Georgia-Turkey Relations in a Georgian Dream Era

Author(s): Michael Cecire
Editor(s): Jeronim Perovic, Lili Di Puppo, Iris Kempe, Heiko Pleines, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 48
Pages: 2-4
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, George Washington University
Publication Year: 2013

As one of the quieter subplots of South Caucasus geopolitics, ties between Georgia and Turkey have traced a sharply upwards trajectory since the turn of the century. To Georgia, Turkey has been a strong trade partner, a source of defense materiel and training, and an advocate for its Euro-Atlantic aspirations. While promising under the Kemalist Republican Peoples Party (CHP) in Turkey and Eduard Shevardnadzes rule in Georgia, the relationship has especially grown since the 2004 Rose Revolution that brought Mikheil Saakashvili and his United National Movement (UNM) to power. However, the surprise victory by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvilis Georgian Dream Coalition in the October 2012 parliamentary elections has cast the future of bilateral relations into question. Yet despite these questions, national interests are likely to keep Georgia-Turkey relations on a positive direction.

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