New approach from Turkey on its Central Asian policy

New approach from Turkey on its Central Asian policy 

Ankara - Turkish Daily News - August 23, 2001

NEWS ANALYSIS 

Turkey's policies towards the Caucasus and Central Asia were widely discussed 
at Tuesday's National Security Council (MGK) meeting and reportedly council 
members agreed on starting a new initiative in order to redefine Turkey's role 
in the region. State Minister Abdulhaluk Cay also took part in the meeting and 
informed members about Turkey's position in the region. 

Taking recent tension between Iran and Azerbaijan due to the status of Caspian 
Sea into consideration, council members mentioned the necessity of Turkey 
playing a more active role in the region. For this, it was said that Turkey 
should increase the number of its diplomatic missions in these countries, 
despite the continuing economic crisis as well as sending more enthusiastic 
diplomats to these countries. 

Turkey also plans to broaden military relations with these countries parallel 
to economic and political relations. Currently Turkey has signed military 
cooperation and training agreements with the Caucasus and Central Asian 
countries except Armenia. Turkey also provides military aid to Uzbekistan and 
Krygyzstan to help in their combat against terrorism. 

Moreover, Turkey will show more interest in regional problems of these 
countries and statesmen will pay high-level visits to these countries, signs of 
Turkey's open support to these countries. 

As a first concrete reflection of this initiative, Turkish Chief of General 
Staff Gen. Huseyin Kivrikoglu will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan 
accompanied by 10 F-16s warplanes. 

A war of words between Azerbaijan and Iran raised tension over the status of 
the Caspian Sea, which contains huge reserves of oil and gas. Last month, Iran 
ordered two Baku-licensed ships out of what it said was Iranian water. 

Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia, the five states on the 
Caspian coastline, are at loggerheads on how to divide the sea's oil-rich 
territory. But the disputes have not deterred Western oil companies keen to 
develop the Caspian's vast energy resources. 

In fact, Turkey previously gave a signal that it will back Azerbaijan in any 
conflict with Iran, but Kivrikoglu's visit will intimidate any third country. 

Gen. Kivrikoglu will visit Azerbaijan on Aug. 24-26 to attend the graduation 
ceremony of the War Academy to be held on Aug. 25. The Turkish Air Force 
aerobatics team, the Turkish Stars, will perform in a show in the Azeri capital 
of Baku at that time. 

In the recent 10 years Turkey has followed a volatile policy both in the 
Caucasus and Central Asia. When it put its full backing for Azerbaijan in the 
Nagorno-Karabakh dispute against Armenia it lost some regional countries' trust 
due to its policies on the Russian-Chechen conflict. However, Turkey's perfect 
cooperation with Georgia can be evaluated as a success for Turkish diplomacy. 

It is no secret that Turkey's relations with Azerbaijan in recent days have 
been linked only with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project. No other issue 
between the two countries has been on the agenda in recent days. But by Turkey 
backing Azerbaijan against Iran it seems to have conquered the hearts of the 
Azeri people. Azerbaijani officials have not hidden their pleasure from this 
event and again they have started to use the magic sentence, "One nation, two 
countries." Azerbaijani officials released the statement that demonstrates the 
strong bond of friendship believed to exist between the two countries. 

The importance of the planned show of the Turkish Stars over Baku skies was 
evaluated by an high level Azeri official as "being an obvious indicator of the 
strategical cooperation among the two countries." 

As the tension between Iran and Azerbaijan on the status of the Caspian Sea 
continues, Western powers, in particular the United States, are getting into 
the debate. 

The United States last week backed Azerbaijan in its boundary dispute with 
Iran, saying that Iranian aircraft had provocatively violated the air space of 
its northwestern neighbor. 

Ankara - Turkish Daily News