Turkey and NATO: in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Afghanistan

December 16 , 2008

The Central Asia Caucasus Institute (CACI) at SAIS hosted a forum on Tuesday, December 16, 2008 in the Rome Building.

The forum featured Ambassador Vahit Erdem, Member of Turkish Parliament, Head of the Turkish Delegation to NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA). Professor S. Frederick Starr, Chairman of the Institute, introduced the forum’s speakers to the audience.

Though the Cold War has ended, is now NATO needed more than ever to deal with a wide range of issues, such as terrorism, regional conflicts, human trafficking, and issues of nuclear proliferation. To that end NATO is no longer simply a military organization, but a political organization as well; to succeed, it will need the cooperation not only of member countries, but also with Partnership Countries and Contact Countries.

In Ambassador Erdem’s evaluation, the future of NATO hinges upon its success in Afghanistan. Experience has demonstrated that military efforts are not enough to meet this challenge; economic, social and educational efforts must be made as well. In that pursuit, NATO is coordinating with the United Nations, the World Bank, the European Union and other international organizations. Though more troops need to be deployed in Afghanistan, these latter initiatives will spell the difference between success and failure.

Turkey, as one of the first states to recognize their independence from the former Soviet Union, has a particularly close relationship with the Caucasus states of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan; it can thus play an important role in NATO’s relationship with these countries. For instance, Turkey depends on political support from the US and the EU in its competition with Russia for access to Kazakh oil, and the latter countries depend on the success of Turkey’s efforts to diversify its own energy resources. These relationships allow Turkey to serve as an intermediary in Western efforts to bring democratic reform to Central Asia and Caucasus states.

Meanwhile, during the recent deterioration of NATO’s relationship with Russia, Turkey has urged NATO to maintain a diplomatic stance towards the latter while making its own position on issues like the conflict in Georgia known. Both should keep in sight its shared interests, on economic issues, for example, and in anti-terrorism initiatives.

Erdem concluded with a few comments on the experience of Armenians in 1915 as a “very unfortunate, very tragic event” but “not genocide.”