Turkey-sponsored Caucasian union to start as an economic partnership

Turkey had proposed the formation of a Caucasian union after the clashes erupted between Georgia and Russia. Turkey, as a neighboring country of the region, has close interest in the Caucasus in its efforts to ensure energy supply safety.

Ankara had stepped in to resolve the conflict with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ali Babacan had visited both Moscow and Tbilisi.

Turkey's proposal to establish a Caucasian union was widely accepted. The union, called by Turkey as "Caucasus Stability and Partnership Platform", is envisaged to bring Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Russia under the same roof.

Sources from Turkish foreign ministry told local media the union is planned to have common security and executive bodies, and would be similar to the neighboring countries of Iraq but in a more complex structure.

The works on the unions would start next week.

TOUGH TASK

Although the idea was widely accepted, there is a tough task ahead of Turkey as almost every country, who would take part in this establishment, has bilateral conflicts.

Turkey hopes this union would contribute to the strengthening of the relations between Ankara and Yerevan as well as the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

TURKEY-ARMENIA: Turkey is among the first countries that recognized Armenia when it declared its independency. However there is no diplomatic relations between two countries, as Armenia presses the international community to admit the so-called "genocide" claims instead of accepting Turkey's call to investigate the allegations, and its invasion of 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory despite U.N. Security Council resolutions on the issue.

AZERBAIJAN-ARMENIA: Nagorno Karabakh is a region of Azerbaijan which has been under the occupation of Armenia since the war broke out between the two states in 1988-1994. In 1988 when the disputed region's Armenian-dominated governing council voted to secede from Azerbijan, it set of a series of bloody clashes both between and within the two neighboring countries. Some 10 percent of the Azeri population was displaced.

GEORGIA-RUSSIA: Russia was deeply involved at many levels in the conflicts in Georgia's breakaway regions South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and in 1993 Ajarian leaders also declared Russia the protector of their national interests. Clashes erupted between two countries last week after Georgian forces held a military operation in the South Ossetia.