| .D ° ğ="justify">The Financial Times reported yesterday that plans to build the $6.2bn Nabucco pipeline to transport Caspian gas to western Europe have almost ground to a halt after becoming embroiled in electoral politics in France and Turkey. The Nabucco pipeline will transport gas from Central Asia, through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to Austria. Start of the pipeline construction is scheduled for 2008. The first gas shipments have to be made by 2012. The planned pipeline would reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas.
The Times recalled that Turkey has refused to approve extending the construction project to include Gaz de France, the French utility. "The move, which officials said might be revised after the French presidential elections in May, reflects simmering anger in Ankara over France's support for Armenia's claim of genocide by Ottoman Turks during the first world war," the daily said.
Turkey strongly opposes the claims that its predecessor state, the Ottoman government, caused the Armenian deaths in a planned genocide. The Turkish government has said the toll is wildly inflated and that Armenians were killed or displaced in civil unrest during the empire's collapse and conditions of World War I. Ankara's proposal to Yerevan to set up a joint commission of historians to study the disputed events is still awaiting a positive response from the Armenian side. After French lawmakers voted last October to make it a crime to deny that the claims were genocide, Turkey said it would suspend military relations with France.
"A threatened boycott of French goods in Turkey after the French parliament voted last year to make denial of the genocide claim a crime has not had much success. But the Turkish government warned at the time that it might exclude French companies from contracts. The face-off with GdF may be a result of that, some diplomats in Ankara said yesterday," the daily said
"The dispute over the participation of GdF, the favourite to join the consortium building Nabucco, could complicate matters further", the daily said. "Industry observers said the negotiations with a new investor had taken longer than expected, with some blaming the strained relations between Ankara and Paris."
Recalling that Turkey is holding a general election later this year, the daily added the Armenian issue has exploded onto the political agenda. But, the daily quoted some analysts saying "the stand-off between Turkey and GdF could have as much to do with negotiating tactics as with politics."
"The Nabucco project is an opportunity for Turkey to unload its excess supply," the daily quoted Bulgarian analyses. "But if talks with a French buyer aren't going well, it doesn't cost anything to bring up the Armenian issue."
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