Author: Jilavian Emma

ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
June 6, 2005 Monday 8:24 PM Eastern Time

Lithuania MPs to discuss aid to Georgian in NATO integration

By Tengiz Pachkoroa

TBILISI

A delegation of Lithuania’s Seimas, the national parliament arrives
on a two-day official visit in Tbilisi from Baku later Tuesday to
meet with Georgian MPs and to discuss possible assistance in the
process of this country’s integration in the European Union and NATO.

Leading the Lithuanian delegation is Seimas speaker, Arturas
Paulauskas.

Sources in Georgian parliament said the group also includes the
chairmen of parliamentary committees for European affairs, foreign
policy, security, and others.

The Lithuanians will meet with President Mikhail Saakashvili,
parliament speaker Nino Burdzhanadze, Prime Minister Zurab Nogaideli,
and chairmen of several parliamentary committees.

Morning June 9, the delegation is due to fly to Yerevan.

Startup of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline: Turkey’s Energy Role
By Soner Cagaptay and Nazli Gencsoy

Washington Institute for Near East Policy
May 27, 2005

On May 25, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and Turkey
inaugurated the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC), a major artery linking
oil fields in the Caspian Sea region to the Mediterranean Sea and Western
markets beyond. It will take several months for oil pumped from Baku,
Azerbaijan, to pass through Tbilisi, Georgia, and reach the Turkish coast at
Ceyhan. Eventually, BTC will carry up to 1 million barrels per day (bbl/d)
of crude oil to the Mediterranean. With growing concern over Western
dependence on Middle Eastern oil and rising global oil prices, Turkey is
emerging as a key country in providing Caspian oil to the Western world.

Background: A Pipeline Born of U.S.-Turkish Cooperation

According to British Petroleum’s Statistical Review of World Energy, proven
oil reserves in the Caspian Basin total 16.5 billion barrels, comparable to
the reserves of Canada, Mexico, or the OPEC member state Qatar.

President Bill Clinton and Turkish President Suleyman Demirel settled heated
debate in the mid-1990s over how best to bring Caspian oil to world markets
by throwing their weight behind the BTC. Washington and Ankara saw the BTC
as a key east-west corridor that would ensure the independence and economic
viability of the newly independent states in the Caspian Basin. The BTC also
made strategic sense to the United States and Turkey because it would bypass
politically unstable places like Iran, the northern Caucasus (including
Chechnya), and Armenian-occupied parts of Azerbaijan.

Further, the BTC was seen as useful to easing the burdens on the Turkish
Straits of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. Today, more than 5,000 tankers
cross the Turkish Straits each year, carrying Caspian oil from the Black Sea
to the Mediterranean. The sea traffic through the narrow, zigzagging straits
carries grave risks, especially since any accident could cause an
environmental catastrophe in downtown Istanbul, which sits along the
Bosporus.

When others questioned the project’s feasibility, Clinton appointed a
special envoy for Caspian energy affairs and Demirel visited Georgia and
Azerbaijan to push for the project. The unprecedented level of U.S.-Turkish
cooperation, as well as successful coordination by both countries’
diplomats, made the seemingly impossible pipeline possible.

Building the BTC

In 1997, Western oil companies started to explore the commercial viability
of the BTC project. An international consortium of eleven partners —
Britain’s BP; Azerbaijan’s SOCAR; Norway’s Statoil; U.S. based Unocal,
Amerada Hess, and ConocoPhillips; Turkey’s TPAO; Italy’s Eni; Japan’s INPEX
and Itochu; and France’s TotalFinaElf — began construction of the pipeline
in May 2003. With a 30 percent share in the project, BP is the largest
stakeholder, and served as acting leader for the project’s design and
construction phases.

The BTC, which cost an estimated $3.7 billion for construction, financing,
and line-fill, has received limited public funding. The European Bank of
Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation,
the World Bank’s private-sector arm, pledged $250 million in loans. Although
a small amount compared to the project’s total funding, World Bank
participation acted as a catalyst to bring foreign direct investors to the
project.

Because it traverses 176 widely varied and sensitive terrains while crossing
the politically unstable Caucasus region, the BTC was bedeviled by worries
about its security and environmental risks. Accordingly, the U.S. military’s
Special Forces trained 1,500-2,000 Georgian soldiers in anti-terrorism
techniques under a $64 million program aimed at protecting the pipeline
against saboteurs. In addition, a BP-led consortium granted an additional
$25 million to local non-governmental organizations to manage environmental
programs.

The entire length of the 1,094-mile BTC, the longest oil-export pipeline in
the world, is buried. Once the pipeline becomes fully operational,
Azerbaijan will be the main beneficiary of the sale of its oil in
international markets, collecting (at current prices) about $29 billion per
year in oil revenues, while Georgia and Turkey will respectively collect
transit fees of $600 million and $1.5 billion per year.

Ceyhan Becomes a Nexus of Global Energy Lines

With BTC, Ceyhan will emerge as a major energy supplier to the world.

Ceyhan’s port, Yumurtalik, is already the terminus of Kirkuk-Ceyhan
pipeline, which has the capacity to bring about 1.5 million bbl/d oil to the
Mediterranean from northern Iraq (though it is presently closed due to
continuing attacks by Iraqi insurgents). Another pipeline is now under
consideration to bring Caspian gas from Baku, via Tbilisi, to Erzurum in
eastern Turkey from where it would be transported to Ceyhan. There are other
new projects designed to make Ceyhan into an even bigger hub of energy
supply: Samsun-Ceyhan gas/ oil lines and terminal. Turkey intends to enlarge its
natural-gas transmission by extending the Blue Stream pipeline, which
connects Russia with Ankara through the Black Sea, through an
Ankara-to-Ceyhan extension. After a liquid-natural-gas export terminal is
built in Ceyhan, this plan would enable Turkey to re-export Russian gas.

Turkey also wants to build a cross-Anatolian oil line, from Samsun on the
Black Sea to Ceyhan on the Mediterranean, to further decrease traffic
through the Turkish Straits.

Kazakhstan Extension. In March 2005, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan agreed to
build the Aktau-Baku pipeline, connecting the Kashagan offshore oil fields
near Aktau in Kazakhstan to the BTC in Baku via a sub-Caspian in 2008. The
Kashagan field is expected to produce 1.2 million bbl/d by 2016, when
600,000 bbl/d of its production is to be shipped across the Caspian Sea to
be fed into the BTC line.

Ceyhan-Haifa Pipeline. This project, first discussed during Turkish Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s May 2005 visit to Israel, aims to bring BTC
oil to Israel via a sub-Mediterranean pipeline through Cyprus. There are
also plans for parallel pipelines to carry water, gas, and electricity, and
perhaps fiber-optic lines, to Israel, as well as to Northern Cyprus, Jordan,
and the Palestinian territories, bringing the latter closer to Turkey and
Israel economically and politically.

Implications of Turkey’s Emergence as an Energy Entrepot

Turkey’s new position as a way-station for energy distribution could be a
useful asset in its relations with both the European Union and the United
States. Turkish membership would give the EU a direct route to Caspian
energy resources that does not cross Russia; as a major energy producer;
Russia has not been very helpful getting Caspian energy to outside markets.

In the post-Iraq War period, the energy issue should also strengthen
U.S.-Turkish relations. Turkey’s strategic value sometimes comes under
doubt. But Turkey is an important route for the export of oil from northern
Iraq. By binding the Caucasus region with the West through the BTC, Turkey
is now a key country in accessing the energy sources of the landlocked
Caspian Basin. And the BTC has significantly limited the share of Caspian
oil that must be transported through Iran. Tehran currently transports a
mere 35,000 bbl/d Caspian oil, which it buys from Turkmenistan and
Kazakhstan through a swapping agreement. The BTC and other projects
involving Turkey should remind Americans and Turks alike that as members of
the Western world, they have shared interests that can be promoted through
cooperation.

Soner Cagaptay is a senior fellow and director of the Turkish Research
Program at The Washington Institute. Nazli Gencsoy, a Dr. Marcia
Robbins-Wilf young scholar, is a research assistant at the Institute.

Karabakh leader rules out return of territories to Azerbaijan

Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
31 May 05

Text of Naira Zograbyan report by Armenian newspaper Aykakan Zhamanak
on 31 May headlined “Only mutual compromises”

On 28 May, the president of the NKR , Arkadiy Gukasyan, took part in a
“round dance of unity”. He later answered journalists’ questions.

[Aykakan Zhamanak correspondent] Mr Gukasyan, the Armenian and
Azerbaijani presidents are to meet in June. Is that possible that a
document with new elements will be put forward for negotiations?

[Gukasyan] No, it is not. All the possible options were put forward
long ago and I do not think there is something new to say.

[Correspondent] If the parties have discussed all the possible options
and have accepted none of them, is there any point in continuing the
negotiating process?

[Gukasyan] The process is continuing and I think the parties have to
mellow and this is relevant to Azerbaijan in the first place.

[Correspondent] What can you say about rumours that the liberated
territories [seven districts around Nagornyy Karabakh under Armenian
control] will be returned to Azerbaijan?

[Gukasyan] This is a careless approach because the problem of the
districts should be discussed only within the general context. We
raise the problem of status [of Nagornyy Karabakh] and Azerbaijan
raises the problem of the districts, I mean there are no points of
contiguity between our and their problems.

[Correspondent] Can this contiguity appear?

[Gukasyan] I am sure we will come to common ground some day. We do not
have an alternative, we should settle this problem at the negotiating
table. But I cannot say when this will be possible.

[Correspondent] Mr Gukasyan, did the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen
set a deadline for solving the problem?

[Gukasyan] I do not think that they can give us time, time is always
ours and we ourselves are interested in settling the problem as soon
as possible.

[Correspondent] What are the compromises you can accept?

[Gukasyan] If Azerbaijan does not want to talk about compromises
at all, in that case it is senseless for us to talk about mutual
compromises.

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan
May 31 2005

BRIEFING AT THE AZERBAIJAN’S FOREIGN MINISTRY
[May 31, 2005, 17:01:17]

Araz Azimov, deputy foreign minister of the Azerbaijan Republic and
special representative of the Azerbaijan President on the Karabakh
issue has held a briefing on May 30 dedicated to the course of the
talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Araz Azimov told about the meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian
Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharian in Warsaw, calling it
productive and significant from the point of view of holding useful
discussions. Deputy Foreign Minister reminded that after the Warsaw
talks the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs arrived in Azerbaijan and held
meetings with President Ilham Aliyev and foreign minister Elmar
Mammadyarov.

According to Araz Azimov, a meeting of Azerbaijan and Armenian foreign
ministers is scheduled in mid-June. In his opinion Azerbaijan position
over the Karabakh issue at the international arena is being specified
in more detail. The most important thing is that the number of those,
who support Azerbaijan’ stand increases, he stated. Azerbaijan has a
specific concept on the peace talks, its principles and details are
based on the international law principles.

In Araz Azimov’s words, “release of the occupied Azerbaijan’s
territories, return of forced migrants to their houses, the status
of Nagorno Karabakh, security guarantees to representatives of both
communities of the region, restoration of the communication system and
other questions” are subject to negotiations. The Azeri Deputy Foreign
Minister said that Azerbaijan has chosen the way of integration and
successfully proceeds along that way.

Mr. Azimov said “after the liberation of the occupied territories and
the solution of these problems, normal relations will to all appearance
be established between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” He also stated that
“the occupied Azerbaijani territories are uncontrolled and there is
a danger thereupon that certain arms are concealed there”.

Irrational diplomacy

Editorial

Yerkir/arm
27 May 05

No one can compete with the Turkish diplomacy in making irrational
decisions. The dynamics of the Armenian-Turkish relations and the
Turkish diplomacy shows come to prove this fact.

And while number of the reports in the Turkish press on these relations
are declining, a worrisome trend is emerging; it looks like that after
the events marking the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide,
Turks have launched a counter-attack.

It became clear at the Council of Europe summit that the Turkish
initiative to show a false dialogue with Armenia has failed. Now,
Ankara is attempting to begin a new project: Turkish government is
trying to sue the countries that have recognized the Armenian Genocide.

Upon his return from Warsaw, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, speaking
with his party members, indicated that the Armenian Genocide has no
historical and legal bases, and those countries, which have recognized
it, are guilty of various crimes against humanity.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told a Turkish TV station that
a separate case will be filed against anyone offending a Genocide
denier, and the court of that country will be requested to produce
evidence that the Genocide had happened. Interestingly, the Turkish
newspaper Star wrote that the Ottoman Empire was the first country to
recognize the Armenian Genocide: “In 1919, the court martial sentenced
to death those guilty of extermination of the Armenians.”

The newspaper said that the Ottoman Empire did nothing to solve the
Armenian cause. The author goes on to say that the official Turkish
history science gives no comprehensive answers to existing questions;
it just offers propaganda. But Turks are failing even in the sphere
of propaganda.

Giving way to official pressures, the planned conference on the
Armenian Genocide in Istanbul has been put off. Scholars who recognize
the fact of the Genocide were also invited to participate in the
conference, and according to media reports, this was the key reason
why the conference was cancelled.

Armenian MPs look for counterbalance to major Azeri oil pipeline project

Arminfo
27 May 05

YEREVAN

Armenia should look for opportunities to restore the balance of forces
in the South Caucasus region which was breached due to the launch of
the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Armenian MPs said at a briefing
in the National Assembly today.

The head of the parliamentary faction of the Republican Party of
Armenia [RPA], Galust Saakyan, pointed out that the processes
happening in the neighbouring republic [Azerbaijan] cannot affect the
situation in Armenia. But he said the exploitation of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and Azerbaijan’s economic development
would have a favourable impact on the development of the whole of the
region in general.

Commenting on the signing of an agreement on the construction of the
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railway, Saakyan said that this project is
not directed against any third country and does not pursue any
political aims.

“I am confident that the goal of the construction of the
Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railway is to meet the communication needs of
Georgia and Turkey,” the head of the RPA faction said.

In turn, the head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation –
Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD] faction, Levon Lazarian, said that the
neighbours’ efforts to sideline Armenia from regional projects will
boomerang against these countries since the difficult situation in
which Armenia has found itself because of its neighbours’ fault,
hinders the development of the whole of the region. At the same time,
Lazarian said that the exploitation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil
pipeline did not disturb the balance of forces in the region.

The head of the ARFD faction also said that Armenia should find a
counterbalance to the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. The MP said that an
Iran-Armenia gas pipeline and Armenia’s economic development could
provide such a counterbalance.

The head of the commission for state legal issues, Rafik Petrosyan,
said that Armenia should expand intensively cooperation with Iran and
Asian countries to counterbalance the exploitation of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

The secretary of the opposition Justice bloc, Viktor Dallakyan, said
that Armenia has been sidelined from all regional programs. He pointed
out that Armenia could be completely isolated as a result of the
possible construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railway. He
added that Azerbaijan and Turkey will receive 1.5bn dollars and
Georgia 650m dollars from the exploitation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
oil pipeline this year alone. Dallakyan believes that the situation
has exacerbated further after the signing of an agreement between the
USA, Britain, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey on the joint defence of
the oil pipeline in case of regional tension.

Dallakyan pointed out that the only way out of the current situation
for Armenia was the democratic and economic development of the
country.

[Passage omitted: details of the Baku-Ceyhan project]

Zaman, Turkey
May 27 2005

‘Armenian Conference Should be Held’
By Ali Halit Aslan, Anadolu News Agency (aa)
Published: Friday 27, 2005
zaman.com

The Speaker of the Turkish Parliament Bulent Arinc said that a
proposed conference on the Armenian Genocide allegations that is
opposed by the government and the opposition should go ahead.

Arinc noted that the conference should be accepted in the frame of
freedom of speech and added: “Even if I do not like it, the speeches
should not be prevented.” The Speaker contributed to the argument
about the Armenian Genocide conference to be organized in Bosphorous
University (BU) started by Minister of Justice Cemil Cicek who fumed
the other day that to hold this conference is a “stab in the back of
the Turkish people”. Arinc paying a visit to US spoke at the Center of
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank organization
in Washington. He criticized laws in France and Switzerland that ban
denial of the Genocide as being against freedoms of speech and he also
signalled to the US Congress on the genocide issue that: “ones who
produce policies for only local concerns may sometimes try to misuse
the legislative body for policy. At this point I want to note that
this puts the US Congress in a position where it feels obliged to
decide on historical issues.”

Meanwhile the university has issued a statement about the postponement
of the conference, “We are concerned that the intellectual freedom and
autonomy of a state university has been harmed by the accusations and
opinions put forth by a conference which hasn’t even occured yet. We
are letting the Turkish public know that it seems more appropriate at
this point, given the current conditions and the problems which could
arise, to postpone the conference until further notice.” The
organizers of the conference have complained of pressure and blackmail
and have pledged to hold the conference “in the near future.”

A1plus

| 19:35:58 | 26-05-2005 | Official |

COOPERATION WITH KANSAS

Within the frames of the regional cooperation Secretary of the
National Security Council under the RA President, Defense Minister
Serge Sargsyan received today the delegation headed by Aide General of
the US State of Kansas, Major General Tod Banting.

To note, US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans was present at the
meeting as well.

At the beginning of the meeting the Armenian Minister asked to convey
his gratitude to State Governor Caitlin Siberlius for declaring April
24 the Day of Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Victims.

Serge Sargsyan decorated the Major General with the Drastamart Kanayan
medal for fruitful cooperation.

AZ Central.com, AZ
May 26 2005

System stresses varied image with new CD

Nekesa Mumbi Moody
AP Music Writer
May. 26, 2005 12:20 PM

NEW YORK – System of a Down wants you to know they are not a
political band.

Yes, they came out against the war in Iraq. And yes, they hand-picked
ultraliberal gadfly Michael Moore to direct their 2003 protest video,
“Boom!” And yes, their latest single, the frenetic, guitar-crunching
“B.Y.O.B.,” contains angry rants like “Why don’t presidents fight the
war? Why do they always send the poor?”

But still, Serj Tankian and Daron Malakian – one half of the eclectic
metal quartet – fiercely resist when people try to define them as the
band with the left-leaning agenda. advertisement

“The fact that journalists have so made us into a political band,
it’s forcing us to be apolitical in some ways as a reaction to it,”
says Tankian, who on this day is the antithesis of his wild-man stage
persona – soft-spoken and drinking herbal tea to soothe a sore
throat.

“I mean, we do say things that are on our minds, but most of what we
say is from a social perspective more than a political perspective,”
he adds. “Even though we have things that we touch upon, you know,
social issues or political issues, it’s a small percentage of what we
do, compared to personal narratives, songs about life, theories, sex,
humor.”

Besides the politically charged first single – which Tankian won’t
even admit is an anti-war song, despite the soldier-themed video –
there’s plenty of material on their latest album, “Mezmerize,” to
back up Tankian’s contention. The CD, part of outpouring of material
that will continue in the form of a second album, “Hypnotize,” in the
fall, is at times mournful, romantic, hysterical, and bizarre – and
may be the best synopsis of System of a Down in the band’s 10-year
history.

“There was a time when they had to write songs very specifically to
define who they were,” says longtime producer Rick Rubin, who worked
with the band on their latest album. “Now, we know who they are, so
now they can write their best songs, and they don’t have to fit in
such narrow guideline. It seems like people are more willing to go
along the trip with them.”

Not that they didn’t have plenty on board for their first trip on the
charts.

Since the group’s self-titled debut CD in 1998, they’ve sold millions
of albums with their amped-up metal sound anchored by bursts of
melody and Tankian’s voice, which ranges from soaring to screeching
(the other band members are bassist Shavo Odadjian, and drummer John
Dolmayan). The new album, like previous System of a Down efforts, is
hard to classify or describe: Middle Eastern-musical influences mix
with almost operatic melodies and guitars thrashing at breakneck
speed.

“It’s rare to hear such emotional vocal harmony going on over such
heavy music. It’s very unusual,” says Rubin (the band is on his
label, American Recordings, with Columbia Records).

“They’re kind of a throwback to the time when heavy music could be
interesting in the ’60s and ’70s. I think they’re a true metal band
but metal has changed and gone away from the days of Black Sabbath
and become really cookie-cutter. Everyone is competing to be the
hardest, but no one is really writing songs.”

Unlike some other metal bands, System of a Down’s lyrical content has
always been as integral to the band as its musical component, dealing
with serious subjects ranging from drug addiction to government
domination. System of a Down has always been vocal about their social
causes or concerns, whether it be Tankian playing benefits to draw
awareness to the Armenian holocaust of years ago (he and Malakian are
of Armenian descent) to Malakian’s concerns about the war in Iraq (he
has family there).

Malakian, the band’s lead guitarist and songwriter (along with
Tankian) says the band’s tilt toward the political is only one part
of what they stand for.

“It’s funny, you’ll write a few songs about politics and that’s what
people will focus on. All we’re doing is expressing the world around
us,” he says. “Politics is a part of that. If we didn’t sing about it
then we’d be leaving something else out.”

“I think they just don’t like being pigeonholed. I think yes they
sing a lot of political lyrics but they’re not purely a political
band,” Rubin says. “They don’t like being made smaller than they are
creatively.”

Tankian says fans truly know the band know they are more than that,
anyway.

“We’re a multidimensional band artistically that embrace politics as
much as embracing sexual innuendo or jokes,” Tankian added.

The humor element is certainly evident on the new record – “Cigaro”
features unprintable lyrics about male genitalia, while “Old School
Hollywood,” which Malakian wrote after feeling a little left out at a
celebrity softball game, features lines like: “Tony Danza cuts in
line / Old school Hollywood, washed up Hollywood / Standing in the
sun I’m wasting my time / Old school Hollywood washed up Hollywood.”

“Even in our most serious songs there’s like absolutely hilarious
antics going on and that comes from us just thinking, ‘Hey, we can’t
take ourselves seriously otherwise we miss the point, and no one
should either,’ ” Tankian jokes.

While Malakian as always written most of the band’s music, this time
around, he wrote more of the lyrics and shares more in the vocal
duties, trading rants with Tankian.

Malakian’s singing “changes our sound and that’s really important,”
Tankian says. “I don’t think any of us ever want to recreate the same
record again.”

That was part of the goal of “Mezmerize,” the band’s first since
2002’s “Steal This Album.”

“You want to push yourself and not recreate the same song over
again,” Malakian says. “That by itself brings out new things. When
you try to do new things, you find that you start failing at it.”

The Mirror, UK
May 26 2005

ROUTE OF OIL EVIL?
Pipe blamed for war is open

By Vanessa Allen

THE massive oil pipeline hailed as the real reason for America’s war
on terror was opened for business yesterday.

The first section of the US-backed 1,090-mile pipeline began carrying
oil from the Caspian Sea to the West.

It will eventually deliver a million barrels of crude a day across
one of the most dangerous regions on earth.

Backers of the he £1.2 billion project claim it will protect energy
supplies to the US and Europe for the next 50 years and reduce our
reliance on the Middle East.

But its critics say it was the real reason for America’s willingness
to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.

They say the US used its much-vaunted war on terror as justification
for establishing military bases along much of the pipeline route.

The pipe – a prime target for terrorism – is so big it will take 10
million barrels of crude to fill it.

It was officially opened in the central Asian republic of Azerbaijan
yesterday and provides the first direct link between the landlocked
Caspian – thought to contain the world’s third- largest oil and gas
reserves – and the Mediterranean. It was built by a consortium led by
British Petroleum and will take until August to fill completely. Then
it will carry one per cent of the world’s oil production every day.

BP chief executive Lord John Browne said it was “a heroic engineering
achievement”.

The pipeline’s route from Azerbaijan through Georgia and Turkey takes
it close to war-torn Chechnya.

It then travels through south-eastern Turkey, where Kurdish
separatists are waging a bloody insurgency.

Azerbaijan itself is locked in conflict with neighbour Armenia and
Georgia’s government was overthrown in the US-backed “Rose
Revolution” in 2003.

Writing in the Daily Mirror in October 2001, foreign correspondent
John Pilger warned that the US was using its war on terror as a
thinly-veiled justification for setting up military bases across
central Asia.

He wrote: “Bush’s concealed agenda is to exploit the oil and gas
reserves in the Caspian basin, the greatest source of untapped fossil
fuel on earth.”