Turkey and NABUCCO Project 'not political' claims German ex-minister

Former Finance Minister of Germany, Ioshka Fischer, in a recent interview mentioned that NABUCCO is not a political project; however after the implementation of this huge energy project it will definitely have political results. If the NABUCCO pipeline project is not activated then Turkmen gas will be lost for Europe and will instead be pumped into Asian countries such as China. From July 2009, Fischer has acted as a consultant to the NABUCCO pipeline consortium. In his opinion, Turkey has never tried to use the NABUCCO factor to promote its ambitions of EU entry. According to the ex-minister, Turkey wants to address its energy safety and its dependence on Russian oil and gas. It also wants to become an energy supplier because of its very favorable geo-political location. Of course, another very important issue is the position of Azerbaijan which is joining this project and, eventually, will be followed by Turkmenistan. He also considers it quite viable to attract natural gas from northern Iraq.