By Sinan Ikinci and Peter Schwarz
http://www.wsws.org
9 September 2008
Given the proximity of Turkey to Georgia and its intense economic and political involvement in the region, the Turkish government’s reaction to the conflict between Georgia and Russia has been remarkably muted.
While NATO (of which Turkey is a member) has openly sided with Georgia, and the European Union (which Turkey wants to join) has strongly condemned Russian recognition of Abkhazian and South Ossetian independence, the Turkish government has made no such statement. Instead the Turkish foreign ministry has issued a short statement limited to expressing Turkish anxiety over recent events.
The growing tensions between Washington and Moscow are clearly viewed nervously within ruling circles in Ankara and present them with a dilemma.
On the one hand, Turkey is deeply involved in US and European attempts to gain access to the Caspian region and to exploit its oil and gas reserves bypassing Russian territory. The two most important pipelines in this respect—the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the projected Nabucco gas pipeline—both go through Georgian and Turkish territory. The same is true with the recently planned railway project linking Turkey with Georgia and Central Asia.
[…]
see
The Voice of War and Oil By Rand Clifford
US to establish naval base in Georgia
Nader: Russia/Georgia Conflict + Impeachment/Prosecution
The U.S. 2008 Presidential Election: An Evaluation by Rodrigue Tremblay
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The conflict between Russia and Georgia was not really so much about breakaway ethnic minorities. It was essentially a dispute about borders and national identity that was never resolved, since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia just resolved it.
Poor Georgia – just a pawn in a game. Saakashvilli gets his power. The US gets yet another base near Russia. Russia gets its allied regions.
I wonder now if Russia will put a base in Cuba. Just imagine – how would the US react to that?!
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Plus the fact that Turkey has the whole Armenian issue unresolved and more importantly, when Russia pushes for minority countries, that emboldens the Kurds who want a homeland carved out of Iraq, Iran and Turkey.