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American analyst: â€œTurkeyâ€™s current role in the region is growing, but this is not always helpful for Georgia and Azerbaijanâ€

24 February 2010 08:46 (UTC +04:00)

Washingotn. Isabel Levine â€“ APA. â€œTurkeyâ€™s current role in the region is growing, and the country is successful in that process, but this is not always helpful for Georgia and Azerbaijan. Turkey is no longer willing to act as a security deterrent against Russia in the region, and that changes a pictureâ€, - Mamuka Tsereteli, senior analyst of American University told APAâ€™s Washington correspondent. According to him, there are three major trends in the region right now, one of them is the reduced strategic ties between regional actors. â€œWe can see reduced collaboration between Azerbaijan and Georgia on some issues that used to be better. Second trend is the new dimension of the US policy towards Russia, and that influenced the Caucasus as reduce of US interest in the region. And the third trend â€“ is the tremendous pressure from Russiaâ€ â€“ he said.

Analyst also mentioned that, â€œthere hasnâ€™t been any real big progress on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in terms of negotiation between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and there was a lot of Russiaâ€™s pressure, we could see Russian military within a few km from our capital Tbilisi, and all of those issues influence the regional cooperationâ€.

Another thing to concentrate on is the process of the integration of Caucasus into the NATO.
â€œTaking into consideration the recent events and especially the war in Georgia I think this process is being postponed and needs to be continuedâ€ â€“ Mr. Tsereteli added.