Samtskhe-Javakheti Region: A Neglected Keypoint for European Security of Energy Supply?

t is no doubt that the rise of new energy actors in post-Soviet geographic space such as Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan was welcomed by Western power centers. Those emerging actors were assessed as partners in diminishing Europe’s energy dependence to a single supplier; the Russian Federation. In this context, the main Western initiatives to challenge Russian energy dominance regarding the Caspian Basin were the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, and South Caucasus gas pipeline. These two strategic pipelines pass through the territories of Samtskhe-Javakheti region of Georgia - a tiny administrative unit adjacent to the Turkish city of Ardahan and Armenian city of Gyumri. Because of that, any political turmoil in that strategic region should easily turn into a factor endangering both already unsatisfactory regional stability and European energy security. In this article, Samtskhe-Javakheti region’s economic and demographic characteristics that make it unique and prone to instability are analyzed and European unio‎n’s Samtskhe-Javakheti policy is evaluated through the lens of security of energy supply. The conclusion of the paper is that, the European unio‎n failed to establish influential cooperation mechanisms to avoid political and economic instabilities in this transit region. The European unio‎n simply lacks a comprehensive regional plan compatible with the sociological and economic realities of Samtskhe-Javakheti.