Turkey is hosting the 23rd World Energy Congress, the most important event held by the World Energy Council, in Istanbul, in a very crucial year. The congress's main theme, "Embracing New Frontiers," suits Turkey's vision as the host country. I need to say that this congress and theme point to a final stage as the 23rd World Energy Congress is poised to be an event that will be crucial as far as the steps Turkey has taken in energy in recent years.

The Middle East has always been one of the most important centers of energy sharing. Certainly, Turkey's interference in this region and its energy resources, as well as it becoming important in the region, is a new development and the sign of a new beginning. After oil was discovered as an indispensable energy resource in the Ottoman territories, Britain and other big states adopted a political path where they aimed to remove the Ottoman Empire and Turkey from the energy fields and regulate the region's energy supply in accordance with their own interests.

This being the case, the issue of energy that we are debating today is also a question of sharing markets and territories - which is a political issue at its core. We have stepped into a new period where the energy resources of the Middle East, Caucasus, Mediterranean and Africa will be redistributed. This fact is what primarily underlies the ongoing terrorism and civil wars in the region. For this reason, I need to reiterate the following important historical facts as the basis of specific energy problems.

At the moment, Turkey must address the issue of returning to four basic energy and market areas that it moved away from after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. This is necessary for welfare and peace in Turkey, the region and the world. The first is Northern Iraq's energy resources, which terrorist organizations like Daish strive to invade and which must be purified of these elements. Second is the economic cycle around Aleppo and Latakia where the Syrian civil war is taking place. This is one of the most important economic cycles, which controls the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian trade cycle on the old Silk Road. Since the early 20th century the Ottoman Empire's links with this region were broken. Certainly, without Aleppo and Latakia, you cannot create a new large economic cycle and cannot smoothly connect European trade routes to the East and the New Silk Road, which starts from China, to the great market of Europe. This issue also concerns the Mediterranean trade cycle, the commercialization of natural gas resources and the resolution of the Gaza question. However, you cannot establish a connection to Aleppo and Latakia - which also means that you cannot build peace. Third is the large territory consisting of Caspian and Caucasian oil resources. Fourth is the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. The Ottoman Empire's links with both regions were also broken in the beginning of the 20th century and the Treaty of Lausanne legitimized this. In this regard, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's emphasis on the treaty in recent days also highlights that the people of these regions must embrace their own natural energy resources and achieve peace and welfare through them.

Under Erdoğan's leadership, Turkey has taken steps toward peace based on energy. The two important steps that Turkey has taken in energy in recent years are the most concrete indicators of this fact. The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, which constitutes the backbone of this corridor, and the commercialization of Northern Iraqi and Mediterranean oil and natural gas resources are large welfare and integration projects that go beyond the limits of the energy sector.

For instance, connecting Caspian and Iraqi energy lines to the SGC and extending these lines to Europe is not only an energy transmission project. Here, Turkey is the only country that can ensure energy supply security in terms of pricing and production.

The founding of the Turkish Energy Stock Market (EPİAŞ) is a crucial step in determining prices and market dynamics. Turkey is increasingly becoming a country that can disrupt natural gas and energy monopolies in the Caucasus and Europe in terms of price and supply.

The development of Turkish-Azeri relations based on energy and the TANAP project, the steps taken toward making Turkey an energy hub that safely carries Northern Iraqi and Caspian energy resources to the West, the possibility of the southern Turkish province of Ceyhan becoming an energy distribution center and a strategic center in determining energy prices, these all indicate that a new energy business cycle will emerge starting with natural gas prices in the upcoming days. This cycle points to new integration starting with the Caspian region.

These steps correspond to the following solutions:

1. Energy security, which means democracy, peace and political stability in the region.

2. New energy prices, which means normalization not only in natural gas and oil prices but also in all commodity prices determining the global economic cycle.

3. The integration of the region in a peaceful way, which means a new united hinterland, leading to peace and welfare, starting from the Balkans and Eastern Europe and reaching Azerbaijan passing through Turkey and Georgia.