TURKEY USES ESTABLISHMENT OF RELATIONS WITH GEORGIA TO STRENGTHEN ITS POSITION IN REGION: EXPERTS

Trend News Agency
Sept 16 2009
Azerbaijan

Strengthening the relations between Turkey and Georgia is driven by
Ankara’s desire to change foreign policy and to take a more active
stance in the Caucasus region, experts believe.

"Georgia and Turkey historically have close relations so it is no
surprise that Turkey is working to build up even closer links as part
of its new assertive foreign policy strategy in its neighbourhood,"
believes Amanda Akcakoca, European Expert on South Caucasus.

Last week, in an interview with the Georgian First TV Channel,
Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davudoglu said the Deputy Foreign
Minister of Turkey will visit Abkhazia in the near future.

"Turkey considers the peoples of the Caucasus as the residents of one
house, living under one roof, and therefore, we want the Georgians and
Abkhazians have lived in the same house in terms of mutual respect. The
forthcoming visit of the Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister serves this
purpose," Interfax quoted Dovudoglu as saying.

On Sept. 11, Georgian President, Mikhail Saakashvili during awarding
the Turkish Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Georgia
Ertan Tezgor the Order of Honor, said that "Turkey is Georgia’s key
ally in the region", GeorgiaTimes reported.

The President stressed that Georgia and Turkey have close political
partnership, and free trade regime, as well as the turnover has
increased several times in recent years.

Experts believe the apparent rapprochement between Turkey and Georgia
in recent times has been dictated by Ankara’s desire to take a more
active stance in the region.

In the Caucasus Turkey is seeking to use the benefit of any vacuum,
every opportunity, and the recent intensification of relations between
Turkey and Georgia is caused by the fact that after the hostilities
in August 2008, Washington has begun to pay attention to Tbilisi,
Azerbaijani Political Scientist, Tofiq Abbasov believes.

"The very military campaign and its consequences showed that the White
House administration makes a pause before beginning to implement a new
policy with respect to Georgia, Azerbaijani Expert at the Leader-TV
Analytical Group, Abbasov told Trend News. "This is in some sense
useful for Ankara which, besides a mediator function, has also its
own interests in the Caucasus."

The analyst believes the uncertainty which President Saakashvili has
faced in the relations with the United States as the main strategic
partner, has created some of the niches that Ankara is trying to
fill in. However, these niches cannot radically affect the regional
geopolitical alignment, said Abbasov.

Ever since Turkey launched its stability initiative for the region
following last years Georgia-Russia war, Ankara has been endeavouring
to find a bigger role for itself in the region as well as contribute
to efforts to increase stability, Expert of the European Policy Centre
(Belgium), Akcakoca wrote to Trend News in an email.

Russia and Turkey in mid-September 2008 launched a plan to create a
"Caucasus Security & Stability Platform", whose establishment was
caused by the desire of Turkey and Russia to rapidly resolve the
territorial conflicts in the Caucasus between Armenia and Turkey and
between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Turkey begins to strengthen its role and strengthen its position in
the South Caucasus, ARMENIA Today quoted Georgian Political Analyst,
Paata Zakareishvili as saying.

He said by using the opportunity of the Russian lull in the South
Caucasus, Turkey has actively taken up the role of regional power.

"Progress in the Turkish-Armenian relations primarily has been dictated
by the Turkish interests," Turkish Political Scientist, former member
of the Turkish Parliament, Mehmet Bekaroglu said to Trend News over
a telephone from Istanbul.

Turkey, he believes, wants to change its previous policy. Previously,
Ankara pursued the pro-NATO policy, the trend has recently changed,
said Bekaroglu.

"The new government of Turkey believes that such a narrow focus of
the policy that Ankara pursued before was not effective, now Turkey
has a much more flexible policy in relation to other countries,"
said Bekaroglu.

Such cooperation, according to observers, is useful equally for Ankara
and Tbilisi.

It should be borne in mind that Turkey and Georgia border, and
currently all transit projects in Turkey pass through Georgia, and,
as Georgia is unstable, Turkey is trying to stabilize the situation
in the region to secure its energy projects, said Bekaroglu.

The Azerbaijani export Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline – the South
Caucasus gas pipeline that delivers gas from the Shah Deniz field to
the Erzurum distribution point passes through Georgia and Turkey. At
present, the Baku -Tbilisi-Kars railway is under construction.

Given Georgia’s current frosty relationship with the big neighbour
to the North it is also clear that it is in Georgia’s interests too
to develop a more strategic and stronger relationship with other big
neighbours ," Akcakoca believes.

"Moreover, it is important for Georgia to cooperate with Turkey,
regarding the two nations are already collaborating in economic,
security, and energy issues," she said.

V.Zhavoronkova and R.Hafizoglu contributed to this article.