Azerbaijani ‘Survivor’ in Marmaris

14 Azerbaijani girls in the competition will survive by fishing in Marmaris. DHA photo

An Azerbaijani TV reality-competition show will be shot on the coast of Çökertme, 25 kilometers away from the Aegean town of Marmaris’ İnbükü. Fourteen Azerbaijani girls will take part in the competition, which is modeled on “Survivior.” The girls, who went on a “blue cruise” before the competition, appeared at a press conference held at the Marmaris Yacht Marina.

Leyla Seyidzadeh, a representative from the TV show, said that the show will present a high-quality cross-section from the lives of the young girls during the competition. She said the competitors will try to remain healthy and presentable even during the most difficult times of the competition. “The competition will be shot in Marmaris for a month. The girls have been chosen for the program due to their interesting life stories. There was great interest in the competition, and we will start with 14 girls. Our agency has selected Marmaris for [filming] the program thanks to its natural beauty.”

In the competition, the girls will struggle against each other as well as against the area’s natural conditions to try to survive by fishing.

The Muğla Governor’s Office has issued a statement saying that Çökertme Cove will be closed to daily visits until Aug. 5, due to filming of the program. (MUĞLA - Anatolia News Agency)

Turkey, Azerbaijan sign major pipeline deal

AA photo

Turkey signed today a deal with Azerbaijan on building the $7 billion Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline (TANAP) to carry Azeri gas to European markets.

"Today we have taken a historic step," said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his speech at the signing ceremony.

"We firmly support the southern natural gas corridor projects that envisage to transfer Caspian basin and the central Asia natural gas to Europe via alternative routes as to provide our own energy supply security and as to contribute to the energy supply security of Europe."

Realizing southern natural gas corridor is also important for Azerbaijan to carry its natural gas reserves to Europe in a safe way, Erdoğan noted. (ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News)

Clinton visits Azerbaijan amid border clashes

Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, right, and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton walk to meetings at the presidential Zagulba residence in Baku, Azerbaijan on Wednesday June 6, 2012. AP photo

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Azerbaijan on Wednesday for talks aimed at strengthening relations with the oil-rich state, amid a flare-up of violence on its border with enemy Armenia.

Clinton arrived after gunbattles on the ex-Soviet states' mutual border this week killed eight soldiers -- five Azerbaijanis and three Armenians -- in one of the deadliest outbursts of violence in months.

The neighbours are locked in a bitter unresolved conflict over Nagorny Karabakh, an Armenian-controlled enclave inside Azerbaijan that was the focus of a bloody war in the 1990s.

Although this week's clashes erupted well to the north of the disputed region, Clinton was expected to reiterate a call for both sides to end the violence.

"The use of force will not resolve the Nagorny Karabakh conflict and therefore force must not be used," she said during a visit to Yerevan on Monday, pledging to deliver the same message to Azerbaijani leaders in Baku.

Local media in both Azerbaijan and Armenia however said there had been further exchanges of fire on Tuesday night, although no casualties were reported.

After arriving in Baku, Clinton immediately went into talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at his palatial residence overlooking the Caspian Sea.

The United States is a co-chair with Russia and France of the OSCE Minsk Group, which was set up after the 1994 Karabakh ceasefire to help bring about a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

But the conflict has remained unresolved for nearly two decades, leaving Armenia suffering economically due to closed borders with Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey, while Baku has grown richer on its Caspian Sea oil deposits.

The United States has sought to balance its relationship with both countries, pressed on one side by the large American Armenian community and Washington's strategic interests in the Caspian basin on the other.

Clinton planned to visit an oil and gas trade exposition being held in Baku, highlighting the $8 billion that US energy companies have invested in Azerbaijan since independence following the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Also expected to come up in her talks is Iran, which shares a border with Azerbaijan.

Although both countries are predominantly Shiite Muslim, there are political tensions between Azerbaijan's secular leadership and Iran's Islamic regime. (BAKU - Agence France-Presse)

Three killed in Armenia-Azerbaijan border clash

YEREVAN - Agence France-Presse

Azerbaijani troops killed three Armenian soldiers on Monday during an alleged incursion attempt on the border between the enemy ex-Soviet states, the defense ministry in Yerevan said.

"On June 4, the Azerbaijani side once again roughly violated the ceasefire, attempting to penetrate Armenian positions," a ministry statement said.

"Their diversionary offensive was stopped and the enemy was forced to retreat, suffering losses," it said.

The ministry said six Armenian soldiers had also been wounded in the border skirmish. There were no details on any Azerbaijani losses.

Azerbaijani media reported however that the three deaths were caused by an Armenian army "provocation" that was repelled.

The clash erupted in Armenia's northeastern Tavush region, where three other servicemen died during an alleged Azerbaijani attack in April.

The two neighbours are locked in a bitter dispute over the region of Nagorny Karabakh, which Armenian separatists backed by Yerevan seized from Azerbaijan in a war in the 1990s that left some 30,000 people dead.

Despite years of negotiations since the 1994 ceasefire, the two sides have not yet signed a final peace deal, and there are still frequent exchanges of gunfire between the opposing armies.

Baku has threatened to use force to win back Karabakh if peace talks fail to yield satisfactory results, but Yerevan has warned of large-scale retaliation against any military action. (YEREVAN - Agence France-Presse)

Azerbaijan gas flow cut after pipeline blast

District governor and other local officials visit the explosion site on the Shah Deniz II natural gas pipeline near Sarıkamış district of the eastern province of Erzurum. DHA photo

A fire that broke out following an explosion on a section of the Shah Deniz II natural gas pipeline in eastern Turkey last night has been extinguished. The flow of gas to Turkey from Azerbaijan stopped temporarily following the explosion, Energy Ministry officials said.

The explosion took place near the town of Sarıkamış late on May 29, a ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government rules, told The Associated Press yesterday. Azerbaijan shut down the gas flow following the explosion, which sparked a fire, the official said, adding that although the fire had been put out, it was not clear how long repairs would take.

The flames following the explosion reached a height of 100 meters, and the windows of houses two kilometers away from the explosion site were broken, Doğan news agency reported.

Construction works blamed for explosion
BOTAŞ, Turkey’s state-run petroleum pipeline company, was doing some work near the pipeline at the time, Sarıkamış Kaymakam district Governor Erdoğan Turan Ermiş told Doğan news agency. “The explosion was probably the result of that work, but it will be clear when the probe is over,” he said.

No casualties resulted from the explosion, because it took place in an area away from residential zones, Sarıkamış Mayor İlhan Özbilen, a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said, adding that the initial investigation had revealed no signs of sabotage. (Hurriyet Daily News)

Nabucco seeks shorter way to bid for Azerbaijani natural gas

A number of projects joined by Western energy firms are racing to buy Azerbaijan’s natural gas. The project is vital for Europe’s energy diversity as the continent is largely dependent on Russian resources. AFP photo

Only weeks before Azerbaijan’s expected crucial decision on the buyer of the Shah Deniz 2 field gas, Nabucco, which has lost blood due to recent withdrawals, significantly reduces its project length and costs

The Nabucco Consortium has submitted a proposal for the smaller Nabucco West version of its pipeline project to the Shah Deniz 2 group that plans to ship 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Azeri natural gas to Europe, the Nabucco group has said.

The Nabucco West option would mean that the pipeline only begins at Turkey’s western border, significantly reducing its length and cost, but leaving the transport through Turkey to another pipeline or existing infrastructure.

The original project aimed to build a 4,000 kilometer pipeline to transport over 30 bcm - around a third of Britain’s annual demand - per year of gas into Europe in order to reduce its dependency on Russian imports.

But its critics have long said that its cost - estimated at over $12 billion - was too high and that it would struggle to find enough gas to fill it with non-Russian supplies.

The Vienna-based Nabucco Consortium has now applied to the Shah Deniz 2 group to build the smaller Nabucco West pipeline that would bring Caspian gas from the Bulgarian-Turkish border to Austria.

“We are convinced that we have submitted a competitive and comprehensive proposal to the Shah Deniz 2 Consortium, and that this proposal represents a win-win situation for our shareholders and for suppliers alike,” said Reinhard Mitschek, Managing Director of Nabucco Gas Pipeline International.

Deadline this summer
The Shah Deniz 2 group is expected to announce the winning pipeline project this summer, with a final investment decision planned for 2013.

“The (Nabucco West) concept foresees the construction of a 1,300 kilometer pipeline that will run from the Bulgarian/Turkish border to the Central European Gas Hub (in Austria),” the group said.

“The pipeline is designed to transport gas initially from Azerbaijan and is fully scalable to meet future gas transport demand from the Caspian Region and Middle-East to the European markets.”

Nabucco said that the project would benefit from the existing legal framework such as the Intergovernmental Agreement, Project Support Agreements and third party access exemptions, that have already been put in place.

Nabucco’s six shareholders are Austria’s OMV, Germany’s RWE, Hungary’s MOL, Turkey’s Botaş, BEH of Bulgaria and Romania’s Transgaz.

MOL and RWE set off a debate over the feasibility of Nabucco’s original size earlier this year and threatened to leave the group.

Nabucco competes with several other pipeline projects to bring the Shah Deniz 2 gas to Europe.
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project aims to pump the gas through existing Turkish infrastructure into Greece, Albania and into Italy.

TAP is run by Norway’s Statoil - also a partner in the Shah Deniz 2 gas field, alongside BP - Germany’s E.ON Ruhrgas, and Switzerland’s EGL.

Italy’s Enel has also voiced its interested in joining TAP. Another option would be BP’s South East European Pipeline (SEEP) is a project, which would mainly use existing gas infrastructure to pump Azeri gas through southeastern Europe, including Hungary, into western Europe. (LONDON - Reuters)

Azerbaijan bans all foreign TV shows

Hürriyet photo

The broadcasting of all foreign TV shows has been banned in Azerbaijan as of today, in an effort to “support the domestic sector,” daily Milliyet reported.

The ban includes shows that have been dubbed in the Azerbaijani language. Turkish soap operas are included in the ban.

The head of Azerbaijan’s National Council of Televion and Radio, Nushirvan Meherremli, said the government is firm in its decision and will not back down from the ban.

A new legal regulation will first warn and then punish TV stations that broadcast foreign programming in violation of the ban. The punishment may be as severe as revoking a station’s broadcast license, the report said.

It is hoped that the ban will improve the domestic TV sector in Azerbaijan, Meherremli said. (hurriyetdailynews)

Turkey to transfer know-how to Azeris

Turkish Industry Minister Ergün shakes hands with Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev during his Baku visit on April 27. Both countries want more partnerships. AA photo

Turkey and Azerbaijan need to create more partnerships in energy, transportation, defense, Information Technology (IT) and satellite technology fields, the President of Azerbaijan told Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergün during the latter’s visit to Baku on April 27.

“IT is one of the most important areas of the future. The defense industry now runs on IT. We need to form strong partnerships in the area of satellite technology and industry,” said President Ilham Aliyev, adding that the two countries could also sign an important deal in the energy sector.

Turkey has taken important steps to strengthen its industrial infrastructure, said Ergün. “We are ready to transfer our expertise in the areas of technology and research and development to Azerbaijan,” said Ergün. He offered to share Turkey’s knowledge in the areas of developing organized industrial zones and support of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).

Aliyev said that Azerbaijan would like to partner with Turkey in these two key areas as well, but that they were still only at the beginning of the road. (BAKU - Anatolia News Agency)

Armenia seeks to replace Russia’s radar in Azerbaijan

Armenia seeks to host a Russian radar in order to benefit from a dispute between Moscow and Baku over the Gabala missile defense radar system.

“If Russia fails to agree with Azerbaijan on the lease of Gabala, Armenia is ready to provide a site on its territory for construction of the radar,” Russian daily Kommersant quoted Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan as saying on April 4, according to Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

“There may even be advantages, because Armenia is a mountainous country. Coverage can be broader,” Sargsyan said. Russia has been in talks with Azerbaijan to extend the lease of the Soviet-era radar, which it has been operating in line with a 2002 deal. The current agreement is due to expire in December 2012.

The daily reported in late February that Azerbaijan had demanded Russia pay $300 million instead of the previously agreed $7 million for the lease, which Russia is seeking to extend until 2025.

Intensified negotiations
Sources in the Russian Defense Ministry were quoted as saying the price demanded by Baku was “unreasonably high.” The radar station located in northwestern Azerbaijan was built in Soviet times as one of the most important elements of a missile defense system of the Soviet republic.

After Azerbaijan gained independence the radar station became the country’s property and Russia continued to use it.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed the status and principles of the lease and use of the system during his Baku visit, with no apparent resolution. Following the results of talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov, Lavrov said negotiations on this issue needed to be intensified within the working group set up by the two countries’ governments.

The deputy director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, Alexander Khramchikhin, has said the end of the Gabala radar lease will do no “real damage” to Russia’s defense capabilities because another radar, constructed in the southern Russian town of Armavir, would cover the area of the Gabala radar.

The Voronezh-class radar in Armavir in the Black Sea area is currently operating in test mode and is a serious breakthrough when compared to the previous generation Dnepr and Daryal class radars, to which the Gabala radar belongs.

MILITANTS KILLED IN CAUCASUS
MOSCOW – The Associated Press

Four suspected militants have been killed in Russia’s restive region of Kabardino-Balkariya in North Caucasus. Interior Ministry spokesman in the region Oleg Gereyev said yesterday that three of the four men were on the wanted list for “grave crimes.” Police say the fourth man was responsible for procurement of ammunition and food for the militants. The men were killed in a special operation outside the city of Nalchik late April 4 night after they had holed up in a house. One policeman was wounded.

(hurriyetdailynews)