Bilateral ties to be top priority of Ivanishvili's Ankara visit (Today's Zaman; 13 February 2013)

The visit to Turkey by Georgia's newly elected Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, his third such visit in the region, indicates the privileged place Ankara holds in Tbilisi's foreign policy. As such, discussions on political and economic ties between the two countries are due to rank in priority for the exchange.

The October parliamentary elections in Georgia marked the first peaceful transition of power both in the history of that country and in the South Caucasus. In this transition, the long-ruling former President Mikheil Saakashvili passed over management of the country to Ivanishvili soon after the latter's Georgian Dream coalition won 83 seats in the 150-member parliament. The elections have left question marks in many minds not only over domestic politics due to the growing squabble between Saakashvili and Ivanishvili, but also about the country's foreign affairs.
Accordingly, Ivanishvili's first official visit abroad became a widely discussed topic, as the US was considered as a first stop before a final decision was made on Brussels, where the prime minister held meetings with NATO and European Union leadership in November. Ivanishvili's first visit as prime minister among Georgia's neighbors, however, was to Azerbaijan in late December and then to Armenia in January.
Ivanishvili has announced that he will pay an official visit to Turkey on Thursday for talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Evaluating his first 100 days in government at a press conference on Feb. 5, Ivanishvili also noted Turkey and Georgia are enjoying developments in bilateral ties, saying that those ties would be further enriched in the future.
Commenting on strengthening economic ties between Turkey and Georgia and the importance Tbilisi is giving to Ankara, Zaur Shiriyev, editor-in-chief of the journal Caucasus International and expert on the Black Sea region, said that Ivanishvili's visit will be focus mainly on the discussion of two main issues, namely Ankara's role in the formation of new strategies to resolve the conflict of Abkhazia and Turkey's growing investment opportunities in the economy of its northeastern neighbor.
“The stance of the Abkhazia diaspora living in Turkey is important for Tbilisi, as they are able to make an essential contribution to the formation of conflict resolution mechanisms in Georgia,” Shiriyev says, adding Ankara might take an active role in the resolution of the Abkhazian conflict -- something of which Ivanishvili is quite aware.
Turkey is home to more ethnic Abkhazians than are living in Abkhazia, and this diaspora sometimes lobbies Ankara for support.
Shiriyev also noted that Ivanishvili is interested in more Turkish investments in the Georgian economy so that Georgian nationals might yield greater profit. The Georgian prime minister sees potential for employment of Georgians in businesses opened by Turks in the country. “In other words, what Tbilisi is interested in is the positive effect that Turkish investments can have on the quality of life of Georgian citizens,” Shiriyev told Today's Zaman.

Axis shift in Georgian foreign policy non-apparent

There are many uncertainties in Georgia's new foreign policy under Prime Minister Ivanishvili, who is known to have close ties with Russia, due to fluctuations in signs of whether or not the new Georgian government is set to pursue a more pro-Russian policy at the expense of Georgia's commitment to closer ties with the West and NATO-member Turkey.
“A lot is being said about Russian-Georgian relations, but we still dont have any evidence-based proof that the vector of Georgian foreign policy has changed dramatically," remarked Kornely Kakachia, an associate professor in the department of political science at Iv. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and executive director of the Tbilisi-based think tank Georgian Institute of Politics. The professor added that Georgia needs some time to observe the issue, as under the cohabitation regime that will share power between the old and new regime, Ivanishvili cannot make the decision alone. “After Saakashvili's departure, we will be able to see picture clearly,” Kakachia stated.
Echoing Kakachia, Shiriyev also noted that the Georgian Dream coalition is an “electoral coalition,” meaning the coalition's axis cannot be identified by a single person, not even the prime minister.
The Georgian Dream coalition has released a draft of a 14-point document on its foreign policy, which the parliamentary majority offers as a basis for a potential joint document with the Saakashvili-led United National Movement (UNM) which would lay out the joint vision of the major political groups on the country's foreign policy priorities.
“If these initiatives are approved by the Georgian parliament, integration into Euro-Atlantic structures will be reflected in the country's constitution as a foreign policy axis.”
Development of economic and political relations with Azerbaijan, Armenia and Turkey also occupy a main place in the government's 14-point initiative, which is based on a balanced Georgian foreign policy.

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