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Washington Institute Turkish Reseacrh Program Director Soner Cagaptay: â€œNabucco can become a reality if Azeri and Turkmen gas gets into itâ€ â€“ EXCLUSIVE

13 July 2009 07:55 (UTC +04:00)

â€œFor many years Turkey was asking for the right to keep 15% of gas and Turkey just gave up on that. That, what I am hearing here. The reason for 15 % request was that Turkey didnâ€™t want to be only a transit country but an energy hub so it could take 15 of the gas and either use it or sell it on its own. Of course, it didnâ€™t work they agreed to be a transit countryâ€, said Cagaptay commenting on reports about solution of disagreements on gas transit from Azerbaijan to Turkey. In his opinion, Nabucco can become reality if Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan participate in this project. â€œI think that Nabucco can become a reality if Azeri and Turkmen gas gets into it, unless Turkey can secure gas from Iraq. But it makes Nabucco even more difficult to achieve. What I hear from people is that Azerbaijani gas is not enough to realize the Nabucco. We should understand that Nabucco is needed. Baku-Tbilisi-Arzerum gas pipeline is for Turkeyâ€™s consumption. Nabucco is needed to transit gas from Azerbaijan to Europeâ€.

Soner Cagaptay said that necessity of the agreement between many countries was one of the factors delaying the project. â€œNabucco requires al least 6 or 7 countries to agree. It is also requires that Russia doesnâ€™t disagree with Nabucco and I think neither of these happening meaning that the European countries are not entirely agree and Russianâ€™s are not agree with Nabucco, and tries to take advantage of situation by dividing all Nabucco enterprise. Plus, they were able to secure some Azeri gas after the Georgia war. If they are taking the Azeri gas from Nabucco then it is mean that Nabucco not going to take place. Therefore, I think that the Russians are the biggest beneficiaries of Nabucco not happeningâ€. Cagaptay said gas deal between Azerbaijan and Russia means that Nabucco parties are not cooperating well. â€œIt is a sign of emerging discourse between Turkey and Azerbaijan, the fact that Azerbaijan and Turkey are not cooperating well on the Nabucco. I think that it is a sign that something wrong in the relations between the countries. There are lack of confidence and lack of mutual cooperation. The cooperation which we saw in the 90ss is not there anymoreâ€.