Nabucco in essence reminds of Baku-Ceyhan-Tbilisi project in terms of its hypothetical character, the Director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS), Richard Giragosian told NEWS.am.

According to him, Nabucco is hard to be accomplished due to various reasons. “The most significant obstacle is financial difficulties and without Iran its implementation is merely ineffective. However, it is noteworthy, that Armenia is included in new Nabucco map drawn by the U.S. It is definitely connected with Armenia-Turkey relations’ normalization,” the expert underlined. On the other hand, Armenia-Turkey rapprochement turns into additional barrier on the way to project implementation. “Baku refuses to supply gas through Turkey out of jealousy of Yerevan. I reckon that countries will succeed in overcoming political differences easily,” Giragosian said.

Meanwhile, European Commission energy spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny stated that Armenia-Turkey accord has nothing to do with gas issue. He called on the sides to differentiate politics from energy, as the combination of these two is “a detonating mixture, hot cocktail.” “I hope that Azerbaijan’s aspiration to become energy supplier for Europe, and Turkey’s — to transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe will prevail over political ambitions,” Espuny stated. According to him, politics and energy policy should be separated in any case, as Europe is highly interested in Azerbaijan as gas supplier and Turkey — as transit country, with or without Nagorno-Karabakh or Armenian-Turkish relations’ normalization.

Azerbaijan and Turkey are involved in Nabucco project that provides gas supply from Azerbaijan through Turkey to Europe. However, Armenia-Turkey reconciliation and Protocols’ signing arouse negative reaction of Baku due to unsettled Karabakh issue. EU welcomed the accord, stating that “it will be advantageous to all South Caucasian states.”