Turkish Forum

Category: Asia and Pacific

  • Armenia Scraps Visas For Turkish Soccer Fans

    Armenia Scraps Visas For Turkish Soccer Fans

     

     

     

     

     

    By Emil Danielyan

    In a fresh overture to Ankara, Armenia decided on Thursday to unilaterally suspend its visa regime with Turkey to facilitate the arrival of Turkish fans for the upcoming first-ever match between the two countries’ national football teams.

    The Armenian government said Turkish citizens traveling to Armenia from September 1-6 will not require entry visas. “The decision was taken to enable citizens of the Turkish Republic to attend the September 6 game between the football teams of Armenia and Turkey to be played in Yerevan,” read a government statement.

    Armenia and Turkey were drawn into the same European group of the qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and are scheduled to play each other in Yerevan and Istanbul. The two teams have never faced each other before.

    The forthcoming match in Yerevan’s Hrazdan stadium will come amid renewed hopes for a normalization of relations between the two bitterly estranged neighbors that have no diplomats relations and open border. Ankara offered to embark on a “dialogue” with Yerevan shortly after Armenia’s February 19 presidential election controversially won by Serzh Sarkisian. The latter responded positively to the offer, calling for a “fresh start” in Turkish-Armenian relations.

    Earlier this summer, Sarkisian signaled his government readiness to accept, in principle, a Turkish proposal to form a joint commission of historians who would look into the 1915-1918 mass killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. He also invited Turkish President Abdullah Gul to arrive in Yerevan and watch with him the World Cup qualifier.

    Gul has yet to respond to the invitation. Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said last month that Gul’s decision will depend on unspecified “developments ahead of the match.” A senior U.S. diplomat told RFE/RL on July 18 that the first-ever trip to Armenia by a Turkish president would be a “real ground-breaking moment.”

    Under the rules of world football’s governing body, FIFA, a country hosting a World Cup match must set aside at least 5 percent of stadium seats for traveling fans. The Hrazdan stadium has a capacity of more than 50,000 seats, meaning that 2,500 Turks are entitled to cheering for their team there.

    The decision to waive the visa regime was meant to underscore Yerevan’s readiness to allow the presence of a sizable traveling crowd at Hrazdan. Media reports in Turkey have said that as many as 10,000 local fans are eager to travel to the Armenian capital.

    The Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) said on Thursday, however, that it has still not been approached by the Turkish Football Federation, which is supposed to distribute game tickets in Turkey. “We still have no information about how many Turkish football fans would like to attend the game,” the FFA’s executive director, Armen Minasian, told RFE/RL. “We have received no applications from the Turkish Football Federation yet.”

    With the widely anticipated match bound to arouse nationalist passions in both countries, the presence of a large number Turkey supporters would be a major security headache for the Armenian authorities. The unusual sight of visiting fans waving Turkish flags in a stadium adjacent to Yerevan’s 1915 genocide memorial could infuriate the home crowd.

    But Minasian downplayed the security risk. “The government and the FFA are taking all necessary measures to prevent incidents during the march,” he said.

    (Turkish Football Federation photo: Turkish players celebrate their dramatic quarter-final victory over Croatia during the 2008 European football championship in Austria.)

  • EU wants peacekeepers ‘on the ground’ in Georgia

    EU wants peacekeepers ‘on the ground’ in Georgia

    PHILIPPA RUNNER

    Today @ 09:54 CET

    EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – EU foreign ministers on Wednesday (13 August) agreed to send peacekeepers to help supervise the fragile Russia-Georgia ceasefire, putting off discussions on potential diplomatic sanctions against Russia until next month.

    “The European Union must be prepared to commit itself, including on the ground,” the EU joint statement said, asking EU top diplomat Javier Solana to draft more detailed proposals for the ministers’ next meeting on 5 September.

    EU police in Bosnia – it is unclear what the EU peacekeeping mission in Georgia would consist of (Photo: The Council of the European Union)

    “Many countries have said that they are ready to join in,” French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said, adding that any EU move would require a UN mandate. “We are encouraged by what we saw this morning, but we have to go through the United Nations.”

    Ministers did not specify if the EU mission will compose EU-badge wearing soldiers, policemen or civilian monitors. It also remains unclear if it would be part of a wider force involving the UN and the OSCE, or when deployment might start.

    “You call it peacekeeping troops, I don’t call it that…but controllers, monitors, European facilitators, I think the Russians would accept that,” Mr Kouchner told reporters.

    The Georgian government has called for an EU presence in its rebel-held Abkhazia and South Ossetia provinces for at least three years, but the EU has always maintained that Russia and the Russian-backed separatists must agree first.

    Finnish foreign minister Alexander Stubb voiced optimism that Russia will now back the new initiative. “I’m convinced at the end of the day we will find an international peacekeeping [force] in the region, with the EU at its heart,” he said, according to AFP.

    Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt told Reuters he was less sure. “There are no signs of the Russians letting in anyone else…I don’t really see it happening – at the moment the Russians are firmly in control.”

    The EU statement avoided any criticism of Moscow, despite widespread feeling among EU members that Russia’s massive assault on Georgia has overshadowed Georgia’s initial attack on the rebel town of Tskhinvali.

    On Wednesday night, Russian soldiers continued to attack abandoned Georgian military facilities while Ossetian paramilitaries burned ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia and looted the Georgian town of Gori.

    “I do not think we should get lost today in long discussions about responsibility or who caused the escalation of the last few days,” German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said.

    Russia sanctions debate

    A discussion on the potential suspension of talks on a new EU-Russia strategic pact or other diplomatic sanctions against Russia has been scheduled for the next EU foreign ministers meeting in September.

    “We will speak very specifically about that,” France’s Mr Kouchner said.

    “The European Union will want to consider how it proceeds with the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement,” UK foreign minister, David Miliband, said. “The sight of Russian tanks in Gori, Russian tanks in Senaki, a Russian blockade of Poti, the Georgian port are a chilling reminder of times that I think we had hoped had gone by.”

    The Polish and Lithuanian ministers echoed the British position.

    “Of course some consequences must appear of the aggression,” Lithuanian foreign minister, Petras Vaitiekunas, said. “There was clearly disproportionate force used by the Russians,” Poland’s Radoslaw Sikorski added.

    In a separate event in Warsaw on Wednesday, the leaders of four former-communist EU states went further by calling for NATO to put Georgia firmly on the path to membership in order to “prevent similar acts of agression and occupation” in future.

    The presidents of Estonia, Lithuania, Poland and the prime minister of Latvia also criticised the EU’s endorsement of the six-point Russia-Georgia peace plan, saying “the principal element – the respect of teritorial integrity of Georgia – is missing.”

    The UK and eastern European states stand close to an increasingly hostile US line on excluding Russia from “the international system” and “international institutions” in punishment for the war.

    ‘This is not 1968’

    “This is not 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, where Russia can threaten its neighbors, occupy a capital, overthrow a government, and get away with it,” US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said on Wednesday, before flying to Paris and Tbilisi this week.

    Meanwhile, Russia is blaming the US for training and arming Georgian forces in a geopolitcal “project.”

    “It is clear that Georgia wants this dispute to become something more than a short if bloody conflict in the region,” Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said.

    “For decision-makers in the NATO countries of the West, it would be worth considering whether in future you want the men and women of your armed services to be answerable to [Georgian president] Mr Saakashvili’s declarations of war.”

  • THE GEORGIAN-RUSSIAN CONFLICT THROUGH THE EYES OF BAKU

    THE GEORGIAN-RUSSIAN CONFLICT THROUGH THE EYES OF BAKU

    By Fariz Ismailzade

    Tuesday, August 12, 2008

     

    The escalating conflict in Georgia–with its unexpected military developments and great humanitarian losses–seems to have caught Azerbaijani officials and the public off guard. Azerbaijanis are not new to the world of Russian political games in the Caucasus. Baku itself suffered greatly from Russian intervention in 1990 and after that from the military conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Yet, the rapid and aggressive style of Russian intervention in Georgia in the past few days has created far greater security and economic dilemmas for Azerbaijan than even the most pessimistic analysts in the country could have predicted only a week ago.

    Russian jet fighters have bombed both civilians and military airports in Georgia, forcing all airlines, including Azerbaijani Airlines (AZAL), to stop flights. Moreover, for several days in a row the Russians bombed the Black Sea port of Poti, which serves as the main terminal for the export of Azerbaijani energy products as well as other cargo. With the explosions on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline last week, Azerbaijan was looking for Georgian railways, ports and pipelines as an important alternative for the export of Caspian energy supplies to Western markets. All of this has stopped, putting both Georgia and Azerbaijan in economic difficulties. Nonetheless, there is little fear in official circles in Baku that Russia will bomb the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and other energy-related infrastructures to destroy the successful East-West transport and energy corridor between Azerbaijan and Georgia.

    Azerbaijan is Georgia’s strategic ally. Both countries are united not only by geopolitical interests and world-class pipelines, but also by the regional security organization GUAM. GUAM, although passive for most of the decade, has lately been re-energized and even played with the idea of establishing its own peacekeeping and security forces. Under such a situation, it seems like GUAM would be a convenient venue to express support and solidarity with the Georgians.

    Azerbaijan, however, finds itself in a very difficult situation. On the one hand, there is enormous public support for Georgia throughout Azerbaijan. In private conversations, almost all Azerbaijanis blame Russia for aggression and express frustration with the imperialist policies of the Kremlin in the South Caucasus. A group of intelligentsia went to the Russian embassy on August 10 to protest against the military actions in Georgia ). This was repeated by members of youth organizations (www.day.az, August 11). The main opposition party Musavat issued a statement on August 11, calling for “respect of the territorial integrity of Georgia and an immediate stop to the aggressive policy of Russia” (Musavat party press release). The party called on the Azerbaijani government to show a “principled position” on the conflict. A similar statement came from the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan.

    For its pro-Georgian coverage of the events, the most popular Azerbaijani news website www.day.az was attacked by Russian special forces on August 11 and had to cease its activities temporarily (www.day.az press release, August 11). Elnur Baimov, the editor in chief of www.day.az said on August 11 that “we all saw the diplomatic loss of Russia.”

    Government officials have been relatively calm about the situation, considering the fragile relations between Moscow and Baku and the desire of the latter not to ruin bilateral relations between the two countries. The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Khazar Ibrahim told journalists on August 8, however, that “Azerbaijan favors the solution of the South Ossetia conflict based on the territorial integrity of Georgia and Georgian adherence to international law” (www.day.az).

    On August 11, ANS TV reported that 50 Azerbaijanis had gathered in Georgia’s Azerbaijani-populated provinces to go to the war for the defense of their country. It is noteworthy that Russians have bombed Azerbaijani populated areas of Georgia for three days in a row, killing four and wounding dozens. The possibility is not excluded that this was done in hopes of fomenting strife between Azeris and Georgians.

    The present situation in Georgia presents huge security concerns for official Baku. If Russia manages to squeeze Georgia, then it would put an end to the economic independence of Azerbaijan as well. Many analysts in Baku believe that the real purpose of the pressure on Georgia is the Kremlin’s desire to control Azerbaijan.

    Thus, it is vital for Azerbaijan to provide all necessary assistance to its strategic ally. Considering the political realities between Baku and Moscow, it is unlikely that the Azerbaijani government will provide any military assistance to Georgia. Economic and humanitarian assistance, however, is definitely an option. Azerbaijan remains the only viable international outlet for Georgia, and many Georgians have already started using the territory of Azerbaijan to travel abroad.

    Azerbaijani political analysts believe that the war in Georgia is a long-term loss for the Kremlin. By showing its neo-imperialist face, Russia may have lost the Caucasus forever. The political analyst Ilgar Mammadov says that “If Georgia stays strong for few more days, we will all see the defeat of Russia from the Caucasus.” Another analyst Vugar Seidov says “The departure of Russia from Abkhazia and South Ossetia is historically inevitable” (Regnum, August 10).

  • Surreal scenes: Stranded in istanbul

    Surreal scenes: Stranded in istanbul

    By Tom Clifford, Deputy Managing Editor

    Istanbul: It was a surreal moment. At Istanbul’s modern international airport passengers due to board Turkish Airways flight 1382 to Tbilisi were watching their homes burn on TV news.

    Three families from Georgia had been holidaying in Turkey when Gori was attacked and were desperately trying to get back into Georgia even though they knew that returning to Gori was out of the question. Other families had given up trying to get back and decided to extend their stay in Turkey for as long as their money could last.

    “What choice do we have? We want to get back to Georgia but on Saturday we saw the place where we live had been attacked by Russian jets. We want to get to Tbilisi at least but it doesn’t look good,” they told Gulf News.

  • Osetia :No need to panic over every regional crisis

    Osetia :No need to panic over every regional crisis

     

    Osetia Hakkinda TDN’de Ilter Turkmen’in bir yazisi, arz edilir.

    No need to panic over every regional crisis

    Tuesday, August 12, 2008

    Georgia is hopeful that the West could take action if the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline is threatened. But there is a slim chance that Russia would do that

    İlter TÜRKMEN
      As does the Middle East, the Caucasus always fluctuates in instability. And there is no sign that the instability will come to an end soon. At the origin of many crises structural elements, historic and religious rivalry, power imbalance, and a race in regional population increases play a key role. Some of these crises are due to unfortunate occupations by external forces, as in Iraq.

      

      All these boils undoubtedly affect Turkey in various ways because of the country’s geopolitical position. Turkey, however, has to experience this environment of tension whether we like it or not. Turkey can play mediator in some of the conflicts, though limited, but it cannot in some others.

      

      West has not much to say:

      
    Plus, Turkey is not always a neutral actor; for instance interests of the country can be in accord with several parties and in conflict with others, considering the developments affecting Iraq and Georgia. We should always keep in mind that Turkish politics are not as flexible as they are supposed to be and where we fail in solving our own problems, cannot overcome crises in internal politics do not leave much space for foreign policies.
    It’s been asserted that the latest skirmishes that have erupted between Georgia and Russia can spread and that the United States and the European Union cannot leave a country that affects the energy security of both against Russia. But it is obvious from the beginning that the West has not much to say in this crisis and it cannot engage in military encounters against Russia. Although the U.S. and Russia fiercely accuse each other at the United Nations Security Council, the council cannot reach a decision due to the Russian veto power.
      Besides, no one can deny that Georgia makes an arithmetical mistake by engaging in a war with a country – Russia — stronger than itself. In the end, Georgia lost so many of its citizens to war as many left the country and had to withdraw forces from South Ossetia. Former Russian President Vladimir Putin said integration between Georgia and South Ossetia is impossible from now on; in other words, current borders will be permanent. As I write this piece, Russia was still bombarding the Georgian targets, not complying with ceasefire and keeping the Abkhazia coasts under control.
      Apparently, Georgia is hopeful that the West could take action if the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline is threatened. But there is a slim chance that Russia would want to ruin this international pipeline. Although plans to make Georgia a NATO member is one of the key reasons why Russia has reacted against Georgia, one cannot say that Russia wants to cause a big crisis in U.S.-EU relations because these ties are economically and politically vital for both parties. As a matter of fact, it has been crystal-clear that U.S. aspiration to make Georgia and Ukraine NATO members is not realistic and off target.
    What can Turkey do?
      What can Turkey do? It continues to call the sides to calm down and seek reconciliation. But it is less likely that Turkey, as a NATO member, can act as a facilitator between Russia and Georgia. However, it could be profitable for Turkey to reexamine its Caucasus policy. Unless the Karabakh issue is settled, we may face a many more dangerous hot encounters. At least signing an agreement to open the Turkey-Armenia border is extremely beneficial. Policies to create an environment for settlement can bring stability to the Caucasus, as they certainly help balancing out the Russian influence in the region.
      Obviously we should be very careful not to let these policies negatively affect our bilateral relations with Russia. Unfortunately, stability and peace in the Caucasus have turned very fragile after the Cold War. Going through the same process the Balkans are pulling themselves through. Though this is a different equation, it is time for the countries in the Caucasus to seek more realistic and constructive objectives. 

    © 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynews.com.tr

     

  • Armenia Rules Out Support For Russian Strikes On Georgia

    Armenia Rules Out Support For Russian Strikes On Georgia

     

     

     

     

     

    By Emil Danielyan

    Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian assured a senior Georgian diplomat on Tuesday Russia did not and will not use Armenian territory for its ongoing military operations in Georgia condemned by the West.

    Armenia maintains close defense links with Russia and hosts a Russian military base numbering several thousand soldiers and a dozen MiG-29 fighter jets.

    The Defense Ministry in Yerevan flatly denied late last week Azerbaijani and Georgian media claims that some of the Russian warplanes involved in bomb raids on Georgia flew in from Armenian military airfields. A ministry spokesman rejected the allegations as an Azerbaijani “provocation” designed to damage Georgian-Armenian relations. He argued that the Russian military is not using MiG-29s in the air strikes.

    Georgia’s ambassador to Armenia, Revaz Gachechiladze, commented the allegations, not echoed by the Georgian government, at a meeting with Ohanian. A statement by the Defense Ministry quoted Gachechiladze as stating that the Russian military aircraft stationed in Armenia has not been involved in the Russian onslaught.

    “For his part, S. Ohanian assured the ambassador that Armenia’s territory will not be used as a military launch pad for hostilities against Georgia, expressing hope that ways will be found to normalize the situation in Georgia,” the statement said. Ohanian also offered his sympathy for “innocent victims” of the nearly week-long fighting, it added.

    The statement claimed that Gachechiladze requested the meeting in order to introduce Georgia’s new military attaché in Yerevan, Colonel Murtaz Gujejiani, to the Armenian defense chief.

    Armenia is treading carefully on the Russian-Georgian conflict, mindful of the two countries’ importance for its national security. The Armenian Foreign Ministry expressed on Friday serious concern about the outbreak of fighting in South Ossetia but avoided blaming any of the parties for the worst regional crisis since the early 1990s. Official Yerevan has so far not reacted on Russian forces’ subsequent advance deep into Georgian territory, which has been condemned by the United States and other Western powers.

    The Armenian government also refuted on Tuesday other media reports saying that it allowed a planeload of U.S. military instructors bound for Georgia to land in Yerevan’s Zvartnots international airport. Deputy Foreign Minister Gegham Gharibjanian said special flights to Zvartnots have been carried out only by planes that were sent by some European governments to collect their citizens evacuated from Georgia.