Turkey, Ankara / corr Trend A.Ismayilova / All measures have been for the security of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) main export oil pipeline, Turkish President Abdullah Gul said in a meeting with Azerbaijani journalists on 1 November. He was commenting on the situation in Turkey's border with Iraq and fighting against the Kurdish Worker Party (PKK).
"There is no doubt with the provision of security of energy projects," the Turkish President.
Gul said that the security of the pipeline is provided in Turkey, as well as in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Since 1984 the PKK has been struggling for establishment of an independent Kurdish state in the south-east of Turkey. As a result, over 37,000 people died. The situation aggravated when Kurdish military several times attacked Turkey from the northern Iraq. In response, Turkey deployed its troops to the border with Iraq and publicized its intensions to invade the country to combat terrorism.
The oil pipeline with cost of over $4bln was built for export of Azerbaijani light oil produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli offshore fields. The discharge capacity of the pipeline is 50mln tons of oil a year.