Experts: Azerbaijan is the key for South Caucasus energy stability

As part of the meeting for the Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, or CICA, whose council presidency Kazakhstan is set to pass to Turkey, participants said on Friday, that Azerbaijan was a transit hub for energy stability in the region at the 5th International Turkish Asian Congress organized by the Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies, or TASAM.

“However, CICA member states’ problems are also CICA’s problem. Azerbaijan’s internal problems are also CICA’s problems,” Cavide Veliev, from Azerbaijan’s President’s Center for Strategic Studies, told the conference.

“Karabakh is a security issue for the South Caucasus and therefore for CICA,” he said, referring to a territorial dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Emphasizing regional security in the South Caucasus, Veliev said mediation for the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave was essential for securing the energy supply in the region and to Europe.

Veliev warned of instability and a “polarized South Caucasus,” citing over 1 million refugees from the Karabakh conflict and an influx of radicals from Asia and the Northern Caucasus trying to settle in Azerbaijan. He also lamented the lack of acceptance of the Madrid principle by Armenia, which he said would be a step toward solving the conflict.

Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev will visit Turkey on Monday for the signing ceremony of a highly anticipated agreement on natural gas sales and transit from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field.

Aliyev’s visit was preceded by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Baku last month, where the two leaders decided to establish a high-level strategic cooperation council to overcome the initial worries by Baku that Ankara would ratify the diplomatic protocols with Armenia and open the borders without heeding Baku’s wishes.

“The mechanism serves dialogue, which will prevent unpleasant surprises between Turkey and Azerbaijan and support rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia,” Veliev said.

The opening of the second phase of the Shah Deniz field, Shah Deniz II, is considered as key in the supply for the Southern Corridor and possibly the Nabucco pipeline.

The gas supply and transit agreement will create “an open road” for exports to Europe, said Murat Heydarov, adviser to the head of the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan, or Socar, which is a partner in the Shah Deniz field, according to Bloomberg.

Assistant professor Osman Nuri Aras from Fatih University said at the congress that the Caspian Sea Basin had gained great importance for Europe in the post-Soviet Union energy region, providing alternatives to Russian pipeline routes.


/Hurriyet Daily News/