New Silk Routes: Pipe Lines and Terminal Markets

Abstract

Energy will be the main determinant of the economic and political relations between the regions and na tions during the years to come. The need for energy and the consumption of energy related to this need continues increasingly. The fossil fuels which meet the energy of many of the growing economies in the world, especially Chinabeing in the first place will continue to be the main energy source until the year2050. Intoday’s world, countries are classified as those which have rich reserves of natural resources and which obtain most of their revenues by selling these natural resources, those which have large amounts of consumption of natural resources and which import natural resources in spite of their own natural re sources and as those which are dependant on outside resources but are on the route of transmission of natural resources because of their geopolitical positions. Turkey’s place is in the third group.Turkeyis the leading country among the countries which are situated on the route of the transmission of the natural resources.Turkeyis in a geographical region where its neighbors have rich natural resources, and this geographical region has approximately 70% of the fossil fuels which comprise a great deal of the energy needs in the whole world. Therefore, Turkey is at the center of the transmission corridor of the natural re sources between the north and the south, and between the west and the east. TheUnited States of Americainstalled itself and settled down in the region at the beginning of the 90’s because of the first Gulf War, and theUnited Stateshas taken steps and some measures in order to support the establishment of new pipeline corridors for the transmission of natural resources. In the background of this support lies the thought and idea that by virtues of these pipelines the natural resources that exist in the Central Asian countries should be transmitted to the western world countries and to the international markets without any need for dependence onRussia. Another idea behind this is to put an end to the dominance of Russia over these countries.