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Ankara: Turkey's Caucasus Policy Still Central Despite Recent Activi

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  • Ankara: Turkey's Caucasus Policy Still Central Despite Recent Activi

    TURKEY'S CAUCASUS POLICY STILL CENTRAL DESPITE RECENT ACTIVISM IN MIDDLE EAST

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    June 9 2013

    Director of the Center for Strategic Studies Farhad Mammadov (Photo:
    Today's Zaman)

    Turkey's foreign policy agenda is dominated by the pursuit of security
    as well as strengthening political and economic ties with the countries
    in the South Caucasus despite the remarkable burst of recent Turkish
    activism in the Middle East, says an Azerbaijani expert, also pointing
    out that the Caucasus as a whole region continues to play a large
    role in Turkish foreign policy.

    "We are closely following Turkey's foreign policy activities in the
    Middle East, which have taken a striking turn in recent years, but
    it has not changed Turkey's attitude towards the South Caucasus in
    any way," said Farhad Mammadov, director of the Center for Strategic
    Studies (SAM), adding, "Turkey has been undertaking joint projects
    in the region with Georgia and Azerbaijan and regular high-level
    visits and meetings each year confirm increasing Turkish interest in
    the region."

    Commenting on Ankara's active role in the South Caucasus in an
    interview with Today's Zaman, Mammadov labeled Turkey a dynamic and
    constructive actor in the region, especially since 2008 when Turkey's
    role became more active.

    In 2008, when a crisis erupted in August between Russia and Georgia
    over South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia's separatist republics,
    Turkey tried hard to pacify the war-torn South Caucasus, using its
    common history and its role as a trade and energy partner. While
    Western powers were contemplating diplomatic ways to achieve a
    meaningful breakthrough between Russia and Georgia, Prime Minister
    Recep Tayyip Erdogan worked to establish the Caucasus Stability and
    Cooperation Pact that would include Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia
    as well as the two regional powers in the South Caucasus, Russia and
    Turkey. However, the complicated atmosphere in the region, including
    the long-standing territorial conflicts, brought the project to a dead
    end. Mammadov stressed that the idea of a Caucasus Stability Pact was
    first initiated by the presidents of Azerbaijan and Georgia under the
    Tbilisi Declaration in 1996. The initiative was then later prompted
    to a large extent by a series of statements made by the presidents of
    Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey at the Organization for Security and
    Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) İstanbul Summit held in November 1999.

    Mammadov said of the Turkish stability pact effort, "Of course,
    the clauses of the pact were not made public, but it was an idea to
    formulate regulations and limit conflicts so that regional countries
    could come together to fight the threats that exist not only inside
    the region but also those that outside the region that are a challenge
    to regional peace and stability." He added that diverse conflicts
    and disputes have consistently prevented the initiatives from being
    realized.

    Tension was at a peak in the South Caucasus at the time and the
    countries of the region did not welcome the initiative. Georgia turned
    the project down at first sight, demanding that Russia, which was
    considered the principal party responsible for the August aggression,
    withdraw its forces from Georgia. Armenia and Azerbaijan were also
    cautious about the project, since the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that
    had been stuck in a deadlock for more than two decades had yet to
    be solved.

    Commenting on the diminished chance to actualize the pact, despite
    Turkey's determination and significant efforts to move ahead,
    Mammadov praised Turkey's position in the region, especially with
    respect to Azerbaijan, since Ankara has maintained a sealed border
    with neighboring Armenia.

    "Turkish officials have always stated that the opening of the border
    gates between Turkey and Armenia will be possible only after the
    occupation of the Azerbaijani territories end; a fact that promotes
    Turkey as a role model for those countries that recognize Armenia as
    an aggressive state but which do not take any proper steps against its
    aggression that might be helpful to liberate Azerbaijani territories,"
    Mammadov noted, adding, "Of course, the main reason for the closed
    borders [between Turkey and Armenia] is the status quo of the
    Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."

    Turkey closed its border and severed diplomatic ties with Armenia in
    1993 in a show of solidarity with Azerbaijan after Armenian forces
    invaded the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding territories
    during a war between the two countries launched in 1988.

    However, Turkish-Armenian rapprochement and the reconciliation of
    the alienated neighbors has met with fierce resistance from Azerbaijan.

    The "soccer diplomacy" effort in September 2008, when President
    Abdullah Gul visited Yerevan to watch the Turkey-Armenia World Cup
    match at the invitation of his Armenian counterpart, President Serzh
    Sarksyan and came up with an agreement on two protocols signed by
    Armenia and Turkey in October to establish diplomatic ties and
    re-open their borders met with harsh reactions from Azerbaijan,
    Turkey's strategic ally in the region.

    Despite Prime Minister Erdogan's eloquent speech to Azerbaijani
    deputies on May 13, 2009, which somehow silenced the voices criticizing
    Turkey over the Armenian initiative, relations worsened after August
    when the two countries started internal political consultations. The
    item that angered Azerbaijan the most in the protocols was the opening
    of the border with Armenia, as the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh had
    not been solved and Azeri refugees and internally displaced persons
    could not return to their native lands.

    "By keeping its borders with Armenia closed and not renewing its
    diplomatic ties, Turkey kept to what it had publicly vowed to do in
    different international platforms. The aggressor [Armenia] should be
    punished," Mammadov said, adding: "We got the result. Azerbaijan has
    always stated that Armenia's low level of economic growth is due to
    the closed borders in the region, which is the consequence of Armenian
    aggression toward the Azerbaijani territories."

    "The economy of Armenia is gradually collapsing. What kind of future
    can there be for a state whose economy is collapsing? Due to the
    Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Armenia has been isolated from the largest
    international projects implemented in the South Caucasus. The lack
    of jobs and the weakening economy have led to the migration of the
    population, and especially of the youth," Mammadov noted.

    He also added that Armenia should rethink its aggressive policy
    towards its neighbors, learn to respect international law and four
    resolutions passed by the UN Security Council that sent a clear
    message for Armenian armed forces to withdraw from the occupied
    Azerbaijani territories.

    Currently, together with Baku, Ankara has attempted to economically
    isolate Armenia by omitting Yerevan from regional economic projects,
    considering it a major incentive to peacefully resolve the two-decade
    long deadlock on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

    http://www.todayszaman.com/news-317841-turkeys-caucasus-policy-still-central-despite-recent-activism-in-middle-east.html

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