Johanna Popjanevski - The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst

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26Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, 12 December2007Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said onThursday. Guler said Turkish President AbdullahGul made the offer during talks with TurkmenPresident Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov in theTurkmen capital, Ashgabat. "They are going todiscuss the project to build a Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey gas pipeline with capacity of 16 billion cubicmetres per year," Guler, who is travelling with Gul'sdelegation, told reporters.Turkish government sources told Reuters onWednesday that Ankara also planned to propose ajoint venture with Turkmenistan to operate the ex-Soviet state's abundant natural gas and oil fields.Turkey, which is seeking to become a regionalenergy transit hub, has signed a natural gas supplycontract with Iran but some European Unioncountries have misgivings because Iran is subject toUnited Nations sanctions over its nuclearprogramme. Turkey is also involved in theconsortium planning to build the 31-bcm Nabuccopipeline to take Caspian gas to Europe. Theconsortium, which includes Austria's OMV ,Hungary's MOL , Bulgaria's Bulgargaz andRomania's Transgaz, has secured gas fromAzerbaijan but also sees Iran and Turkmenistan asother possible suppliers for the route. Turkmenistanand Russia are also discussing building a CaspianGas Pipeline, linking Turkmen gas with globalmarkets via Russian territory, but the project hasbeen delayed due to a pricing dispute. The Russiaproposedpipeline would have capacity of between 10billion and 20 billion cubic metres a year.Turkmenistan, which currently exports most of itsgas through Russia, is also working on a separatepipeline to China. Some analysts have questionedthe country's ability to go ahead with so manyprojects at once, but Turkmenistan says it hasenough gas reserves for everyone. (Reuters)AFGHAN, TAJIK ENTREPRENEURS MEETFOR CROSS-BORDER TRADE FORUM7 DecemberA forum supported by the OSCE Centre to promotecross-border trade between Tajikistan andAfghanistan opened in the Tajik city ofKurghonteppa on 6 December. The two-dayinternational business forum brought togetherentrepreneurs, public organizations and highrankingofficials from the two countries, includingAfghanistan's Ambassador to Tajikistan, SaydMuhammad Khayrkhon. "This forum is part of theCentre's work to strengthen business contactsbetween Afghanistan and Tajikistan and it is in linewith the decision taken by the OSCE participatingStates in Madrid at the end of November to expandthe OSCE's engagement in Afghanistan," saidAmbassador Vladimir Pryakhin, Head of the OSCECentre in his opening statement. "We also hopethat the event will contribute to the internationalcommunity's peace-building efforts inAfghanistan." (UzReport.com)BAGAPSH DENIES ALLEGATIONS OFSTATE OF EMERGENCY IMPOSED INABKHAZIA9 DecemberGeorgian media claims that a state of emergencyhas been introduced in Abkhazia have beendescribed as "stupidity" by Abkhaz President SergeiBagapsh. "All this is nothing but stupidity. Nothingof this kind has happened. All this is absoluteidiocy," Bagapsh told Interfax on Sunday, incomments on Georgian media reports claiming thata state of emergency has been introduced inAbkhazia ahead of the Georgian presidentialelections. "Peacekeepers and UN military observersare located in Abkhazia. Georgia should ask them, ifit wants to get real information," Bagapsh said.(Interfax)OPINION: GUAM INTRODUCES QUESTIONON FROZEN CONFLICTS IN RESPONSE TORUSSIA’S STATEMENTS10 DecemberA draft resolution on frozen conflicts released at theUN headquarters is a failure of the Armeniandiplomacy, Armenian political analyst HamayakHovhannisyan told a REGNUM correspondent.According to the analyst, it is absolutely clear thatthe Armenian envoy to the United Nations must beacting effectively so that he could respond to allchallenges timely and adequately. “However,Armenia failed to prevent from putting it on theagenda, despite the fact that it had managed to do soseveral times by threatening to Azerbaijan towithdraw from the current format of thenegotiations,” Hovhannisyan said. It is unclear forhim why Armenia, in particularly, its foreignministry, did not make effort to prevent fromdebating the issue at the UN and explained it by thefact that “they do not want to harm the negotiationprocess within frameworks of the OSCE MinskGroup.” However, according to Hovhannisyan,discussion of the issue at the UN coincided withincreasing prospects of declaration of independenceby Kosovo and with escalation of the tension
Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst, 12 December 2007 27between Abkhazia and South Ossetia on one sideand Georgia on the other side. As the analystbelieves, in reality, Georgia and Moldova are moreinterested in discussing the frozen conflicts at theUN than Azerbaijan is. According to him, theconflicts in Abkhazia, South Ossetia andTransdnestr are seen in the frameworks of theRussian mandate and, to avoid one-sided mediation,and taking into account the willingness to take awaythe peacekeeping mandate from Russia, thosecountries proposed the issue for discussion of theinternational community, while the NagornoKarabakh conflict was a subject of a multilateraldebate within the OSCE Minsk Group. “The keyreason for putting the question for the discussion atthe UN so fast was Russia’s statement that if theWest recognizes Kosovo, it would recognizeindependence of the republics in the post-Sovietterritory,” Hovhannisyan concluded. (Regnum)AZERBAIJAN CONVICTS 15 OF PLOTTINGIRAN-BACKED COUP10 DecemberA court in ex-Soviet Azerbaijan Monday convictedmore than a dozen people of plotting a coup withthe backing of Iranian intelligence services. SaidDadashbeyli, mastermind of the coup, wassentenced to 14 years in prison while 14 others werehanded sentences of between two and 14 years.Authorities alleged the group had been cooperatingwith Iranian special services to mount a coupagainst the government of President Ilham Aliyev.Members of the group were arrested in January andcharged with high treason, plotting a coup, being inpossession of illegal weapons and manufacturingfalse documents. No other details of the plot haveemerged. The verdict was announced after a twomonthtrial held behind closed doors for reasons ofstate security. Despite growing trade links, relationsbetween Baku and Tehran have been difficult sinceAzerbaijan broke away from the Soviet Union in1991, with disputes over oil reserves in the CaspianSea and the status of a large ethnic Azeri minorityin Iran. Azerbaijan has accused Iran of trying toexport its brand of fundamentalist Islam to thefellow Shiite Muslim country. But critics sayAzerbaijan, a key U.S. ally in the strategic Caucasusregion, also uses the potential threat of extremismas a cover for persecuting political opponents.(AFP)TAJIKISTAN ASKS FOR LARGERELECTRICITY SUPPLIES FROMTURKMENISTAN10 DecemberA three-day official visit of Tajik PresidentEmomali Rakhmon to Turkmenistan will focus onthe deliveries of Turkmen energy resources. “Mycountry has strictly limited the consumption ofelectric power, so we need the imports of electricityand fuel,” Rakhmon said. “I have asked theTurkmen president to set quotas on the deliveries ofpetroleum products, liquefied natural gas and anumber of prime commodities to Tajikistan.”“Turkmenistan will continue to develop closeeconomic cooperation with Tajikistan,” TurkmenPresident Gurbanguly Berdimuhhamedow said incomments on the first day of the visit. He saidTurkmenistan had been successfully deliveringelectric power to the neighbor.A tripartite agreement on electric power supplieswas signed in Dushanbe in early October on resultsof an official visit of the Turkmen president. “Thethree-year contract implies the Turkmen annualdeliveries of one billion kilowatt/hours of electricityto Tajikistan,” Berdimuhhamedow said. As for therequest to enlarge electricity quotas, he said, amodern power plant had been recentlycommissioned in the northern area of Dashoguz.Thus, it is possible to enlarge electricity exports, inparticularly, to Tajikistan, he said.In addition, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan willrestore air and motor traffic and set up jointventures. Agreements to that effect were signedduring the visit, the Turkmen presidential pressservice said on Sunday. The presidents signed ajoint communiquй and a convention to preventdouble taxation and capital gain tax evasion. “Ourcountries have a huge cooperation potential,”Rakhmon said. In the opinion of the presidents, thedocuments will spur on cooperation, theestablishment of joint ventures and the protection ofinvestments. A joint economic cooperationcommission will also help to attain the goals. Theforeign ministers signed an intergovernmentalagreement on the mutual protection of classifiedinformation. On Monday Rakhmon will attend theopening of a UN regional center for preventivediplomacy in Central Asia and a relatedinternational conference. On December 11 he willvisit the Turkmenbashi seaport, the Avaza nationaltourist zone and a cluster of oil refineries. (Itar-Tass)
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Johanna Popjanevski - The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst

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