A signing ceremony for the deal took place in Nakhchivan on Saturday when Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yıldız paid an official visit to the region. The MoU envisions the transportation of 500 million cubic meters of gas a year, Yıldız said at the ceremony.
“This will spell the merging of two peoples. It will be a declaration of the will to strengthen the understanding of ‘one nation, two states,' [between Azerbaijan and Turkey],” Yıldız was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency in a speech delivered at the ceremony. The minister also noted that relevant technical, commercial and legal negotiations concerning the deal would be carried out by Turkey's state-owned Turkish Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).
Officials from BOTAŞ and SOCAR will have their first meeting on the issue in Ankara in September. Yıldız, speaking with Anatolia concerning his visit to Nakhchivan, voiced optimism over the future phase of bilateral energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey. Underlining that Azerbaijan is one of the major natural gas suppliers in the region, Yıldız added: “We want to increase our bilateral trade volume for the benefit of both countries. Now, very serious and comprehensive energy diplomacy has begun. Results are being obtained. The building of a natural gas pipeline between Turkey and Syria for the transportation of Middle Eastern natural gas is also on the agenda. We came here hopeful. We believe that we have finalized this [MoU]. There are problems related to transit passage prices. I believe that we will overcome them so no big problems will remain. What matters is seeing the big picture.”
Rovnag Abdullayev, the head of SOCAR, said they would conclude the issue of transit passage prices shortly. The signing of the MoU in Nakhchivan came only days after Turkey and Russia signed a deal on Thursday promising Turkish support for a major Russian natural gas pipeline project that Moscow wants to build ahead of the rival Nabucco pipeline backed by the West.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed the deal in Ankara for the construction of part of the South Stream pipeline through Turkish territorial waters in the Black Sea, weeks after Turkey signed a preliminary deal on July 13 with European Union countries to launch construction of the US-backed Nabucco pipeline, which is expected to deliver gas supplies from the Caucasus and Central Asia to Europe in an effort to reduce Europe's dependence on Russia for energy.
