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Turkish expert: â€œRussia sends message to post-Soviet countries by its attitude towards Georgiaâ€

19 August 2008 11:37 (UTC +04:00)

Istanbul â€“ APA. â€œThe basic principles of the Stability Pact for the Caucasus offered by Turkey are not known,â€ leader of National Hegemonism Movement, former minister of state Kamran Inan told APAâ€™s Turkey bureau. He underlined that it would be difficult to coordinate the interests of the states in the South Caucasus.
â€œArmeniaâ€™s accusations against Turkey are obvious, Armenians demand lands from us. They have invaded 20 percent of Azerbaijanâ€™s territory. Iran always supports Armenia. Russiaâ€™s attitude towards Georgia is obvious â€“ lands of a sovereign state have been occupied. Taking into account this situation, it is questionable how the Stability Pact for the Caucasus will be formed,â€ he said.
Kamran Inan took a stance on Russiaâ€™s recent actions.
â€œRussia could not stand Kosovoâ€™s independence. Belgrade was the closest ally of Moscow during the cold war and after that. Russia can not resign itself to the separation of Yugoslavia and Kosovoâ€™s independence. Secondly, by the recent developments, Russia wanted to send a message to post-Soviet countries: â€˜I can not resign myself to your closeness with the western world. You are my reserve firing groundâ€™. Remember, as soon as Russia declared its independence it adopted doctrine â€˜Near abroadâ€™. In fact the doctrine means for the East Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia not to leave the area of Russiaâ€™s influence. Then Russians adopted a new military strategy, which allowed them to use nuclear weapons while the national interests demand it. Against the background of these events Poland which suffered from the Russiaâ€™s rough attitude agreed to deploy US missile defense shield on its soil. According to this agreement the United States will also instruct the Polish army. I would like to remind the Russiaâ€™s statements against it. The Russian defense minister stated that Poland wouldnâ€™t remain unpunished. Deputy Chief of the General Staff stated that if it was necessary they would use nuclear weapons and to direct the nuclear warheads towards Poland. These are too harder statements. As you know, it was France to force Russia to sign ceasefire agreement with Russia. However this agreement has very hard termsâ€. Kamran Inan said dividing of the world between the powers re-started again. â€œRussia has a wide territory and 152 million population but Russia canâ€™t compete with the United States in the military field. There is big difference between their forces. USSR was very stronger than Russia in the period of Cold War. After the collapse of USSR Russian soldiers sold their arms to bring home the groceries. Only raise of oil and gas prices made Russia stronger. However Russia can not be considered as a powerful state despite its economic development. It is impossible for Russia to compete with USA in futureâ€.