USAK Report: Change in Caucasia brings burdens and opportunities for Turkey

Turkey is one of the countries that will be most vulnerable vis-à-vis a new global order triggered by the conflict between Georgia and Russia, a study by the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (ISRO/ USAK) has noted.

The conflict erupted on Aug. 7-8 when Georgia tried to retake South Ossetia. A Russian counter-offensive pushed into Georgia proper, crossing its east-west highway and nearing a Western-backed oil pipeline. Russia ignored Western demands to remove its remaining troops from Georgia's heartland, saying the residual troops are peacekeepers needed to avert further bloodshed and to protect the people of Georgia's separatist, pro-Moscow provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two days after Moscow said it had wrapped up its withdrawal.
USAK over the weekend issued its 66-page study called "Georgia Crisis Evaluation Report," in which it warned that the crisis may lead Turkey to have problems with not only Russia, but also with its closest allies. The change in Caucasia offers both burdens and opportunities for Turkey, the study suggested.

The regional balances in Caucasia and in the Black Sea have been rapidly changing with the latest crisis, the report said, underlining that the most important problem of Russia for the time being was its failure to present any political or economic models to its neighbors other than its military power.

Enlargements of NATO and the European Union should be processes which support each other, it said. Acceleration of Turkey's EU membership process will help NATO's enlargement and a possible full membership will strengthen the clout of both the EU and the US in the region, it added.

"Turkey's full EU membership might have rendered building of stability and peace in the Caucasus easier," the report said, noting that the latest crisis in the Caucasus raised the need for a stronger Turkey.

The report took a positive approach to a recent initiative by the government for creating a Caucasia Stability and Cooperation Platform, noting however, that these kinds of projects should be carried out only after both the domestic and foreign publics are prepared for these projects.



25 August 2008, Monday


TODAY'S ZAMAN ANKARA

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