The main aim of Azerbaijan is the complete isolation of Armenia from the regional projects

PanARMENIAN.Net - The initiator of this project is the Ukraine, which does not exclude the possibility of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia joining the project. According to the words of the Ukraine Ambassador to Azerbaijan Boris Klimchuk, in the future the route may be connected to the Great Silk Road and reach South Korea.

It must be said, that Baku's efforts for now are blessed with some success, which is explained by the domination of political importance of all these projects. In all these projects the economics is definitely on secondary importance. And since Armenia in the political aspect is of no interest to the other parties, naturally the preference is given to Georgia and Azerbaijan. There is another no less important factor of Turkey, which in its striving to become the regional power-holder starts dictating its rules, which comply with the rules of the USA. In this context particularly the visit of the Turkish Prime-Minister Recep Erdoghan to the autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan scheduled in the beginning of June should be viewed. The Turkish Daily News informs that during his visit the Turkish Prime will meet the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. During the meeting the projects of socio-economic development of the region, such as the construction of the railroad Kars-Nakhichevan and the gas pipeline Erzrum-Nakhichevan, are going to be discussed,

With its participation in the railroad construction Kars-Akhalkalaki-Baku, which is already referred to as the Baku-Ankara road, Georgia also has a rather significant asset in Armenia's isolation. Voluntarily or not Armenia becomes the hostage of its own policy, which is basically oriented towards Russia, as a guarantor of security in case of the renewal of military actions in the Nagorno-Karabakh or, God forbid, the tension on the Armenian-Turkish border. However, the latter is not very likely to happen, yet, excluding such a possibility would also be wrong. USA's urge to force out Russia from the Caucasus as soon as possible and to gain the complete control over the Caspian and Central Asian energy resources first of all strikes Armenia. The truth is though, that even if Yerevan changes its priorities in the foreign policy of the country, there are no guarantees that the USA will change the routes of the pipelines or the railroads. The only thing that can change the route of the pipelines is the stirring up of the militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) on the way of oil transportation.

It should be reminded that even in the Russian projects "South Stream" and "North-South" Armenia has no expectations either. By the way, the refusal of the US government to support financial assistance to Kars-Baku railroad is caused not by the sympathy towards Armenia, but simple pragmatism. One thing is to put big money in oil pipeline, another thing is to put big money in a rather problematic railroad, whose payback, regardless Baku's assertions, is rather dubious.

Not everything is all right with the widely publicized project of Nabucco. Nabucco gas pipeline International announced about the extension of more than 1.5 times construction costs of the gas pipeline reaching 7.9 milliard Euros. In the information on the official web site of the project, it was mentioned that the costs of the project of Nabucco have grown on the background of the growth of the prices of oil and the demand on steel. The consortium of the project reassessed the major expenses on the bases of the assessments of the supply and the delivery service for the construction of the gas pipeline. According to the new evaluation, the project needs 2 million tones of steel pipes and more than 30 compressor units. The Nabucco gas pipeline will provide gas from Azerbaijan and Central Asia to the countries of the European Union. From Central Asia to Nabucco the gas may be delivered by planned Trans-Caspian gas pipeline, which will go under the Caspian. The pipeline, with an initial capacity of about 8 milliard cubic meter per year, is planned to be ready by 2012. The first gas supplies must start in 2013, if it finished by then. The growth of the oil prices will continue, dollar still drops, and in the present conditions of the world economics, the project may simply be postponed for an uncertain period. The construction of the oil pipeline Baku-Ceyhan forewent 10-year negotiations, and without Heydar Aliyev it would not be build at all. The current President of Azerbaijan, unfortunately, or fortunately, has not inherited the connections and the foresight of his father.