Turkish-Abkhazia Ties Test Turkey's Strategic Partnership with Georgia
Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 164
September 9, 2009 06:13 PM Age: 1 days
Category: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Home Page, Foreign Policy, Turkey, Georgia
Foreign Minister of Turkey Ahmet Davutoglu
The
plight of the Turkish captain of a tanker intercepted by Georgian
authorities while carrying goods en route to Abkhazia highlighted the
dilemmas of Turkey's position on the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict.
Since
the war last August, Georgia has blockaded the breakaway regions of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia and has intercepted various ships carrying
Turkish goods. In the latest incident, a vessel transporting fuel to
Abkhazia was captured by the Georgian coastguard on August 17.
Following the seizure, the Georgian authorities took the captains, one
Turkish and the other Azeri, into custody. On August 31, a Georgian
court sentenced them to 24 years in prison. The ship was confiscated
and brought to Batumi port to be sold in an auction (Today's Zaman,
September 6).
Growing concerns over the fate of the Turkish
captain generated domestic pressure on the government to free him,
which prompted the involvement of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. The
Turkish foreign ministry announced that Davutoglu would visit Tbilisi
and that the government would do everything possible to secure the
release of the captain. Meanwhile, on September 4, the shipping company
paid a fee, and it was announced that an appeals court would reconsider
the case. Davutoglu visited Tbilisi on September 7-8, and a Georgian
court released the Turkish captain on September 8 (Anadolu Ajansi,
September 8).
The case highlighted tensions caused by similar
practices by the Georgian authorities. Georgia has been seizing Turkish
ships destined for Abkhazia, and in the past decade over sixty ships
have been captured. Even prior to the latest crisis, representatives of
Turkish exporters and Caucasian diaspora groups in Turkey raised
concerns that the Turkish government was too complicit toward the
"bullying" of the Georgian authorities.
Ahmet Hamdi Gurdogan,
the head of the exporters association in the Black Sea region, advanced
several criticisms of Tbilisi (www.tekilhaber.com, August 25). First,
he maintained that although Georgia claims to block all the trade
routes to Abkhazia, Georgian coastal patrols cannot do anything against
vessels carrying the Russian flag en route to Abkhazia. In a related
charge, he argued that the Georgian patrol boats captured the Turkish
ships in international waters, even in some cases immediately after
they leave Turkish territorial waters. Therefore, Turkish exporters
expect the government to flex its muscles, yet considering that Turkey
supports Georgia's territorial integrity and the Georgian embargo in
place, the government might do little to stop the interception of
Turkish ships in Georgian waters. Nonetheless, during his press
briefing on the recent case, a spokesman for the foreign ministry
expressed Ankara's concern that some of the seizures might have taken
place in international waters, and Georgia's actions may violate
international maritime laws (www.denizhaber.com, September 2).
Turkish
exporters also complain that the Georgians have turned such practices
into an undeclared "piracy" in the Black Sea, since the Georgian
authorities allegedly sell the vessels in auctions and demand large
sums of money to release the crew of the captured ships. They also
claim that in some cases, ships carrying humanitarian goods are also
intercepted.
The representatives of the Abkhazian diaspora in
Turkey, also utilize similar arguments, and urge the Turkish government
to lift its embargo. Turkey still supports the economic sanctions
imposed against Abkhazia by the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS). Irfan Argun the Speaker of Caucasus-Abkhazia Solidarity
Committee, for instance, maintained that the sanctions are creating a
major humanitarian crisis in Abkhazia and that Turkey should end its
policy of supporting the Georgian embargo and play a larger role in the
resolution of the issue of Abkhazia (www.ajanskafkas.com, August 22).
Around 500,000 Turkish citizens consider themselves to be of Abkhazian
origin.
At a more fundamental level, this crisis reflects the
underlying dilemmas in Turkish policy on the Georgian-Abkhazian
dispute. In an analysis published by the Ankara-based think tank close
to the foreign ministry, the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic
Studies, it was maintained that Ankara could no longer ignore the new
reality in the region and act on the presumption that there was no
problem relating to Abkhazia (www.orsam.org.tr, September 1). This line
of thinking suggests that Ankara might need to redefine its policies
toward the region. It justifies a redefinition with reference to the
fact that if the present Georgian embargo continues, it might result in
a situation whereby Abkhazia is forced to integrate itself into the
Russian orbit both politically and economically. The best way to
reverse such a trend, according to this view, would be to end the
blockade of Abkhazia.
Reflecting the demands of the Abkhazian
diaspora, deputies from Republican People's Party submitted a question
to parliament. They lambasted the government's silence and requested
that the prime minister explain why the government still insisted on
implementing the embargo (www.kafkasfederasyonu.org, August 22).
Meanwhile,
the Georgian attempts to implement the blockade have raised tension in
the Black Sea region. The Abkhazian leader Sergei Bagapsh described the
activities of Georgian ships in "Abkhazian waters" as piracy, and
threatened to destroy them if Georgia did not cease its military
activities (Anadolu Ajansi, September 2). A Russian foreign ministry
spokesman warned Georgia about its practice of seizing commercial
vessels, and said "attempts to enforce a sea blockade on Abkhazia could
lead to a serious armed incident" (Anadolu Ajansi, September 3).
Against
this background, Davutoglu visited Tbilisi, where he met his Georgian
counterpart Nikoloz Gilauri and President Mikheil Saakashvili. He held
a lengthy meeting with Saakashvili about the release of the captain.
Davutoglu described Georgia as a "strategic partner," and reiterated
Turkey's support for its territorial integrity, and for Tbilisi's NATO
membership bid. Davutoglu said "We know very well that without ensuring
Georgia's peace and stability, it will be difficult to meet these goals
in the South Caucasus" (Cihan, September 7).
In addition to the
necessity of responding to the demands made by domestic pressure
groups, the risk of Georgian-Abkhazian tensions escalating into a
destabilizing regional conflict energizes Ankara to address
Georgian-Abkhazian problems. The Turkish government values its
partnership with Georgia, but it is also under pressure to realign its
policies in light of the geopolitical transformations in the region. It
will represent a major challenge for Turkish diplomacy in the days
ahead to engage Abkhazia without severing ties with Tbilisi.
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