User:Gunfighter~enwiki

The Caucasus region of the world is rich in natural resources. Because of these resources, multiple conflicts have been fought stemming from the desire to obtain them or to prevent others from obtaining them. Azerbaijan is the crown jewel of this wealth of resources. The nation is rich in energy resources like oil and natural gas. As well as the natural resources of gold, silver, iron, copper, titanium, chromium, manganese and cobalt. Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital city, sits at the head of all of the major pipelines from Central Asia to Europe.

These pipelines include the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, the South Caucasus Pipeline connecting the Shah Deniz gas field to Europe. These pipelines all go through the same three nations, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. There have also been talks of a Nabucco pipeline stemming from Azerbaijan through Turkey to Austria. As well as, liquefied natural gas stations off the Georgian coast if an agreement with Turkey cannot be brokered. Russia is currently the biggest supplier of natural gas to Europe. Russia, though connected through the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, seeks to exert more muscle on the energy market. This desire for more control of the flow of fossil fuel to Europe is believed to have been at the heart of the Russia–Georgia War and the South Ossetia War. Azerbaijan, itself, had to initially divert the pipelines through neighboring Georgia, instead of the closer and more direct Armenia due to the 1988-1994 Nagorno-Karabakh War.

The Nagorno-Karabakh War stemmed from ethnic differences between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. While energy was not the reason for the war, the consequences were felt in the energy trade and policies exhibited by Azerbaijan. Turkey being composed of an ethnic culture similar to Azerbaijan also dealt with Armenia with exclusion from economic developments. The most visible result is that not one single pipeline out of Azerbaijan passes through Armenia or the disputed territory. However, as a result of this the pipeline now travels through Georgia and earthquake-prone parts of Turkey.

On the other part of the pipeline, Georgia has been found to be a possible weak-link in the energy transit network. The interest in the region stems from Western Europe and the United States seeking a bypass of Middle Eastern and Russian oil and natural gas. With the fall of the Soviet Union leaving a number of ethnic enclaves in new nations, the situation left many conflicts ready to erupt at the slightest provocation. In 2008, Russia intervened on the Georgian territorial disputes with the breakaway regions of South Ossetia, and Abkhazia. Ossetia is a region in the Caucasus that is separated by Russia in the North and Georgia to the South. Abkhazia has long been a separatist region in Georgia that has been a source of internal conflict.

The 2008 South Ossetia War was believed to be started by Georgia seeking to end the Ossetian breakaway region for the last time. However, as Georgian forces converged, Russian forces entered the conflict. There has been some degree of uncertainty towards which side caused the conflict to escalate. On December 2nd, 2008, an European Union report was ordered to determine who started the conflict. This report determined that: The Russian superiority in arms and equipment quickly ended the conflict and brought independence to these breakaway regions in a fierce battle. Undoubtedly, these regions will provide any excuse for further Russian intervention to further pressure the BTC and any future pipelines out of Georgia. However, Georgia has the ability to achieve some measure of revenge through stymieing Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization.

As Azerbaijan continues to grow and develop new pipelines of natural gas and oil to Europe and Central Asia, it may only be a matter of time before Russia seeks a bigger share of the Azerbaijan natural resource market to further pressure Europe and the United States towards dependence on their oil and gas. In the case of the United States, this is sort of ironic due to US interest being due to a desire to avoid dependence Middle Eastern oil. Nonetheless, the bloody history of the region has caused the pipelines to divert into more conflicted area, leaving the world to wonder how long will the supply of these resources be safe and reliable.