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Caspian Projects II

Judging from the data given above, the keen interest of the coastal states and trans-national companies in the oilfields of the Caspian shelf has risen lately. The history of the Caspian oil is already at least 100 years old. At that, this history highly resembles the events taking place in this area today.

In 1903, Rockefeller offered the tsarist government of Russia to lease the Baku oilfields to the Americans. In accordance with Rockefeller's offer, Russia replenished its treasury owing to the lease. Later the Americans could buy out these oilfields. As far back as then the agreement implied construction of the oil pipeline Baku - Batum to export Russian oil through the Dardanelles to Europe.

Russian and Azerbaijan oilmen offered the government another project: to refine oil in Baku and export kerosene to Europe through the product pipeline. It meant the swift ousting of Rockefeller from the European market. Russia began the implementation of the project, but the head of Standard Oil, clearly, didn't resign himself to the coming loss of markets. Rockefeller, as they would say today, began to exploit the nationalities' problem in the Caucasus and hired a great number of agitators of different political trends. There is even an opinion that the notorious Batum strike, organised by Dzhugashvili, is directly connected with the detriment to the Russian-Azerbaijan capital in its fight with the Americans (Rossiiskaya Gazeta, 1996.12.07). By the way, the Russian kerosene syndicate, whose participants were skilfully embroiled, was locked in endless machinations and finally went bankrupt.

After 1917 Western interest in the Caspian region didn't become less intense.

At the end of November 1917 Marshal Foch addressed London and Washington his memorandum "On Measures to Be Taken in Respect of Russia." In his opinion, the Caspian region should have been taken under British-American control with predominance of the British influence there. In December the same year Great Britain and France signed the "Conditions of the Convention," according to which Russian territory was divided into spheres of influence by the Entente states. In 1918, a 15-year plan for the development of the Caspian oilfields by British companies was written.

America also decided to take part in this division. Officials at the US State Department in their comments to Woodrow Wilson's plan stated that the Caucasus should be considered as part of the Turkish Empire or as a sphere of its influence. As far as the Transcaspian region and Central Asia went, the Americans offered "to grant one of the countries a limited mandate for governing on a protectorate basis..." Thus, as far back as then, the Americans tried, while dividing Russian territory, to actively exploit the Islamic Turan factor, colliding with Britain. 

In 1919 Winston Churchill wrote a phrase, which has acquired heightened topicality nowadays: The North Caucasus and the Caspian Sea region are Russia's soft saddle. Strategic control of the allies (the Entente - Ed.) over the territories of the former Russian empire cannot be effective if the North Caucasus and the Caspian region are not controlled by western powers.

In July-August of 1918 the governments of the "Central Caspian" region in Baku and the "Transcaspian" region in Ashkhabad, under the pretence of protection from the Turks, called for the help of British troops. The overall strength of the British armed forces in the region totalled 22,000 soldiers and officers, and taking into account the sub-units, deployed in Iran - more than 30,000. In the Caspian Sea the British even managed to create the "Royal Caspian military flotilla," consisting of Russian ships and British vessels transported to Krasnovodsk and Lenkoran through Iran. However, in the spring of 1919 the British were forced to leave the Caspian region due to the rebellion in Iran and a mighty offensive by the Turks.

In 1919-1920 Britain took control of the Black Sea ports in Georgia, first of all of Batumi and Poti, as those were the outlets through which Azerbaijan oil was to be transported. British political documents of that time defined the aim of this policy as turning the Caspian Sea into a domestic sea of the British empire, which would take control of the navigation of the Volga river.

Simultaneously the USA and Britain actively supported the then failed adventure of Enver-pasha. This pasha came out with support of panturanian positions, having declared that faithful Moslems should take the lead over Europeans and capture the Caucasus alongside the Caspian oilfields. Over the period of 1918-1920 the Turks, however, managed to export 4,000 tanks of the Baku oil. The British transported back home 480,000 tonnes of kerosene, oil and black oil over the same period of time.

One may claim that Churchill's maxim of "Russia's soft saddle" is a geopolitical invariant. The world is changing while geopolitical aspirations remain the same.

In 1940 the British-French plan, implying the invasion of the USSR through Iran and Turkey, was to be carried out. The refusal of Tehran and Ankara ruined this plan.

On June 18, 1941 the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between fascist Germany and Turkey was signed. The future of the Caspian region of the USSR looked in the following way (Rossiiskaya Gazeta, 1996.12.07): the "creation of the Transcaucasian and 'highlands' nations' confederation (in the North Caucasus) under German-Turkish protectorate; all the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Azov Sea ports of the 'former' USSR to be controlled by Berlin; the south-western part of Georgia (Meskhetia), Adzharia and the Nakhichevan region to be passed over to Turkey; free Turkish transit through the Black Sea and Caspian Sea ports to be allowed. The Caspian regions of Central Asia subject to a German protectorate, while the Astrakhan region and Kalmykia would be included in the puppet confederation 'Idel-Ural.' The oil pipeline Baku-Batumi and the Caspian oil complex were to be declared property of Germany..." Hitler's plan "Felmy" (1941) provided for the invasion of Iran and Iraq by German troops after the occupation of the Caucasus and the Caspian region. The invasion was scheduled for 1942-1943 with the participation of Turkey. The memorandum stated: "The economic take-over of the Caspian Sea region will for ever secure the Reich's Asian rear, will allow us to control the Caucasus, Middle East, Turkestan and partially the foreign aspirations of Turkey. The importance of the region's resources, especially the oil ones, for the Reich is hard to overestimate... Domination over this region is essential also because after eliminating the Russian and Bolshevik threat to the new world order, the Reich's main rival will be the 'emerging East.' The 'Caspian bulwark,' backed by special German-Turkish relationship, must stand in its way..."

...Zbigniew Bzhezinski is no original thinker. He is simply well-read, unlike provincial Russian politicians of nowadays. He'd better, though, read more carefully the German memorandum "Felmy," written in 1941, which discusses among other things the danger of the "emerging East" for the new world order after the elimination of the Russian and Bolshevik threat. What difference does it make, to which "reich," German or North American, this new threat has already appeared...?