Wednesday, July 8, 2015

ISIS-oil?

On our way out of the valley from Borjomi to Gori we stopped for a nescafĂ©. It was still early and three men were sitting on the same terrace having breakfast. One of them came up to us and asked about our journey and the bikes. He appeared to be a Brit who worked on the finalization of a pipeline from the oil fields in Azerbeidzjan, through Georgia and Turkey to the Mediterenean. “A huge strategic project”, he said, which is true obviously.
Then I asked him about the Iranian oil-trucks that we saw hoisting themselves up over these high mountain passes from Turkey into Georgia, did he know more about them? As a matter of fact I thought it was a means of avoiding the Iran oil boycot, and that the Turkish and Georgian governments co-operated in that. But according to the Brit it is worse than that. His answer came quick and without hesitatian: “Isis-oil. Everybody knows, nobody does anything about it.” According to him the trucks come from the areas in Iraque that are under Isis occupation, and they take the oil through Syria and Turkey into Georgia. But, was my remark, the Turks and..... “Well, the Turks don't like the Kurds, so...”
It silenced me for a while. This man works in the oil world, he is bound to have more information than most. Would this be true, and it is not unreal to think it is?
Then here we are, witnessing how ugly and dirty geo-politics can be.




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