After the ceasefire signed between Georgia and Russia, we asked the European Union (EU) expert Dr. Cengiz Aktar how Turkey’s position in the region and its conduct of the latest developments would reflect on its relations with the EU.  

Aktar started by emphasizing that Turkey’s conduct of the developments was not very clear.

According to Aktar, the opinions in the EU regarding Georgia are not much different from what Turkey has been saying about the situation.

Does the EU have a policy about the region?

The EU policy during the French presidency has been to stay close to the region, says Aktar. Therefore, Turkey’s closeness to the region is rather important. However, Turkey has not been successful in taking advantage of this.

Emphasizing that what is happening in Georgia must concern Turkey very much, Aktar says:

“Although Turkey’s significance has increased because of EU’s policy for the region, Turkey does not pay enough attention to the subject. Ali Babacan [the foreign minister] should have participated in yesterday’s meeting in Brussels about the situation in the Caucasus, but it did not even cross his mind. Nobody in the EU was vacationing during the war in Georgia, but Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Prime Minister, chose not to cut short his vacation.”

Mentioning that the Prime Minister was late visiting Moscow and Tiflis, Aktar says Turkey does not have much weight with Russia in order to push her to accepting Turkey’s demands regarding Georgia.  

To conclude, Aktar says that Turkey could be useful to the EU in this crisis, but since Ankara did not realize its advantageous position here, it missed the opportunity to work together with the EU.(EY/EZÖ/TB)