Brothers Hussein and Mustafa Ozkara, age 18 and 25, are third generation fishermen. Their daily fishing income dropped from $85 to $15 due to the effects of the BTC pipeline on Yumurtalik. Moreover, 1,800 m2 of their fishing area is now inaccessible because of the BTC. Fishermen have to go further into the sea, which doubles their fuel costs. Yumurtalik, Turkey. 2007 Forming a thousand mile corridor of military control and exempt from international human rights legislation in its “state within a state”, the pipeline provokes further tension in a region of countries with an already poor human rights record. Initial promises and expectations of trickle-down wealth remain unfulfilled and political assurances mean nothing to people who have become victims in the New Great Game, victims who never were asked if they were willing to sacrifice. While governments promised better lives for their citizens who live in brutal poverty, most of those directly affected by the pipeline have benefited least. In Azerbaijan, farmers all over the country have lost land to the pipeline while their compensation has been stolen by corrupt officials. Next door to the multi-billion dollar technological marvel of the Sangachal oil terminal where the pipeline begins its course, an impoverished community of 4,500 people is living and breathing the toxic air. “This oil is not for us, it’s for the West!” – says an elderly resident of Garaberk, a village above the pipeline, which has not had gas for over a decade. In Georgia the pipeline snakes through earthquake prone mountains accelerating the destruction of an already fragile environment where people are losing their homes in landslides. Youth flee the countryside in search of employment, leaving elder family members unattended; in the village of Tetritskaro, two kilometers from the pipeline, the entire population is above the age of sixty. “It’s like throwing a piece of bread to a dog to make it stop barking” – a resident of Tetritskaro refers to his meager compensation plan. In Turkey on the Mediterranean coast, the BTC has caused further disruption to an already fragile environment of the Yumurtalik bay. Fish egg populations have been decimated by pipeline effluent and fishermen are forced to abandon their nets for employment opportunities in Iraq! “We want our sea back” – implore the fishermen. Ethnic tension simmers just below the veneer of professionalism in Kars, as Turkmen and Kurds endure employment and human rights abuses, adding resentment and pressure to the complex cultural and religious web of southeast Turkey.