Turkey’s Geopolitical Position and its Role as an Energy Corridor
c.
The EU has declared that “it does not recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh. The European Union cannot consider legitimate the ‘presidential elections’ that were scheduled to take place on 11 August 2002 in Nagorno Karabakh.”
d.
The US State Department issued a report where it stated that “Armenia continues to occupy the Azerbaijani territory of NagornoKarabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories.”
Despite the unequivocal position of all major international organizations, no concrete step has been taken to resolve the dispute. This conflict kept Armenia outside of at least three regional economic cooperation projects: 1) the Baku-Tbilissi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project; 2) the Baku-Tbilissi-Erzurum gas pipeline project; and 3) the Kars-Baku railway project. Despite the fact that the shortest routes for the first two projects were through Armenia, Azerbaijan did not want to pump its oil and gas through a country that occupies one fifth of its territory; and despite the fact that there is already an existing railway that links Azerbaijan to Turkey through Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan decided to construct a new railroad that circumvents Armenian territory. Armenia could have benefited to a great extent from these projects if the conditions were suitable for its participation in them. 2. South Ossetia South Ossetia was an autonomous oblast of Georgia during Soviet times. The Republic of South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia in 1990. The Georgian government responded by abolishing South Ossetia’s autonomy and trying to retake the region by force. On 6 December 2006, the OSCE Ministerial Council supported the Georgian peace plan though it was subsequently rejected by the South Ossetian de facto authorities. One might speculate that the Ossetian authorities could not have done this without the support of Russian authorities. On April of 2007, the Georgian government created a temporary administrative unit (Provisional Administrative Entity of South Ossetia) for this territory of 70,000 inhabitants. On 8 August 2008, the Russian Federation, using as a pretext a military move on the part of Georgia, invaded South Ossetia and recognized its independence. 114
YASAR YAKIS