AZERBAIJAN’S leader Heidar Aliyev s ailing health and possible change of leadership in the Caspian state will not stall or slow down the work for the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline as main export route for Caspian oil, according to Turkish energy officials and analysts. “BTC is a multi-national project with political implications involving regional countries as well as the United States,” a senior Turkish official told PipeWire. “It is too big to solely depend on one person.”
After a treatment in Ankara, Aliyev has been transferred to Cleveland Clinic in the US. Hospital officials said his health was stable.
A Foreign Ministry official in Ankara said that although Aliyev’s health would not allow him to return to office ahead of presidential elections in Azerbaijan later this year, a leadership change would not affect BTC, already under construction. Analysts said BTC would go ahead “with or without Aliyev”. “The project is strongly backed by the United States,” said Reha Tartici, director for the Istanbul-based research house Consensus.