Introduction
The Middle Corridor (MC), officially known as the Trans-Caspian East-West-Central Corridor Initiative, is a project that echoes Türkiye’s dream of establishing transport networks with China and Central Asia. While the MC overlaps with the China-Central Asia-West Asia corridor of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it largely concentrates on roads and rail transportation lines. The emergence of the MC, however, did not occur by accident. Following the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR), the Caspian region became a new field of struggle for regional powers. The discovery of abundant untapped hydrocarbon resources in the Caspian region further fuelled global powers’ interest in the area. As the legal status of the Caspian Sea remain uncertain, the West and Russia started to compete to exercise control over oil and gas riches in the Caspian region. On the one hand, Moscow’s objective was to limit gas sales competition by preventing the exploitation and transportation of energy resources from the Caspian region to Europe. On the other hand, the West sought to strengthen the political and economic independence of the Caspian states to neutralize the influence of Russia, Iran, or China in the region. Türkiye also had plans to dominate this region by linking all the Caspian states together via railroad networks. Therefore, the first factor that raised the issue of Trans-Caspian cooperation was the oil and gas reserves owned by the Caspian riparian states.