Critical energy infrastructure security in Turkey: instance of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Pipeline

Security approaches have begun to transform since the 1970s and this transition process has continued after the collapse of Soviet Union. In spite of returning to the traditional security approaches after the September (9/11), 2011 attacks, the new approaches have strengthened their position in the literature. For this reason, energy and energy security constituted a priority in agendas of countries in the last decade and caused to serious competition geopolitically in this area. The Western countries have begun to develop various action and protection policies in this topic. In this sense, Turkey has begun to developing policy embodying itself in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Pipeline commissioned in 2006. However, Turkey has remained behind the many Western world countries because of its the specific dynamics or own sense of security in terms of critical infrastructure security. In this regard, the aim of the study is to understand how Turkey provides critical energy infrastructure security by comparing Turkey with its correspondents in the world focusing on the strong and weak sides of the country. The securitization approach of the Copenhagen school is used as a tool to understand the perception of Turkish state elite on critical infrastructure security. Key Words: Security Approaches, Energy Security, Pipelines, The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Pipeline, Critical Energy Infrastructure Security