12 July 2008, 12:09
In Yerevan, scientists discuss Armenia's role in Middle-East space
The Caucasus Institute in Yerevan has hosted a roundtable on the topic "Armenia in Middle-East Space: Globalization of Infrastructures". Arabist David Ovannisyan, Professor of the Yerevan State University and former Armenian ambassador to Syria, shared his opinion on the topic of debate.
The scientist has accented a number of most important phenomena observed recently in the Middle-Eastern environment. "Firstly, China has built a port in the Pakistan coast, that is, now it has a direct access to rich hydrocarbon deposits of the three countries of the Persian Gulf. Secondly, on January 15 this year, the "Moscow" battle cruiser, accompanied by boats of Turkish coastal guard, entered the Mediterranean straits. Experts concluded that Russia, after a long pause, is re-establishing itself as a Mediterranean power. And the third fact is that Mr Miller had a meeting in Libya with Muammar al-Gaddafi. The idea of the meeting was Russia's desire to buy up all the possible Libya's free resources in hydrocarbons, basically, certainly, natural gas resources."
"Russia tries to bind all oil and gas reserves owned by the countries of the Caspian pool by its pipeline system," the analyst has expressed his opinion. At the same time, the recent summit held in Kiev has confirmed the intention of the new independent states to be more active in supplying gas and oil to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
The outcomes of the roundtable and scientists' debates have demonstrated that Turkey is a very convenient country for hydrocarbon transit from Asia to Europe. In Mr Ovannisyan's opinion, recently we are witnessing a certain deterioration of American-Turkish relations and improvement of Russian-Turkish friendship at this background.
Author: Bella Ksalova, CK correspondent
