This project is also an important part of the east-west energy corridor and takes into account the geopolitical importance of Turkey. The pipeline supports Georgia`s independence from Russian influence. Former President Edouard Shevardnadzé, one of the architects and initiators of the project, considered the construction by Georgia as a guarantee for the future economic and political security and stability of the country. President Mikhail Saakashvili agrees. “All strategic contracts in Georgia, especially the Caspian Gas Pipeline Treaty, are a matter of survival for the Georgian state,” he told reporters on 26 November 2003. [31] Concerns about the safety of the pipeline were expressed. [36] [37] It bypasses Armenia, which is in unresolved conflict with Azerbaijan over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, by Georgia, which has two unresolved separatist conflicts, and crosses the margins of the Kurdish region of Turkey, which has experienced a persistent and bitter conflict with Kurdish separatists. [39] Ongoing surveillance will be needed to prevent sabotage, although the fact that almost the entire pipeline is buried will make the attack more difficult. [16] Georgia formed a special battalion to monitor the pipeline, while the United States monitored the area with Arial unmanned vehicles (UAVs). The pipeline cost $3.9 billion. [20] Construction has created 10,000 jobs in the short term and the operation of the pipeline requires 1,000 long-term employees over a 40-year period. [16] 70% of costs are financed by third parties, including the World Bank`s International Finance Corporation, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, export credit agencies from seven countries and a consortium of 15 commercial banks. [14] In the spring of 1992, the Turkish Prime Minister, S-leyman Demirel, proposed to Central Asian countries, including Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan, to drive the pipeline through Turkey.
The first document on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was signed on 9 March 1993 in Ankara, between Azerbaijan and Turkey. [4] The Turkish route meant that a pipeline would pass through Georgia or Armenia from Azerbaijan, but the route through Armenia was politically impossible due to the unresolved war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. This left the circular Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey road to build longer and more expensive than the other option. [5] The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline (BTC) is a 1,768-kilometre-long crude oil pipeline from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean. It connects Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, and Ceyhan, a port on Turkey`s southeastern Mediterranean coast, via Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.
