New approach from Turkey on its Central Asian policy NEWS ANALYSIS Ankara - Turkish Daily News- August 23, 2001 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 -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
