World

Erdoğan to make ‘era-changing’ announcement as Turkey finds energy in Black Sea

Published

5 months ago

August 19, 2020

(Updates with reports from Bloomberg, Euronews)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he will make an announcement on Friday that will mark the “beginning of a new era” for the country.

Erdoğan’s statement arrived during the opening ceremony of Turkey’s first domestic solar panel factory in capital Ankara on Wednesday.

“I am guessing that we will be faced with delivering good news to our entire nation on Friday,” T24 news site quoted Erdoğan as saying. “I believe that the delivery of this good news will mark the beginning of a new era in Turkey.”

The Turkish president’s statements followed remarks on Ankara’s strategies in the east Mediterranean, where Turkey is locked in disputes with Greece and Cyprus over territorial waters – a conflict that has escalated in recent weeks with Turkey’s deployment of a search vessel in the contested waters.

“Turkey’s moves in the east Mediterranean are too strategic to be sacrificed for day-to-day politics,” Erdoğan said.

Bloomberg on Wednesday reported that Turkey had made an energy discovery in the Black Sea, most likely natural gas, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The size and depth of the discovery, and whether it will be feasible to extract it, remain unclear, Bloomberg said.

Last month, Turkey announced that drill ship Fatih had started exploration in the so-called Tuna-1 zone, located off Turkey’s western Black Sea coast.

Euronews Turkish, however, reported that Erdoğan is likely to make an announcement on a natural gas discovery in the eastern Mediterranean, in addition to vaccine for the deadly coronavirus.

Turkey has dispatched a third vessel, Kanuni, to the region, it said.

Turkish Twitter reacted to the president’s statements, taking guesses as to what Friday’s statement would be.

“Could there be a natural gas discovery in the Black Sea?” one Twitter user asked, echoing the estimation of a large number of social media users.

Journalist İbrahim Karagül referenced the 1920 Treaty of Sevres, which abolished the Ottoman Empire and obliged Turkey to renounce all rights over Arab Asia and North Africa.

“Just as we ripped and tossed away Sevres one century ago, today we will also refuse to bow down to the Sevres (treaty) wishing to be enforced on us in the eastern Mediterranean,” Karagül said.

Another user said Friday’s announcement would most likely be linked to Lausanne Treaty and Turkey’s sovereignty in the eastern Mediterranean.

Erdoğan has long called for a revision of the 1923 treaty, which fixed most of the borders of modern Turkey and guaranteed the rights of religious minorities in Turkey and Greece.

Armenian Aggression

Anglo Asian Mining to pay out dividends for 2020

Published

2 hours ago

January 27, 2021

AzeriTimes.com

By Trend

Anglo Asian Mining plc, the AIM listed gold, copper and silver producer focused in Azerbaijan, will pay out a special dividend of 1.5 cents per ordinary share in respect of the year ended 31 December 2020, Trend reports citing the company.

This special dividend rewards shareholders for their continued support whilst maintaining sufficient cash reserves to develop its portfolio of assets and pursue any potential future opportunities, particularly in the formerly occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

A special dividend, in respect of the year ending 31 December 2020, of 1.5 cents per ordinary share will be paid gross on 11 March 2021 to shareholders that are on the shareholders record at the record date of 12 February 2021.

The shares will go ex-dividend on 11 February 2021. All dividends will be paid in cash and a scrip dividend or other dividend reinvestment plan will not be offered by the company.

The dividend will be payable in pounds sterling. The dividend will be converted to pounds sterling using the average of the sterling closing mid-price using the exchange rate published by the Bank of England at 16:00 GMT each day from the 15 to 19 February 2021.

Anglo Asian Mining plc is a gold, copper and silver producer in Central Asia with a broad portfolio of production and exploration assets in Azerbaijan.

The company has a 1,962 square kilometre portfolio at its active Gedabek, Gosha and Ordubad contract areas assembled from analysis of historic Soviet geological data and held under a Production Sharing Agreement ("PSA") modelled on the Azerbaijani oil industry.

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Original Article

Armenian Aggression

PACE rejects Armenia’s request on progress of monitoring procedure

Published

3 hours ago

January 27, 2021

AzeriTimes.com

By Trend

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has adopted a resolution on the progress of the Assembly’s monitoring procedure and post-monitoring dialogue within the framework of the 2021 Hybrid plenary session, Trend reports.

The proposal of Armenian delegation “Unjustifiable delay in repatriation of the Armenian prisoners of war and other captivities by Azerbaijani authorities as violation of the European International Human Rights Standards” was rejected by the majority of votes.

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Original Article

Armenian Aggression

Minister: Share of non-oil sector in Azerbaijan’s GDP exceeds 70 pct

Published

3 hours ago

January 27, 2021

AzeriTimes.com

By Ayya Lmahamad

The share of the non-oil sector in Azerbaijan’s GDP exceeds 70 percent, Economy Minister Mikayil Jabbarov wrote on his official Twitter page.

Jabbarov underlined that measures are being taken to further diversify the country’s economy in accordance with the economic roadmap by President Ilham Aliyev.

Earlier, the minister stated that revival of Karabakh and integration of the region’s abundant natural resources into the economic system of the country will give a serious impetus to the development of the non-oil sector.

In 2020, Azerbaijan increased the volume of production in the non-oil and gas sector by 12.5 percent. Industrial enterprises and individual entrepreneurs, operating in this sector, produced industrial products worth AZN 37.1 billion ($21.8bn). In the meantime, investments in the non-oil and gas sector in the country decreased by 12.3 percent during the reported year.

It should be noted that the Azerbaijani government has allocated AZN 2.2 billion ($1.3bn) for reconstruction works in the liberated territories in 2021.

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Ayya Lmahamad is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @AyyaLmahamad

Original Article