Just a New Rhetoric or the South Caucasus Region is to Emerge as a Political-Territorial Unity?

By Nina Dadalauri

“I strongly believe that a common market, shared interests and political and economic interdependence will one day give birth to a united C auc

asus. Levitra efectos That is what I am calling for today…” This statement was was made by Mikheil Saakashvili, the President of Georgia, in his speech that he has delivered at the UN Assembly in New York on September 23, 2010.

The idea of unification of the Caucasus Region is not all that new as it might seem.

Yet as Russian saying goes, ‘all the new is the long forgotten old’.

Unification of the Caucasus was aired by the first President of Georgia Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who formed tight relations with the Chechnian

first President, Djokhar Dudaev.

Both Presidents saw the unification of the Caucasus as one of the possible ways of easening the grip of Russia on the republics of the Caucasus which broke away from the Soviet Regime.

However, this idea never materialized as Zviad Gamsakhurdia was austed from Georgia ensuring the coup de’tat in 1993 and after three years Dudaev was assasinaged while his country was in a war with Russian Federation since 1994.

Later on the idea of a ‘Peaceful Caucasus’ and of ‘Dialogue of Cultures in the Caucasus’ was voiced by the second Georgian President, Edward Shewardnadze. Purchase Vanadyl online The desire to close the deal on the Eurasian corridor pipeline in 1999, now known as Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, made the President of Georgia and his Azerbaijanian counterpart to emphasize on the need of peace and stability in the region. However, since then rarely have such statements been made by the leaders of the states of the South Caucasus republics Thus, the question arises on whether there are actual plans and long-term strategy behind this statement from the side of Georgia and its President or it is a mere rhe toric without a substance

to sustain it?

South Caucasus region unites three post-Soviet republics that are Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.

According the CIA factbook (2010) the overall number of population in all those countries together is 15,8 million and covering the territory of 186 sq km.

Tied up with their own hurdles of state-making and territorial unity, the leaders

of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan so far have been reluctant in taking initiatives for making the South Caucasus as a collaborative and interconnected region, sort of a common project of all three states in the region.

Levitra commercial Having the Nagorno-Kharabakh dispute yet pending to be solved between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the issues of Abkhazian break-away region and the South Ossetian separatist territories the issue of united Caucasus might seem a long shot.

However, if it may start to materialize the three post-Soviet states might signal their maturity as independent and sovereign states, both to the Western world as well as to Russian Federation, that can set its regional and international integration strategies and pursue them. The unification of the Caucasus region might run opposite to the motto ‘separate and rule’ which was followed in the Russia foreign policy towards

the former Soviet republics. Buy Cialis Jelly Online Yet, it might speed up the process of solving territorial integrity Buy Lasix Online Pharmacy No Prescription Needed of the three republics and lead making a step towards establishing some type of a peaceful and compromised form of co-existence with and integration of the separatists regions.

Worth noting that regardless of the lack of regional initiatives from the side of the three republics in the South Caucasus external actors in the region, such as EU and the United States, have approached this region as one whole be it EU’s European Neighbourhood Policy, or the US Foreign Policy in the South Caucasus.

Having said that, almost one month after since the idea of United Caucasus was voiced by the Ge orgian President no follow up was made either by the auth

or of the idea or his counterparts in the region. Thus, one has to see whether those words were a mere rhetoric or a message to herald the birth of a new regional project in the Caucasus.