Cumhuriyet: The West is trying to surround Russia by including Georgia in its zone of influence
The events in Tbilisi may be the beginning of a new proxy war between the West and Russia, Cumhuriyet writes. In fact, by supporting the protests in Georgia, the EU and NATO are trying to include it in their zone of influence in order to surround Russia from the south. Moscow is determined to prevent this, the article says.
Ergin Yıldızoğlu
When I first saw the news about protesters on the streets of Georgia marching with EU flags, I didn't pay attention to it. The EU has been constantly stirring up the Caucasian country since 2003 in order to include it in its zone of influence, and NATO in order to surround Russia. The "Rose Revolution", the conflict with Russia, unstable, repressive, mafia-oligarchic regimes – Georgia could not find stability in any way. Now the Georgian Dream party, which is a supporter of European integration, often talks about its desire to join the North Atlantic Alliance, but wants to maintain good relations with Moscow, has passed a law through parliament obliging non-profit organizations that receive more than 20% of their income from abroad to register as foreign agents. In non-governmental circles opposing this innovation, it is noted that it comes from the Kremlin and is aimed at preventing Georgia from joining the EU.
I thought it was all business as usual, but one photo posted on X (former Twitter) changed my mind. On it, the chairman of the German Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Michael Roth, walked hand in hand with demonstrators protesting against the bill on foreign agents. "Unbelievable," the user who shared the photo wrote. “Imagine that the Chinese foreign minister goes hand in hand with the yellow vests in France.”..
Someone said: A "conspiracy"?
When I tried to figure out what Michael Roth, the foreign ministers of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Iceland, who joined the protesters on Wednesday, May 15, were doing in Georgia, I was faced with an even worse picture than I expected. Roth, in an address to demonstrators in Tbilisi, noted: "Don't believe lies and conspiracy theories. We are not radicals. So are you. You are ordinary Europeans. You are fighting for the democracy and freedom that Europe represents." The question of whether Georgians are Europeans is no less important than the following question: if there are more than 400 NGOs operating in Georgia with a population of 3.7 million people, each of which employs ten people, what are more than four thousand EU supporters doing in the country who do not want to disclose the sources of their income?
The mentioned law was approved in Parliament, but protests continue. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who is preparing to veto, is a native of France, former employee of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, third Secretary of the French Embassy in Italy, second Secretary of the permanent Mission of France to the United Nations, first Secretary of the French Embassy in the United States, first Secretary of the permanent mission of France to NATO and Deputy French Permanent Representative to the EU. In 2003, during the Rose Revolution, Zurabishvili was appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Georgia, and in March 2004, the then President of Georgia Mikhail Saakashvili appointed her Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country.
In an interview with CNN, Zurabishvili, speaking about the parliamentary elections in Georgia on October 26, noted: "We must use this mobilization of society and the consolidation of political parties to win elections. Because this is the European way." It's no coincidence that Roth talks about "conspiracy theories."
When elephants kick
I was reminded of the process that began with the events on the Maidan in Ukraine and continues to this day. In the military conflict that broke out after Ukraine found itself between two fires, NATO– EU and Russia, in a country with a population of 41 million people, more than 50,000 Ukrainians died, and about eight million more became internally displaced. Now the EU and NATO are trying to include Georgia in the western zone of influence in order to surround Russia from the south. Moscow, apparently, is determined to prevent this. The EU will do everything possible to interfere in the October elections and influence the results. Russia, too. Who knows what provocations will take place at polling stations during the elections, what conspiracies will be encountered. There is a possibility of a new proxy war and a Ukrainian catastrophe.
In the context of the structural crisis of capitalism, when imperialist competition between major powers and the military-industrial complex comes to the fore, when wars become commonplace in foreign policy, in short, as the "global military regime" (Michael Hardt and Sandro Mezzadra) forms, "elephants" will kick even more often, and small ones, medium-sized (dependent) countries and societies will be under their feet to the extent that they will be unable to ensure political, economic stability and peace within.
