AMERICAN ANALYST: "TURKEY’S CURRENT ROLE IN THE REGION IS GROWING, BUT THIS IS NOT ALWAYS HELPFUL FOR GEORGIA AND AZERBAIJAN"

APA
Feb 24 2010
Azerbaijan

Washingotn. Isabel Levine – APA. "Turkey’s current role in the region
is growing, and the country is successful in that process, but this
is not always helpful for Georgia and Azerbaijan. Turkey is no longer
willing to act as a security deterrent against Russia in the region,
and that changes a picture", – Mamuka Tsereteli, senior analyst of
American University told APA’s Washington correspondent. According
to him, there are three major trends in the region right now, one
of them is the reduced strategic ties between regional actors. "We
can see reduced collaboration between Azerbaijan and Georgia on some
issues that used to be better. Second trend is the new dimension of
the US policy towards Russia, and that influenced the Caucasus as
reduce of US interest in the region. And the third trend – is the
tremendous pressure from Russia" – he said.

Analyst also mentioned that, "there hasn’t been any real big progress
on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in terms of negotiation between Azerbaijan
and Armenia, and there was a lot of Russia’s pressure, we could see
Russian military within a few km from our capital Tbilisi, and all
of those issues influence the regional cooperation".

Another thing to concentrate on is the process of the integration of
Caucasus into the NATO.

"Taking into consideration the recent events and especially the war
in Georgia I think this process is being postponed and needs to be
continued" – Mr. Tsereteli added.