Turkmen foreign ministry’s statement not changes anything: expert

The statement by Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry published today on Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper which said that “any unilateral actions in the Caspian Sea are inadmissible and littoral states should sign an agreement determining their jurisdiction in the concrete areas of the seabed” is absolutely unreasonable, Azerbaijani political expert Rasim Musabayov said.

“This statement does not change anything. It may have some importance in launching a consortium to develop Azeri-Chirag field and others. Then someone else can respond to this statement. But now it is totally meaningless statement that no one cares about,” he said.

He said if Ashgabat is not able to negotiate with Baku on delimitation of the Caspian Sea, it must negotiate ways of  resolving this issue.

“This could be an international court or international arbitration. But the fact is that the Turkmen can not go to the courts because neither Turkey nor Azerbaijan has accepted the jurisdiction of those courts. Only with the consent of both parties this dispute can be considered in international court or international arbitration. For this Turkmens should at least appeal to Azerbaijan and to propose to settle the dispute in these courts,” he said.

Musabayov said Turkmens do not do it which points to one thing: Turkmenistan as a state does not know civilized forms of addressing controversial issues and does not know how to respond to these questions.

/Novosti Azerbaijan/