TURKEY AND SECURITY IN THE SOUTHERN CAUCASUS: THE CAUCASUS STABILITY AND COOPERATION PLATFORM
Abstract
The August 2008 war between Russia and Georgia tipped the balance of forces in the Southern Caucasus and made it harder to set up a regional security system.
The new challenges (occupation of Georgia’s two regions and recognition of their independence) were set off by certain positive shifts (the “football diplomacy” between Turkey and Armenia and the Zurich Protocols) which, however, did not carry enough weight to accelerate the peacekeeping process.
The Caucasus Stability and Cooperation Platform Turkey laid on the table in the wake of the August war obviously had no future, although it clarified the problems to a certain extent and inspired the quest for new and more adequate decisions.
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References
See: A Stability Pact for the Caucasus. A Consultative Document of the CEPS Task Force on the Caucasus.
For example, the “common state” idea expected to settle the conflict with Abkhazia gave equal status to Georgia and Abkhazia within the common state in which Abkhazia had the right to establish relations with other countries on its own and in some cases enter into agreements with them. Under the document, Abkhazia also had the right to have its own armed forces and police force. This boiled down to a confederation which, if realized, endangered Georgia’s territorial integrity.
See: “Ankara stremitsia umenshit svoiu vinu pered Moskvoy za vooruzhenie Tbilisi: ARFD,” available at [http://www.regnum.ru/news/1050572.html], 5 September, 2008.
See: “Erdoðan Backs Georgian Sovereignty, Caucasus Platform,” Today’s Zaman, 15 August, 2008.
See: Ibidem.
It should be said that Turkey’s earlier Caucasus Stability Pact likewise kept Iran outside the dialog format. In both
cases, Turkey excluded Iran from its regional security model.
See: “Amerikantsy ushchemleny nesoglasovannoy aktivnostiu Turtsii na Kavkaze i dialogom mezhdu Ankaroy i Moskvoy,” available at [www.regnum./news/], 30 September, 2008.
“US Must Share Power in New World Order, Says Turkey’s Controversial President,” available at [www.
guardian.co.uk/2008/aug/].
The Montreux Convention regulated the regime of the Bosporus and Dardanelles and limited the maximum permis-sible volume of vessels of the countries which remained outside the Convention and which did not belong to the Black Sea region to 45,000 tonnes. Both U.S. vessels exceeded the weight limit (see: “Montreux Convention under Spotlight,” Today’s Zaman, 23 August, 2008).
See: “Turkey Allows US Ships to Take Aid to Georgia,” Today’s Zaman, 20 September, 2008.
See: Prezident Turtsii: Vzryv v kavkazskom regione mozhet proizoyti v lyuboe vremia,” 6 September, 2009, avail-able at [www.ghn.ge].
See: Vigen Akopian: “Voyna v Yuzhnoy Osetii i novye perspektivy armiano-turetskikh otnosheniy,” available at [www.regnum.ru/], 6 September, 2008.
See: “Iran vyshel iz teni: bezopasnost na Kavkaze mezhdu Turtsiey i Iranom,” available at [www.regnum.ru/news/],17 September, 2008.
“Sergey Lavrov rasskazal ob Armenii, Azerbaidzhane, Turtsii i SShA,” available at [www.rg.ru], 7 October, 2008.
See: “Rossia ne zhelaet vmeshatelstva tretikh stran v protsessy na Kavkaze: mnenie,” available at [www.regnum.ru/news], 24 October, 2008.
See: “Stanislav Tarasov: Turtsia vvodit Iran v ‘kavkazskoe uravnenie’,” available at [www.regnum.ru/news], 9 November, 2009.
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