B-T-C project completion

thats great...however, there are about frozen 5 ethinic conflicts in the Caucasus/Anatolia, the first thing that is going to be hit is that pipeline, should any of the conflicts resume.

Originally posted by bulldog where there is a substantial Armenian population.

If 90 % is considered substantial then what is "majority"? 101%?

     I'm sure thats very amusing to you. Tell me, what good will moving foreigners into that poverty-stricken region do? All it does is ensure that there are less resources per person. Poverty is the main reason those "Armenian terrorists" are pissed off at the Georgian government in the first place, moving more people there ensures that the poverty will last.

I don't think that the Armenians of Javakhk would ever accept having new Turkish neighbours. Has Turkey ever thought of repatriating Armenians from the Middle East, North America, Europe, etc to Eastern Turkey? It is the Armenians' right, isn't it?

Originally posted by bg_turk And why shouldn't they return? It is their homeland after all, isn't it?

     I didn't realize they were exiled from Georgia, I had only heard that they were form somewhere in central Asia. Thats good for these Turks then, and its a good example for other exiled people to look forward to and have hope. The exile doesn't surprise me coming from Stalin, he exiled many people from Georgia, including groups of Muslim-Armenians to Kazakhstan.

     Doesn't it seem funny though, that out of all the exiled peoples from Georgia, they decide to move a group of Turks into a district that is 95% Armenian? A district that is poverty-stricken due to Georgian neglect, I might add. Moving more people there only ensures that the poverty will last.


Edited by ArmenianSurvival - 14-Jul-2006 at 17:44

I don't think that the Armenians of Javakhk would ever accept having new Turkish neighbours.

Well the country is called Georgia and its the Georgian state who will decide, stop being so selfish and thinking only of yourself.

The Meshketian Turks deserve their justice, they were sloaded onto a train 150,000-200,000 and deported in a single night to Siberia. Now they have an oppurtunity to grasp it they should go for it head on. It will help Georgia escape another Karabag, improve relations between Georgia-Azerbaycan-Turkey even more. It would be a good move by Georgia.

Here is more news about the project.


Caspian oil reaches the Mediterranean without sailing through the Black Sea or the Turkish Straits

BTC brings dream of East-West energy lifeline into reality



FATMA DEMİRELLİ

CEYHAN - Turkish Daily News


The presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia gathered yesterday in this Mediterranean port to formally inaugurate a multi-billion-dollar pipeline transporting Caspian crude oil to Western markets through a route that bypasses Russia as well as Turkey's overcrowded straits.

President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili connected pipes decorated with the flags of the three participant countries in a symbolic pipe-laying ceremony to mark the launch of the nearly $4 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline before a huge cover on the side of a large tent was pulled down, unveiling the Ceyhan sea terminal.

�This is a strategic project that will change the face of the region,� Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who also attended the high-security opening ceremony in Ceyhan, said. With the global energy demand set to rise significantly in the years to come, Erdoğan said the pipeline will see further importance.

Sezer said Turkey aspired to connect Asia and Europe through energy corridors via cooperation with its �neighbors and partners� and hailed the completion of the pipeline as indicative of �what regional peace and stability can achieve.�

At full capacity the BTC pipeline will pump 50 million tons of oil from Azerbaijan's Shakh-Deniz fields per year, or 1 million barrels every day. The amount is tiny compared to the global total of more than 80 million barrels per day, but a new oil outlet is still likely to help ease pressure on the world's oil market, in which the prices have been steadily rising amid tension over Iran's nuclear program and in which concerns over energy security run high due to fears of monopolization of resources and transport routes.

Breaking a widespread pattern, the BTC pipeline bypasses Russia and the Black Sea and provides a Mediterranean outlet for the Caspian oil. The pipeline began pumping late last month and more than 400,000 barrels of oil are flowing every day.

A Mediterranean route will help reduce pressure on the Turkish straits, already crowded by huge tankers transporting oil from Russia to European destinations. Istanbul, which sits on the straits, is under environmental and security risk from the tankers sailing through the waterway.

The 1,774-kilometer pipeline, passing through Azerbaijan and Georgia before reaching Ceyhan, has the backing of the United States, which is pursuing a strategy of diversifying energy resources and transport routes from energy supplying countries to consumers.

In a letter sent to Sezer, read out by U.S. Deputy Undersecretary for Energy Clay Sell at the ceremony, U.S. President George W. Bush hailed the launch of the pipeline as it would ensure that Caspian oil reaches world markets through a viable route.

He also said the United States remains steadfast in supporting similar projects.



Silk Road of the 21st century:

The BTC pipeline may also be the heart of a new energy and trade route in the East-West direction, reviving the historic Silk Road.

A pipeline that would run parallel to the BTC is planned to bring Azeri natural gas to Turkey's eastern province of Erzurum. That project is expected to become operational by the end of 2006.

Erdoğan said Europe was looking to import Azeri natural gas to meet its growing gas needs, something that has the potential of making Turkey one of the four main arteries for gas exports to Europe after Russia, Norway and Algeria.

Transporting natural gas from Iraq through a pipeline paralleling the existing Kirkuk-Yumurtalık oil pipeline is also under consideration and efforts are under way to transport gas to Europe through a pipeline connecting Turkey, Greece and Italy.

The pipeline is also hailed as a step in the direction of strengthening regional cooperation and the realization of Georgian and Azerbaijani aspirations for more independence from Russia and closer ties with the West.

Saakashvili said the pipeline meant �true independence� for his country. �This project is not just about economic independence ... but about real independence to our countries.�



A dream coming true:

Critics had long argued that the project would be too costly and too difficult to build.

The pipeline crosses numerous rivers and traverses high mountains before it reaches Ceyhan. At its highest point, the pipeline reaches 2,800 meters, Lord John Browne, BP chief executive, said at the ceremony. �Together those lines are helping to create a new trade route that is helping meet the world's growing need for energy and reducing the growing sense of insecurity that is distorting the world's energy scene,� Lord Browne noted.

The pipeline is also expected to boost the status of Ceyhan as an energy terminal.

�Taking into account the BTC and the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipelines as well as the Samsun-Ceyhan bypass oil pipeline, which is under development, on the one hand, and the possible extension of Blue Stream to Ceyhan and then to Israel and the future construction of an Iraqi natural gas pipeline on the other, the Ceyhan terminal is envisaged to be a major energy trading center of the region,� a senior Turkish diplomat had said in an interview with the Turkish Daily News -- making it clear that Turkish diplomacy has set its general energy target of becoming an energy bridge along east-west and north-south axes and becoming not only a transit country but also an aggregator and center of trade.