations in Zurich on October 10 2009 to be ratified by the parliaments.
On April 22 2010 Armenia’s president Sargsyan suspended the ratification process saying the political majority in the National Assembly considered statements from the Turkish side unacceptable, “specifically those by Prime Minister Erdogan, who has again made the ratification of the Armenia-Turkey protocols by the Turkish parliament directly dependent on a resolution over Nagorno-Karabakh.”
In a statement issued on February 16, president Sargsyan said he had asked parliament speaker Galust Sahakian to return the protocol to him since "the Turkish government has no political will, distorts the spirit and letter of the protocols, and continues its policy of setting preconditions." –0--
Regional cooperation and integration is a key target on the way of developing the Armenian energy sector, the deputy minister said, as cited by the parliament press office.
Expert from King’s College in London Tracey German stressed the importance of the South Caucasus to ensure Europe’s energy security, of the role the energy sector can play in promoting the regional cooperation, as well as of the impact that geopolitical realities have on the country’s energy security tied to national security tasks in general.
The expert pointed to the need to establish regional stability that is currently imbalanced as Armenia is left out of the regional energy projects.
There are currently no diplomatic relations established between Turkey and Armenia: official Ankara closed the border in 1993. The uneasy relationship between the countries is caused particularly by Ankara’s support to Azerbaijan on Karabakh problem and Turkey’s overreaction to international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Empire.
Some reconciliation in the relations started in autumn 2008 initiated by Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan. Foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey signed protocols about establishing diplomatic relations in Zurich on October 10 2009 to be ratified by the parliaments.
On April 22 2010 Armenia’s president Sargsyan suspended the ratification process saying the political majority in the National Assembly considered statements from the Turkish side unacceptable, “specifically those by Prime Minister Erdogan, who has again made the ratification of the Armenia-Turkey protocols by the Turkish parliament directly dependent on a resolution over Nagorno-Karabakh.”
In a statement issued on February 16, president Sargsyan said he had asked parliament speaker Galust Sahakian to return the protocol to him since "the Turkish government has no political will, distorts the spirit and letter of the protocols, and continues its policy of setting preconditions." –0--
