Hürriyet, Turkey
Saturday, August 16, 2008 16:24

Turkey-sponsored Caucasian union to start as an economic partnership

Turkey has mapped out the details of the proposed Caucasian union and
plans to launch the association on the basis of the economic
partnership.

Turkey had proposed the formation of a Caucasian union after the
clashes erupted between Georgia and Russia. Turkey, as a neighboring
country of the region, has close interest in the Caucasus in its
efforts to ensure energy supply safety.

Ankara had stepped in to resolve the conflict with Prime Minister
Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan had visited both
Moscow and Tbilisi.

Turkey’s proposal to establish a Caucasian union was widely
accepted. The union, called by Turkey as "Caucasus Stability and
Partnership Platform", is envisaged to bring Turkey, Armenia, Georgia,
Azerbaijan and Russia under the same roof.

Sources from Turkish foreign ministry told local media the union is
planned to have common security and executive bodies, and would be
similar to the neighboring countries of Iraq but in a more complex
structure. The works on the unions would start next week.

TOUGH TASK

Although the idea was widely accepted, there is a tough task ahead of
Turkey as almost every country, who would take part in this
establishment, has bilateral conflicts.

Turkey hopes this union would contribute to the strengthening of the
relations between Ankara and Yerevan as well as the resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

TURKEY-ARMENIA: Turkey is among the first countries that recognized
Armenia when it declared its independency. However there is no
diplomatic relations between two countries, as Armenia presses the
international community to admit the so-called "genocide" claims
instead of accepting Turkey’s call to investigate the allegations, and
its invasion of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory despite
U.N. Security Council resolutions on the issue.

AZERBAIJAN-ARMENIA: Nagorno Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan which
has been under the occupation of Armenia since the war broke out
between the two states in 1988-1994. In 1988 when the disputed
region’s Armenian-dominated governing council voted to secede from
Azerbijan, it set of a series of bloody clashes both between and
within the two neighboring countries. Some 10 percent of the Azeri
population was displaced.

GEORGIA-RUSSIA: Russia was deeply involved at many levels in the
conflicts in Georgia’s breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
and in 1993 Ajarian leaders also declared Russia the protector of
their national interests. Clashes erupted between two countries last
week after Georgian forces held a military operation in the South
Ossetia.