GEORGIAN-TURKISH TIES REAFFIRMED.

In an address to Georgia’s parliament and in talks with President Eduard Shevardnadze yesterday, Turkish parliament chairman Mustafa Kalemli held up Turkish-Georgian relations as an example of good neighborly cooperation for the entire Caucasus. Kalemli chose Georgia for his first official visit abroad as parliament chairman. He reaffirmed Turkey’s support for Georgia’s territorial integrity and the commitment to building the trans-Georgian pipeline for Caspian oil. Shevardnadze endorsed Kalemli’s initiative for the formation of an interparliamentary assembly of Caucasus countries as a forum to promote regional peace. Kalemli also stressed, however, that security in the Caucasus is not only a regional but a world problem. (13)

More Question Marks over Caspian-Novorossiisk Pipeline Plan.