“Nabucco is a very important project for us and the process is proceeding normally. Gaz de France has not been suspended from the project,” Guler told reporters recently. Even so, he said, Turkey would make a decision “in line with its national interests” and that economic, strategic, and political matters would be taken into consideration – including the French position on the alleged genocide.
Armenians claim that up to 1.5 million people perished in systematic deportations and killings between 1915 and 1917 under the Ottoman Empire, modern Turkey’s predecessor. Turkey categorically denies claims of genocide, and says thousands of Turks and Armenians were killed in civil strife when Armenians took up arms for independence in eastern Anatolia and sided with Russian troops invading the crumbling Ottoman empire.
The Nabucco project involves the construction of a 3,300-km pipeline by 2012 to supply Western Europe with gas from the Caspian Sea, by-passing Russia. The partners in the scheme are Turkish state oil and gas company Botas, Austria’s OMV, Hungary’s MOL, Bulgaria’s Bulgargaz, and Romania’s Transgaz. They are seeking a sixth partner for the project.