TURKEY SUSPENDS PIPELINE TALKS WITH FRANCE OF GENOCIDE CLAIMS
NTV MSNBC, Turkey
April 5 2007
Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler refused to confirm or deny
the report.
ANKARA – Turkey announced Thursday it had halted talks with French
energy firm Gaz de France over the multi-billion dollar Nabucco
pipeline project as a response to the French parliament’s approving
a bill recognising the so-called Armenian genocide.
Haberin devamý
The pipeline project, with a budget of $6.1 billion, involves bringing
natural gas to Europe from the central Turkish republics and Iran.
The international project involves constructing a pipeline through
Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Austria. Under the plans
for the 3,300 kilometre pipeline, Gaz de France is to be one of the
partners in the project. If completed on time in 2011, the pipeline
could carry up to 31 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe each year.
However, on Thursday, the Reuters News Agency quoted an unnamed
Turkish official as saying all negotiations with Gaz de France would
be suspended until after the French presidential elections in response
to the passing of a bill last year by the French parliament recognising
the so-called Armenian genocide.
Turkey strongly rejects claims that the Ottoman Empire carried out an
act of genocide against its Armenian citizens during the First World
War, though acknowledges that many thousands of Turkish and Armenian
civilians died during the turmoil of war.
–Boundary_(ID_R79yjF0jv9LtettWpiHDyA)–