Turkiye's Middle Corridor and China's BRI: Identification and Assessment.

• Author: Akcay, Nurettin
• Position: COMMENTARY - Belt and Road Initiative

Introduction

The Middle Corridor (MC), officially known as the Trans-Caspian East-West-Central Corridor Initiative, is a project that echoes Turkiye's dream of establishing transport networks with China and Central Asia. While the MC overlaps with the China-Central Asia-West Asia corridor of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it largely concentrates on roads and rail transportation lines. The emergence of the MC, however, did not occur by accident. Following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR), the Caspian region became a new field of struggle for regional powers. The discovery of abundant untapped hydrocarbon resources in the Caspian region further fuelled global powers' interest in the area. As the legal status of the Caspian Sea remain uncertain, the West and Russia started to compete to exercise control over oil and gas riches in the Caspian region. On the one hand, Moscow's objective was to limit gas sales competition by preventing the exploitation and transportation of energy resources from the Caspian region to Europe. On the other hand, the West sought to strengthen the political and economic independence of the Caspian states to neutralize the influence of Russia, Iran, or China in the region. Turkiye also had plans to dominate this region by linking all the Caspian states together via railroad networks. Therefore, the first factor that raised the issue of Trans-Caspian cooperation was the oil and gas reserves owned by the Caspian riparian states. The most important aspect of the Trans-Caspian cooperation was the transportation of the oil and gas belonging to the Caspian states from the Caspian Sea to Western markets. For this purpose, some states made significant attempts to develop alternative logistics. Kazakhstan, for instance, transferred some of its oil to global markets through Azerbaijan. Turkiye also tried to revive the Trans-Caspian Corridor and the Silk Road in the 1990s. The "Silk Road 2000" conference, which was held in Istanbul in 1997 and was attended by 26 countries, was the first meeting in which Turkiye indicated its interest in integrating the region. Turkish President Suleyman Demirel stated in the conference that the Modern Silk Road Dream would help Turkiye serve as an economic bridge between the West and the East. (1) The meeting culminated in the signing of the Ankara Declaration, and the signatories included Turkiye, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the U.S. (as a witness). With this declaration, the parties acknowledged that the construction of the Trans-Caucasus and Trans-Caspian pipelines was significant, and they reached a final decision on the "Caspian-Mediterranean/Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan" pipeline.

However, the MC faced several setbacks before moving in the right direction. The idea of connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkiye by rail was first discussed in 1993 at the Joint Transportation Commission. Armenia policymakers, nonetheless, lobbied the U.S. government to put pressure on Georgia to abandon the project. (2) For this reason, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project took longer than expected to be implemented. It was not until December 29, 2004, that the first step of the project was taken at the meeting of the Turkiye-Georgia-Azerbaijan joint transport commission in Tbilisi. (3) The logistic ties between Turkiye, Georgia, and Azerbaijan grew stronger in the following year. On May 25, 2005, the president of each country signed a trilateral declaration on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ahilkelek-Kars Railway Project, also known as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK). The final agreement for the BTK Railway Project was signed on February 7, 2007, in Tbilisi by the Turkiye's Transport Minister Binali Yildirim, Georgia's Economy Minister Georgi Arvaladze, and Azerbaijan's Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov. (4) With the BTK, the Trans-European and Trans-Asian railways network would be merged, and cargo and passengers would be transported to Europe or Asia via Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkiye. Another transportation network in the MC is the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). Turkish State Railways became a permanent member of this union in 2018. (5) Since then, Turkiye has become one of the key stakeholders in the MC with its membership in the TITR. (6) The TITR is a unifying body that represents the interests of countries and companies that rely on the New Silk Road. The Union aims to manage and coordinate all parties involved in transporting cargo and containers from Asia to Europe.

In summary, Turkiye has played a leading role in harmonizing its transport networks with those of Georgia of Azerbaijan. Turkiye's main objective in establishing the MC is to facilitate the transfer of hydrocarbon resources from the Caspian basin to western countries. This initiative has strengthened the connectivity of the East-West corridor through the construction of transportation routes and energy pipelines. The MC should not be considered a single project; rather, it should be regarded as a fragmented scheme that is based on the idea of extending railway lines from Turkish territories to Central Asia via Transcaucasia. With the MC, Ankara seems prepared to become a major player in Central Asia.

The Project's Purpose

Turkiye's MC is based on the functional use of the existing road and railway routes from China to Turkiye. (7) Thanks to the MC, Ankara will be able to play an active role in integrating Central Asia and the South Caucasus through global trade and inter-continental transportation networks. (8) Three promising routes facilitate the intercontinental integration of railway networks. The first route aims to connect China with Russia via the Northern Corridor and the Trans-Siberian Railway (TSR). However, the severe winter conditions, the political problems between Russia and Georgia, and the...