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Armenia And Turkey: Can Nuclear Power Become A Force That Binds Two

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  • Armenia And Turkey: Can Nuclear Power Become A Force That Binds Two

    ARMENIA AND TURKEY: CAN NUCLEAR POWER BECOME A FORCE THAT BINDS TWO ENEMIES?
    Marianna Grigoryan

    Eurasianet
    March 31, 2009

    As Turkey and Armenia inch closer to some potential form of
    reconciliation, Armenian attention is increasingly focusing on whether
    or not Turkey will opt to participate in the construction of a new
    Armenian nuclear power plant.

    A February 21 statement by Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian that Yerevan
    is "open for dialogue" about Turkish participation in the project has
    sparked often heated debate in Armenia. Despite the public expression
    of concern, Armenia's minister of energy and natural resources, Armen
    Movsisian, reaffirmed at a March 20 news briefing that the government
    would be open to considering Turkish participation in the project. "Any
    state can take part in the construction of the nuclear power plant,
    including Turkey," Movsisian said.

    The diplomatic trial balloon has not yet met with an official response
    from Ankara. The results of the March 29 municipal elections in Turkey,
    in which the governing AKP Party experienced a significant decline in
    voter support, may make it more politically problematic for Ankara to
    press ahead with a rapprochement with Armenia, some Turkish experts
    say. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

    Other Turkish observers believe that the idea indicates that the recent
    thaw in Turkish-Armenian relations is here to stay. Trade between
    the two countries encourages that point of view; by November 2008,
    Armenia's trade turnover with Turkey reached $251.2 million, a far cry
    from the $953.3 million in trade with Russia, but higher than trade
    with neighboring Georgia, according to the National Statistics Service.

    Even so, the reaction in Yerevan to the idea of a Turkish-built
    nuclear power plant remains chilly.

    "Obviously, it is a political offer," commented Ruben Safrastian,
    director the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy
    of Sciences of Armenia. "It's a political gesture, not a good one,
    which I think will not have any further development, or come true."

    Without a nuclear power plant of its own, Turkey, Safrastian argues,
    "lacks the resources" to take part in the project.

    Bids for construction of the new power plant will start on April
    1. Work on the project, overseen by the Ministry of Energy and Natural
    Resources, is slated to begin by 2010, six years before the existing
    33-year-old Metsamor nuclear power plant is slated to shut down. The
    completed power station will be able to generate up to 1,200 megawatts
    of electricity, at least double Metsamor's output. Experts estimate
    the project could cost upwards of $7.2 billion.

    But with critical policy issues with Turkey still left unresolved,
    the proposal for Turkish participation in the power plant project has
    sparked criticism from many, including government coalition members.

    Members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, a nationalist member
    of Armenia's ruling coalition, termed "doubtful and unacceptable"
    the prospect of Turkish involvement in the power station project.

    "Turkey's participation in the construction of the nuclear power
    plant is a threat to national security," stated Kiro Manoian, head of
    the party's office for political affairs. "I can't really understand
    the way those kinds of statements are made. It is a serious national
    security problem."

    Ara Nranian, a parliamentarian from the Armenian Revolutionary
    Federation, listed three unresolved issues with Turkey that stand in
    the way of close cooperation: Turkey's efforts to block international
    recognition of the Ottoman Empire's 1915 slaughter of ethnic Armenians
    as Genocide; the closure of its borders with Armenia in 1993, and
    the country's active support for Azerbaijan in its Nagorno-Karabakh
    dispute with Armenia.

    "When one makes a political gesture like that, it means you do not
    have problems with the other side. But that's not the case. Steps
    should not be unilateral," Nranian commented. "If the step was meant
    as a diplomatic move, then it was a poor one. I want to believe the
    step was made without knowing [what they were doing]."

    A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the ministry
    had no comments to make about the issue.

    Ruling Republican Party of Armenia spokesperson Eduard Sharmazanov,
    however, asserts that every single step was "calculated."

    "Why can't there be cooperation in the energy sphere, if we talk about
    establishing relations without preconditions?" Sharmazanov said. "It's
    not an ordinary step; it's a question of energy security. I don't think
    state officials think about security matters less than their critics."

    In his February 21 comments, Prime Minister Sarkisian stated that the
    new power plant will play a stabilizing role in the region. "We can
    be a serious exporter of energy and clearly our neighbor countries
    are interested in this area," Sarkisian elaborated in a March 14
    interview with the daily newspaper Aravot.
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