Despite delaying its membership bid, EU is piggybacking on Turkey's influence in Caucasus

PanARMENIAN.Net - Under pressure from Brussels, Europe's 'wild east' is coming in from the cold - but plenty of obstacles still remain

The EU's invitation to Belarus to attend a special summit in Prague next week is the latest sign a spring thaw may be taking hold along the ragged, fraught frontiers of Europe's "wild east". The so-called frozen conflicts that have disfigured the region since the end of the cold war are beginning to melt at the edges. Under pressure from Brussels, the ice is starting to shift.



Most significant in strategic and economic terms is the burgeoning rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia, which last week unveiled a joint road map to normalise relations after almost a century of hostility. The plan includes re-opening the border closed by Turkey in 1993 in protest at Armenian support for separatists contesting Azerbaijan's control of the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.



Despite effectively placing its membership bid on hold, the EU is happy to piggyback on Turkey's considerable influence in the Caucasus and the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions for its own purposes. These include the advancing of common trade, development, security and human rights agendas and most importantly, perhaps, the securing of non-Russian controlled energy supply routes from central Asia.



The kiss-and-make-up scenario now developing between Ankara and Yerevan has thus been warmly welcomed in Brussels, and in the US. Prospectively it makes it easier to draw relatively isolated Armenia, which has long lived in Moscow's shadow, closer towards the western fold. And that in turn dovetails nicely with developing western ties other post-Soviet republics such as Georgia and Ukraine.



A parallel thaw is underway between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which have begun talks on de-icing Nagorno-Karabakh. Oil-producing Azerbaijan, on the shores of the Caspian, is a crucial player in terms of future European energy supply and transit. It pays to keep it happy. Once again the EU, along with Turkey, has been active in promoting the nascent peace process. And the EU's Prague summit will host the next encounter of the two countries' presidents, The Guardian reported.