Armenian and Russian sources have seized on American embassy cables published by WikiLeaks which claim that Turkish armed forces were ready to occupy Adjara during the war of August 2008 in the event of Russian troops coming 100 km from the Georgian-Turkish border.

The leaked information suggests that Turkey’s Prime Minister, Recep Erdogan and members of the Turkish parliament flew to Moscow to inform Russia’s President Dimitri Medvedev that Turkey, as a NATO member country would have the right to bring military units to the conflict zone in order to protect the territory of the neighboring country.

In such a scenario, the cables claim, Turkey would have sent its ground units into Adjara supported by air power. There is in fact a precedent for the scenario, as in 1921 when the Red Army conquered Georgia, Turkey’s military units moved in to occupy Adjara.

Is this all true?

The cables claim that on March 3, 2009 the Georgian Interior Minister, Vano Merabishvili told Georgian journalists that if during the Russian-Georgian war, the government had not been able to ensure the country’s security, Turkey was ready to bring its armed forces in through Adjara to protect Georgia.

According to the Kars agreement, signed by Russia after the occupation of Georgia in 1921, Turkey has the right under international law to bring troops into the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, but it is hard to believe that an armed conflict could take place between NATO-member Turkey and Russia over the territory.

There are several reasons for doubting that the sides would ever have come to blows: First – the Turkey would not have been able to act in the name of NATO without the consent of every NATO member state. Second – Turkey could bring troops to Adjara but not as a NATO-member state, it would only have been possible to use the Kars agreement to justify a military presence in the territory, not actual conflict. Third – Ankara would have done its best not to allow military confrontation between the Turkish and Russian military units to occur as such an event would cause a serious international incident.

On the morning of August 11, 2008, Russian jets bombed a Georgian military base in Khelvachauri, Adjara as well as Sharabidzes, Kapandichi and Makho, villages 10 km from the Georgian-Turkish border. Russian planes flew well within the exclusion zone near the Georgian-Turkish border but no response was seen from Ankara.

During the August war, a Russian commando unit entered Poti and bombed several sites in the port town. One month later, a Russian control-checkpoint was still located at the entrance to Poti. Even though these actions took place less than 100 km from the Georgian-Turkish border (70 km), there was no serious military reaction from the side of the Turkish government.

These factors certainly shed doubt on the truth of the reports being circulated in the Russian and Armenian media.

It cannot be ruled out that agencies of certain countries may be trying to use the WikiLeaks data to spread misinformation as it is quite difficult to check the validity of the information in the vast hoard of data that can be found on the website.

By Irakli Aladashvili, Editor-in-chief of the military analytical magazine “Arsenali”
23.12.2010

http://www.georgiatoday.ge/article_details.php?id=8564&cat=Politics&version=542