President Erdoğan hails benefits of TANAP pipeline

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan extolled the benefits of the Trans-Anatolia Natural Gas Pipeline Project in an article he wrote for the latest issue of The Diplomat magazine.

In the article "TANAP: Regional Development and Peace Project" published in collaboration with the New York Times, Erdoğan emphasized that TANAP is a regional peace project.

"TANAP is a concrete example of the long-lasting trust and friendship between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It constitutes the main leg of the Southern Gas Corridor, which aims to take the Hazar region's natural gas to Europe through Turkey and Georgia. It is the most important piece of a 3,500-kilometer-long corridor."

Erdoğan said Turkey's process of change over the last 18 years created a suitable environment for channeling energy resources from this region to Turkey and Europe.

"Thanks to our cooperation with Azerbaijan and Georgia, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Pipeline was launched and commissioned in 2006. Later, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum Natural Gas Pipeline was put into operation in 2007 to transport the natural gas produced at Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field to Georgia and Turkey."

"The first steps for TANAP were taken with an Intergovernmental Agreement signed on 25 October 2011 by Turkey and Azerbaijan. As a result of subsequent negotiations and thanks to the support of both Georgia's and Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field partners, the Intergovernmental Agreement and the Host Government Agreement of TANAP were signed on 26 June 2012 by Turkey and Azerbaijan.

"Following the final investment decision taken by the Shah Deniz Field partners for Phase 2 of the project in December 2013, works on the extension of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum Natural Gas Pipeline,...