Gonzaga Debate Institute 2010 Pointer/Gordon/Watts/Samuels Turkey Neg


US-Turkey Relations Good (Caucasus)



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US-Turkey Relations Good (Caucasus)


Without US-Turkey Relations, US would be one-sided on issues in Caucasus, causes instability

Aydin and Erhan 4 (Mustafa, Head of the Department of International Relations, Çağrı , Assitant Professor at Ankara University, Turkish-American relations: past, present and future, pg 98) MJ

The US and Turkish approaches to security issues in the Caucasus region have contained the elements of both convergence and divergence. In the early 1990s, Washington did not share Turkish concerns about Moscow’s efforts to reassert its influence over the former Soviet Union’s possessions in the region. Intent on integrating Russia into the Western community of nations and optimistic about its political and economic transformation, the US adopted a policy of benign neglect toward Moscow’s effort to implement its ‘near abroad’ doctrine through overt and covert actions. Ankara’s objections to the Russian violations of the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty in the northern Caucasus and the restationing of Russian forces along Turkey’s borders in Georgia and Azerbaijan did not receive a sympathetic hearing in Washington. However, the US gradually modified its policy in the wake of the conflict in Chechnya and adopted a discernibly more cautious approach to Russian policies in the Caucasus. The US support for Baku-Ceyhan pipeline project and the American-backed ‘east-west energy corridor’ represented this new approach, which closely aligned US and Turkish policies after the mid-1990s. The only major exceptionto the convergence of views between Ankara and Washington was the continued US tilt toward Armenia in its conflict with Azerbaijan. The Armenian diaspora in the US, through its powerful lobby in Washington, has influenced the shaping of US policy on the Azeri-Armenian conflict. After Israel, Armenia has been the second highest recipient of US foreign aid on a per capita basis despite its occupation of more than one-fifth of Azeri territory. Azerbaijan, on the other hand, has been excluded from US assistance by Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act. Turkey has voiced its opposition to this imbalance in US policies and has repeatedly called on Washington to adopt a more even-handed approach.
Conflict in Caucasus causes worldwide war

Blank 2000 (Stephen, professor at the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College. American Grand Strategy and the Transcaspian Region, “U.S. Military Engagement with Transcaucasia and Central Asia,” World Affairs) MJ

Washington’s burgeoning military-political-economic involvement seeks, inter alia, to demonstrate the U.S. ability to project military power even into this region or for that matter, into Ukraine where NATO recently held exercises that clearly originated as an anti-Russian scenario. Secretary of Defense William Cohen has discussed strengthening U.S.-Azerbaijani military cooperation and even training the Azerbaijani army, certainly alarming Armenia and Russia.69 And Washington is also training Georgia’s new Coast Guard. 70 However, Washington’s well-known ambivalence about committing force to Third World ethnopolitical conflicts suggests that U.S. military power will not be easily committed to saving its economic investment. But this ambivalence about committing forces and the dangerous situation, where Turkey is allied to Azerbaijan and Armenia is bound to Russia, create the potential for wider and more protracted regional conflicts among local forces. In that connection, Azerbaijan and Georgia’s growing efforts to secure NATO’s lasting involvement in the region, coupled with Russia’s determination to exclude other rivals, foster a polarization along very traditional lines.71 In 1993 Moscow even threatened World War III to deter Turkish intervention on behalf of Azerbaijan. Yet the new Russo-Armenian Treaty and Azeri-Turkish treaty suggest that Russia and Turkey could be dragged into a confrontation to rescue their allies from defeat. 72 Thus many of the conditions for conventional war or protracted ethnic conflict in which third parties intervene are present in the Transcaucasus. For example, many Third World conflicts generated by local structural factors have a great potential for unintended escalation. Big powers often feel obliged to rescue their lesser proteges and proxies. One or another big power may fail to grasp the other side’s stakes since interests here are not as clear as in Europe. Hence commitments involving the use of nuclear weapons to prevent a client’s defeat are not as well established or apparent. Clarity about the nature of the threat could prevent the kind of rapid and almost uncontrolled escalation we saw in 1993 when Turkish noises about intervening on behalf of Azerbaijan led Russian leaders to threaten a nuclear war in that case. 73 Precisely because Turkey is a NATO ally, Russian nuclear threats could trigger a potential nuclear blow (not a small possibility given the erratic nature of Russia’s declared nuclear strategies). The real threat of a Russian nuclear strike against Turkey to defend Moscow’s interests and forces in the Transcaucasus makes the danger of major war there higher than almost everywhere else. As Richard Betts has observed, The greatest danger lies in areas where (1) the potential for serious instability is high; (2) both superpowers perceive vital interests; (3) neither recognizes that the other’s perceived interest or commitment is as great as its own; (4) both have the capability to inject conventional forces; and, (5) neither has willing proxies capable of settling the situation.74

Turkey-Russo Relations Good (Caucus Stability)


Creation of Russo-Turkish pipelines are key to Abhkazi peace talks

Aparanjedze and Welt 4, (George and Cory, A Georgian-Russian Pipeline: For Peace or Profit?, http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/business/articles/eav030904.shtml)

The proposal, however, contains one obvious obstacle: securing a pact that determines Abkhazia's political status. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Talks are currently at an impasse. Despite the public expressions of good will that surrounded Saakashvili's February 10-12 visit to Moscow, Russia and Georgia have been unable for more than a decade to find consensus on the Abkhazia question. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. In addition, Abkhaz leaders have shown no willingness to accept Georgia's current offer of broad autonomy within the Georgian state. In UN-hosted talks with Georgian representatives last month -- the first in three years -- Abkhazia maintained its demands for full independence. Abkhazia also refused to take part with Georgia in peace talks sponsored by Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States last month in Geneva. For Moscow, the timing may be right for both Abkhaz peace and a pipeline. Russia has taken a dim view of growing US influence in Georgia.


Caucus stabilty key to preventing further Ossetia invasions and preventing war in Chechnya

Peut 5, (Jean-Christophe, Caucasus/Central Asia: Analysts Expect Security, Economic Gains From BTC Pipeline, http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1058989.html)

The leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and Kazakhstan gathered near Baku today to inaugurate the $4 billion Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. The project is generally viewed as the key element of an overall plan to turn the Caucasus region into a transport corridor connecting Central Asia to Western Europe. But regional experts say that by helping make the region safer, the project's expected economic benefits might eventually outweigh its geostrategic importance. [For coverage of the ceremony, see "Caspian-Mediterranean Oil Pipeline Launched In Baku".] I believe that the idea of regional security is what prevails here," Tvalchrelidze said. "Had this pipeline been under construction in the years 1991 to 1992, for example, Georgia would never have gone into trouble with [its separatist republics] of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The reactions of the world community to these conflicts would have been totally different -- maybe even similar to that we've seen [recently] in Iraq." Tvalchrelidze also said he believes BTC might even have a positive impact of the war in Chechnya, since the pipeline could help cut many potential channels of oil contraband -- one of the main sources of revenues for both Russian army generals and Chechen fighters.




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