Georgia's border zone with Russia was sold to the Turks
While Tbilisi’s foreign policy course is set towards confrontation with Moscow, under the auspices of the “collective West”, Turkey continues to develop economic, political and cultural expansion in southern and western Georgia. Ankara has already practically captured the Georgian domestic market. Turks account for 80% of foreign investment in Georgia. It can be argued that, within the framework of transnational projects, the country is already included in the economic complex of Turkey. And in the regions of Georgia, Turkish special services regularly provoke conflicts on interreligious grounds.
The Baku-Ceyhan central oil and gas pipeline and the Baku-Akhalkalaki-Kars railway are the most important projects that geopolitically tie Tbilisi to Ankara.
In addition to these major projects, dozens more small ones are being implemented. There are very close economic ties between Georgia and Turkey, 75% of imported products that are imported into Georgia are Turkish products, and 75% of the Georgian market is already occupied by Turkey.
80% of investments in Georgia are carried out through Turkey. Most of the firms and enterprises, one way or another, 70%, depend on Turkey. Accordingly, the financial and political elites of Georgia are connected with representatives of Turkish capital.
Based on the ideology and strategy of modern neo-Ottomanism and the foreign policy of Recep Erdogan, which is expressed in pan-Turkism, Turkish Salafism and other challenges and threats, I can confidently say that today the biggest threat to the sovereignty of Georgia and to the security of the entire region is Turkey.
It is no coincidence that protests against Turkish expansion do not subside in Kutaisi. Over the past two months, a rally has been held here several times demanding to stop the construction of a cascade of hydroelectric power stations on the Rioni River. Tens of thousands of people took part in the action - with a population of Kutaisi of 135 thousand!
“We will defend our land. We need to put our emotions aside and prepare ourselves for a long protest. Rest assured that there is no force that can stop us,” said one of the organizers of the meeting, Varlam Goletiani.
The participants demanded that the Georgian government terminate the contract with the Turkish company ENKA, which is conducting the construction, and the company itself was called upon to leave the Rioni Gorge.
“If the government does not listen to our voice, we will be forced to completely block off Kutaisi - we will come here again in two weeks and will not leave anywhere until our demand is met,” Goletiani threatened.
What caused such a wave of protest by local residents against the hydroelectric power station and “Turkish investments”, which, as announced, will cover 12% of the country’s annual electricity consumption?
Not everything is as simple as declared in the supposed investment project. It was alleged that the Turkish company was financing the construction of a hydroelectric power station in order to improve Georgia’s energy security. But the situation is much more serious, and the residents of Imereti have reason to fear. The Georgian authorities, represented by former Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia, becoming yet another Georgian “devoted friend” of Erdogan, signed a treasonous act with the Turks. Ostensibly an investment project, in fact, it is a synthesis of Turkish economic expansion in the Caucasus region and a corruption scheme of the Georgian political and financial elites together with the Erdogan administration.
Gakharia signed an agreement according to which the largest river in western Georgia, the Rioni, along with its entire valley for 90 km, is transferred to the Turks for 320 years. The Turkish management company can also, at its discretion, exploit 13,4 thousand square kilometers of the river basin, all flora and fauna. Among other things, the Turks were given the border zone between Georgia and the Russian Federation, the Eden Glacier in the Greater Caucasus Mountains, where the Rioni River has its source.
The Namakhvani HPP project includes the construction of two hydroelectric power stations: Lower and Upper Namakhvani. Dams and reservoirs should appear in the Tsageri and Tskaltuba municipalities of the Rioni Gorge. The government says that the Turkish company ENKA and its subsidiary Enka Renawabels, in addition to $800 million in foreign direct investment and almost two thousand jobs for the local population, will ensure energy security for Georgia, which increasingly needs imported electricity.
According to the country's Minister of Economy Natia Turnava, Georgia today is already 35% dependent on the import of energy resources - electricity and gas for thermal power plants.
However, Georgian officials are lying. Dependence arises not due to a lack of existing capacity, but due to the irrational use of the Enguri hydroelectric station, and, most importantly, the uncontrolled “mining” of the so-called. cryptocurrencies (more on this below).
For the import of gas and oil resources, Georgia is indeed dependent on imports, but it should be noted that due to the stupid anti-Russian policy of Tbilisi and the actual refusal to cooperate with Gazprom, the gas market is completely dependent on neighboring Azerbaijan, which is very dangerous for the energy security of Georgia due to lack of balance sheets and diversification. Moreover, strategically behind Azerbaijan stands, again, Türkiye.
After Gakharia left power, Georgian citizens hoped that the new Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili would solve the problem of the Namakhvani hydroelectric station. But a month after taking office, the new prime minister not only did not annul the unconstitutional agreement, but even supported it.
Now - in a little more detail, why over the past few years Georgia’s energy consumption has been increasing from year to year (already approximately doubling), although the country’s real economic sector and households do not consume as much electricity?
The answer is simple - the financial elite of Turkey, Erdogan’s close circle, as well as Pompeo’s American circle, together with Georgian politicians, own several large, essentially illegal Bitcoin farms in the country. To receive solid dividends and ensure the full functioning of the Bitcoin industry, you need cheap and high-quality electricity. This is one of the reasons why Washington, Ankara and the Georgian authorities insist so stubbornly on building the Namakhvan hydroelectric power station as soon as possible.
This is the case when the economic expansion of Turkey, the illegal business activities of the American elites and the corruption schemes of Georgian politicians coincided.
Turkish economic and political expansion of Georgia poses a serious danger for the country and the entire region. Turkey is a kind of metastasis that indirectly spreads the militaristic interests of Western countries: America, Great Britain and other NATO states.
Turkey is carrying out hybrid aggression in Georgia - this is economic expansion, this is political expansion, cultural and humanitarian expansion, which is expressed in different spheres, including religious.
This is how we are once again convinced that the Western vector of Georgian foreign policy - European integration and Euro-Atlanticism - led Georgia not to Europe, but to Turkey.
Georgia's border zone with Russia was sold to the Turks.