Turkey rates gas above Armenian Genocide billApril 11, 2007 - 15:54 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Turkey has not broken off talks with Gaz de France within Nabucco consortium which plans to export Caspian gas to Europe, Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said. Last week Turkish high rank officials said that talks with Gaz de France were stopped over the Armenian Genocide resolution passed by the French Parliament. "Nabucco is a very important program for us and engagement of Gaz de France has not been suspended," Gulen said, RFE/RL reports.The five-company consortium plans to build a 3,300-kilometre conduit that will carry natural gas from the Middle East and Central Asia to the European Union via Turkey and the Balkans, bypassing Russia. The other partners in the venture are gas companies from Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania. The consortium had been in contact with GDF for some time as part of its efforts to find a sixth partner in the six-billion-dollar project, which is expected to become operational in 2012. The four other partners approved GDF's participation, but Turkey has opposed it because of a French draft law that makes it a criminal offense to deny the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turkey during World War I. The bill was adopted by the French National Assembly in October 2006. Top stories Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |