Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will hold an official visit to Baku next week to sign a number of agreements over cooperation in the field of energy. Erdogan had made a visit to Baku in the same time last year too.
Following the announcement regarding to the roadmap agreement signed between Turkey and Armenia toward normalization of relations, Erdogan rushed to Baku and stated during his adress to Azerbaijani Parliament that Turkey will not ratify protocols unless Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is resolved. With these statements of Erdogan, Turkish-Armenian rapprochement ended before it begins.
The roadmap agreement between Turkey and Armenia created such a mistrust on Azerbaijani side that Baku was still not confident after the statements of Erdogan in the Azerbaijani Parliament. With these reasons, Azerbaijanis continued dragging feet in the negotiations over energy. Showing no flexibility over the price of natural gas that Turkey was buying over a price that is much less than the average price in the international market, Azerbaijan continued tough negotiations over the price and amount of the gas that Turkey will buy from Shahdeniz 2. Ilham Aliyev administration did not finalize the negotiations before it becomes sure that Turkish-Armenian process enters into an impasse.
After Turkey announced that protocols will not be ratified in the Turkish Parliament because the of Armenian constitutional court's decision on protocols, Turkey and Azerbaijan started to achieve progress in negotiations. Of cource it is not coincidence that Erdogan is going to Baku to sign a number of agreements over energy after Armenian President announced that process of ratification of protocols is halted. Azerbaijani administration knows that it is not probable for Turkish government to change this attitude during the election period and therefore it sees nothing wrong to agree on energy prices with Turkey.
Barcin Yinanc/Referans
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
