Azerbaijan urges Armenia to withdraw, join in energy

NEW YORK

Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoğlu (C) and his Azeri counterpart Mammadyarov speak at the Caspian Forum. Courtesy of HASEN

Azeri Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has urged that if Armenia withdraws from the Azeri territories that it occupies, it would contribute to the regional success of the Southern Gas Corridor.

Mammadyarov said the Southern Gas Corridor had strategic importance that would assure stability, sustainable development, security and peace in the region, during the Caspian Forum held in New York late Sept. 25, organized by HASEN, an Istanbul-based think tank that conducts research on the Caspian region.

“Armenia can be a part of regional success after withdrawing its troops from the occupied territories,” he said, according to the HASEN press release, adding that the Baku-Ceyhan and new pipeline projects “reinforced Azerbaijan’s sovereign independence.” 

‘Peace corridor’

Speaking at the same event, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said the Southern Gas Corridor was expected to not just bring economic benefits, but also to “contribute to peace and security.” 

Davutoğlu stated that the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the Southern Gas Corridor projects linked the continents by creating a “peace and energy basin” from the Caucasus to the Balkans and from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. He stressed that the Southern Gas Corridor would not only be an energy corridor, but also a “peace corridor.” 

The Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP), the Southern Gas Corridor’s Turkish component, will contribute to making Turkey a strategically important intermediary, he said, while adding that Turkey was also a consumer market as it has a considerable demand for domestic consumption. 

The TANAP intends to enable the transportation of gas from the Shah Deniz 2 field and other fields of Azerbaijan through Turkey to Europe. In addition, the Trans-Adriatic-Pipeline (TAP) is slated to carry Azeri gas to Europe across Greece, Albania and Turkey.

The TANAP is planned to be completed in 2018 and will be connected to the TAP.