1. With respect to certain construction projects in Turkmenistan, Claimant in December 2009 filed a Request for Arbitration pursuant to the Agreement between Turkey and Turkmenistan Concerning Reciprocal Promotion and Protection of Investments (the "BIT").

2. In pertinent part, Article VII appears below.

( 1) Disputes between one of the Parties and one investor of the other Party, in connection with his investment, shall be notified in writing, including a [sic] detailed information, by the investor to the recipient Party of the investment. As far as possible, the investor and the concerned Party shall endeavour to settle these disputes by consultations and negotiations in good faith.

(2) If these desputes [sic] cannot be settled in this way within six months following the date of the written notification mentioned in paragraph 1, the dispute can be submitted, as the investor may choose, to [choice of ICSID, UNCITRAL or ICC] provided that, if [sic] the investor concerned has brought the dispute before the courts of justice of the Party that is a party to the dispute and [sic] a final award has not been rendered within one year.

3. The first subsection uses the mandatory "shall" to impose jurisdictional preconditions requiring notice of the dispute and an endeavor to settle the dispute by negotiation. If settlement proves elusive during a period of six months from notice, the second subsection says that disputes "can be" submitted to arbitration, which will go forward if host states have not given final judgment in a year.