Energy security expert Vahe Davtyan's Facebook pagethe post:
"The other day, it became known that the Turkish company ENKA won an international arbitration against Tbilisi. The latter is obliged to pay the company 382.3 million USD in order to compensate the losses of the Namakhvan HPP project.
Although the complex processes unfolding around the Namakhvan HPP are presented purely from the point of view of energy and environmental security, they have a marked geopolitical significance.
The hydroelectric power station estimated at about 900 million US dollars was being built by a Turkish company, to which, as is known, the Georgian government had transferred the right to use the largest river of Western Georgia, Rioni, for a period of 90 years.
In addition, the Turkish company could exploit the territory of the river basin at its own discretion: 13.4 thousand. km, as well as the entire flora and fauna of the river.
As a result, the Turkish company actually got the opportunity to control the border zone between Georgia and Russia, which could not help but worry those who objectively assess the risks of Turkish expansion in Georgia.
In 2021, thousands of protests were held almost daily in Georgia (the number of participants exceeded 15 thousand in Kutaisi), where not only environmental, but also political and more often anti-Turkish statements were voiced.
It was no coincidence that the materials published regularly in the Turkish and Azerbaijani press about the generation of "anti-Turkish hysteria" in Georgia.
In the end, Tbilisi made a decision to suspend the cooperation with the Turkish company, and the HPP project was removed from the agenda.
The constant presence of Georgian clergy in the ranks of the demonstrators was one of the vivid proofs of this.
The odyssey of the Namakhvan HPP more than vividly reveals the true nature of Turkish-Georgian relations, the essence and long-term goals of the aggressive expansion of Turkish capital.
