Turkish tour of Abkhaz separatist leader

The so called president of the Abkhaz separatist regime Sergey Bagapsh has conducted a four day visit of Turkey. It looks like this was part of the joint separatist Abkhazian and Russian policy.

From time to time, the puppet president made so called independent statements, for instance he mentioned that Abkhazia will never become a Russian region, while he holds a Russian passport in his pocket like all the citizens of so called independent Abkhazia.

Before the visit to Turkey, the Turkish Foreign Ministry made an official statement highlighting that Turkey supports the territorial integrity of Georgia and that Bagapsh was traveling to Turkey on a private invitation because of health problems. However any additional news concerning the health conditions of the puppet president were not available. On the other hand his visit and his meetings with different people, none of whom were in an official capacity, were highly dubious.

While in Turkey, Bagapsh stated that the country was a common home for many of the representatives of the Abkhaz Diaspora. At first glance Bagapsh expressed his readiness to invite ethnically Abkhaz citizens of Turkey to Abkhazia, but the question is, will Russia allow this to happen? Russians carried out ethnic cleansing and kicked out 300 000 Georgians because they wanted this territory for themselves not for the Turkish Abkhaz.

In regards to Russian – Abkhazian relations Bagapsh stated that Russia remains Abkhazia’s strategic partner and it was the first which recognized Abkhaz independence and conclude bilateral agreements with it. The visit showed clearly that it is a part of Kremlin’s policy to publicize the so called independence of Abkhazia so that more countries accept it as an independent entity thereby achieving further recognition of this puppet regime by different countries.

Russian political analyst Sergey Markedonov considers Bagapsh's visit to Turkey as a defeat for Georgian politics. So, this visit was definitely masterminded in Moscow and it has far reaching incentives. The Turkish position here is as such: On one hand it is considered a good friendly neighbor of Georgia but on the other hand it has enjoyed the most cordial relations with Russia recently. What will be the real consequences of the visit it is not possible to guess but overall one can agree with Markedonov that this is a failure of Georgian diplomacy as it had to prevent such things from happening by all possible diplomatic means. Bagapsh's health problems, if they exist at all, could have been treated quite well in Moscow where the medical system is of a high standard, and certainly no worse than in Turkey.