Turkey's geopolitical role: The energy angle

Middle East Policy

Volumn 14, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 84-94

  Tekin, Ali ^a   Walterova, Iva ^a  

^a BILKENT UNIVERSITY   (Turkey)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33947201179     PISSN: 10611924     EISSN: 14754967     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4967.2007.00286.x     Document Type: Review

References (69)

1. Turkey is a net energy importer, currently dependent for almost 65 percent of its energy on imports. This dependency is expected to increase to 75 percent within the next two decades. Zeyno Baran, "The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline: Implications for Turkey," in S. Frederick Starr and Svante E.Cornell, eds., The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline: Oil Window to the West, (Washington: Central Asia-Caucasus Institute Silk Road Studies Program, 2005) p.103. Such extensive energy dependence can pose a serious strategic threat for Turkey. Because of its considerable dependence on energy imports today and in the future, and because of the increasing importance and scarcity of energy resources in the world, energy has become a fundamental part of Turkey's foreign policy.
2. Emine Kart, "Turkey's Energy Drive: A Journey from Long Gas Lines to the EU's Fourth Artery," Turkish Daily News, Ankara, April 10, 2006.
3. Baran, "The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline," p. 103.
4. Kart, "Turkey's Energy Drive."
5. See "Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline Opened," http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/ news/379678.asp.
6. Stefan Wagstyl, "EU Gives Blessing to Gas Pipeline," Financial Times, June 26, 2006.
7. European Commission, "Green Paper: Towards a European Strategy for the Security of Energy Supply."
8. European Commission, "Green Paper: A European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy" (Brussels: Commission of the European Communities, 2006), p.10.
9. Ibid., p. 1.
10. Axel Krause, "From the Pump to the Plug: Europe's quest for an energy policy," Europe, February 1, 2002, p.10.
11. "Energy Policy in the European Union," in EU Guides, March 2005, http://www.eubusiness.com/guides/energy.
12. European Commission, "Green Paper: A European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy." p.1.
13. European Commission, "Energy: Let Us Overcome Our Dependence" (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2002), p.8.
14. European Commission, "Green Paper: Towards a European Strategy for the Security of Energy Supply," p. 37.
15. European Commission, "Green Paper: A European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy," p. 13.
16. European Commission, "Energy: Let Us Overcome Our Dependence," p. 3.
17. European Commission, "Green Paper: Towards a European Strategy for the Security of Energy Supply," p. 2.
18. Ibid., p. 2
19. Ibid., p. 22.
20. Ibid., p. 23.
21. EU-Turkey Working Paper, Center for European Policy Studies, October 1, 2004, p. 2.
22. See also Ali Tekin, "Future of Turkey-EU Relations: A Civilisational Discourse," Futures, Vol. 37, 2005, pp. 299-300.
23. National Energy Policy Development Group, "Reliable, Affordable, and Environmentally Sound Energy for America's Future," May 2001, p. viii, http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/.
24. Ibid., p. viii.
25. Ibid., various pages.
26. Ibid., various pages.
27. Ibid., various pages.
28. Remarks of President Bush to the Capital City Partnership, St. Paul, Minnesota, May 17, 2001, http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/05/ 20010517-2.html.
29. Dinos Stasinopoulos, "The United States New Energy Policy: A European Perspective," Minerals and Energy, Vol. 16, No. 4 (2001), p. 33.
30. Axel, "From the Pump to the Plug," p. 10.
31. National Energy Policy Development Group, "Reliable, Affordable, and Environmentally Sound Energy for America's Future," p.4-8. The Group claims that the United States has the good relations with all the four suppliers. Although true in 2001 when the report was written, this cannot be as boldly stated about Venezuela today as the relations between the United States and Chavez's Venezuela have been gradually deteriorating.
32. Ibid., p. xv.
33. Ibid.
34. E. Anthony Wayne, "US-Turkey Relations," Remarks to the American Turkish Council Conference, Washington, DC, March 28, 2006, http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/rm/2006/64047.htm.
35. National Energy Policy Development Group, "Reliable, Affordable, and Environmentally Sound Energy for America's Future," p. 6-8f.
36. Michael T. Klare, "Geopolitics Reborn: The U.S.-Russian-Chinese Struggle in the Persian Gulf and Caspian Basin," in Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum, (New York: Metropolitan Books, 2004) p. 147f.
37. Ibid.,p. 150.
38. Aylin Guney, "An Anatomy of the Transformation of the U.S.-Turkish Alliance: From 'Cold War' to 'War on Iraq,'" Turkish Studies, Vol.6, No.3, September 2005, p. 346.
39. Klare, "Geopolitics Reborn: The U.S.-Russian-Chinese Struggle," p. 154f.
40. Ibid., p. 156ff.
41. National Energy Policy Development Group, "Reliable, Affordable, and Environmentally Sound Energy for America's Future," p. 6-8.
42. Due to their different history and current situation, Iran and Russia will be discussed later in the paper.
43. Julian Darley, High Noon for Natural Gas: The New Energy Crisis (White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2004), p. 112.
44. Terry Adams, "Caspian Hydrocarbons, the Politicisation of Regional Pipelines, and the Destabilisation of the Caucasus," (Belgium: Centre for European Policy Studies, 2004), p. 1.
45. Steven R. Mann, Remarks at a Florence IEA Conference, 14 April, 2003, http://www.iea.org/Textbase/work/2003/caspian/Mann.pdf.
46. Interview on EU-Caucasus with Damien Helly conducted by Francois Gremy, 2.11. 2004, http://www.caucaz.com/home_eng/breve_contenu.php?id=56.
47. See for example Klare, "Geopolitics Reborn: The U.S.-Russian-Chinese Struggle."
48. U.S. Library of Congress, Country Studies: Russia, July 1997, http://countrystudies.us/russia/61.htm.
49. A. Necdet Pamir, "Turkey's Energy Policies between East and West," presentation on February 21, 2006, Bilkent University, http://www.bilkent.edu.tr/~crs/necdetpamir.ppt.
50. U.S. Library of Congress, Country Studies: Russia.
51. Energy Information Administration, Russia, no date, http://www.eia.doe. gov/emeu/international/russia.html.
52. Ibid.
53. Roberts, "The Turkish Gate," p. 11.
54. "Russia-Turkey Rivalry Wanes," Columbia Daily Tribune, December 5, 2004.
55. Euractiv, "Turkey-Russia Relations," November 2005, http://www.euractiv.com/en/enlargement/turkey-russia-relations/article-134083.
56. Ibid.
57. Bulent Aras, "Turkish-Russian Relations: Implications for Eurasia's Geopolitics," Power and Interest News Report, February 2005, http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_printable&report_id= 265&language_id=1.
58. Roberts, "The Turkish Gate," p. 12.
59. Ibid., p. 11.
60. European Commission, "Green Paper: Towards a European Strategy for the Security of Energy Supply," p. 73.
61. Discussed in detail in section 3.2.
62. Roberts, "The Turkish Gate," p. 16.
63. Pamir, "Turkey's Energy Policies between East and West."
64. Ibid.
65. European Commission, "Green Paper: Towards a European Strategy for the Security of Energy Supply," p. 2.
66. Gareth M. Winrow, "Turkey and the East-West Gas Transportation Corridor," Turkish Studies, Vol. 5, No.2, Summer 2004, p. 39.
67. Pamir, "Turkey's Energy Policies between East and West."
68. Roberts, "The Turkish Gate," p. 5.
69. Tekin, "Future of Turkey-EU Relations," pp. 287-89 and 299-300.