Armenpress

ARMENIAN EXPERTS SAY NEW OIL PIPELINE IS A SAFEGUARD AGAINST RESUMTION OF
HOSTILITIES FOR KARABAGH

YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRESS: Eduard Aghajanov from the Armenian Democracy
and Civic Society Development Center welcomed today the official
inauguration of the 1,770 kilometer-long (1,094-mile) Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
pipeline built to ship a million barrels of Caspian oil to Turkey’s
Mediterranean coast daily, saying the pipeline will become a serious
regional stability factor, citing the increased international efforts for
ending the Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Built with financial support from the United States, which is hoping to
reduce its dependence on fuel from the volatile Middle East, the pipeline
was initiated in 1994 as part of Azerbaijan’s so-called “deal of the
century” — a massive oil contract signed in the early 1990s to develop
Caspian Sea oil.
Aghajanov was speaking at a special roundtable discussion convened by the
Armenian Center for National and International Studies (ACNIS) of former
foreign minister Raffi Hovhanessian, timed to coincide with the pipeline’s
inauguration. He argued that Armenia will have to raise the level of
democracy here to withstand the challenges it may face from the new
“oil-geopolitical factor.” An ACNIS expert Rozalia Gabrielian argued that
the oil factor would be a strong factor against resumption of hostilities
over the Karabakh conflict.