Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer welcomed visiting heads of state and government at a banquet held at Ciragan Palace in Istanbul on Wednesday, ahead of the official opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline scheduled for Thursday in the southern city of Adana.
Speaking to guests, Sezer described the pipeline as "a safe and stable ring of the global energy chain," and said it would help ease tanker congestion through the Turkish Straits.
The president framed the project in broader terms, linking reliable energy supply to goals such as sustainable development, poverty reduction, and narrowing regional economic gaps. He also said the cooperation among nations involved in building the pipeline would support peace and stability across the region.
Sezer expressed particular satisfaction that Kazakhstan had joined the BTC project. He reaffirmed Türkiye's longstanding commitment to peaceful initiatives, tracing that tradition to the founding principles of Mustafa Kemal in 1923, and said Türkiye would continue working with the international community to promote global stability.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in July 2006, in its own words.