Page 11 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

THE JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SCIENCES: THEORY AND PRACTICE, V.72, # 1, 2015, pp. 5-26

warring sides, used to high levels of consumption and isolated from European markets

due to the hostilities in the Gulf. As a result, Turkey provided its territory for the import

of essential Western non-military goods and agricultural commodities for the

adversaries in exchange for their oil. Both Iran and Iraq also received lavish credits,

intended to help them to buy Turkish consumer goods and produce of agriculture. This

happened despite the open belligerence of the USA towards official Tehran and

cooperation of Pentagon with the regime of Saddam Hussian [11].

After the demise of the Soviet Union the West decided to turn Turkey into the

main middleman in the relations with new countries of Central Asia and Southern

Caucasus in order to free them from excessive Russian influence. In this respect

official Ankara supported oil and gas-rich Azerbaijan and Iran instead sided with

Armenia, since the regime of President Abulfaz Elchibey put forward claims to areas

populated by ethnic Azerbaijani people in Iran. Official Ankara became more

successful than Tehran in the Caucasus because of the immediate border with Georgia

and pro-American policy, which emphasized the creation of land routes for Caspian

oil and gas to Europe via that country in order to lessen dependency of the European

Union on Russian energy. In addition its economy was in position to cater the needs of

new Post-Soviet states in different fields. For example, Turkish companies prevailed

in textile industry, taking into consideration well-established local cotton economy

and their own expertise. Construction companies also took the advantage of huge

demand for housing and vanity buildings in Azerbajian and Central Asian states. They

carried out some of large-scale building projects of political elite in cities of Ashgabat,

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