ANKARA Turkey will hold military exercises this week with Georgia, a former Soviet republic seen by Ankara as one of its chief allies in the volatile Caucasus region, the Turkish Army said on Wednesday.
"The scenario of the maneuvres is based on preventing illegal border crossings from one country to another," the land forces command said in a statement. It gave no details.
Tensions rose between Turkey and Georgia's transcaucasian neighbor Armenia this week over a tentative step by the U.S. Congress to recognize accusations that Ottoman Turks conducted "genocide" against Armenians in 1915.
A vote by a House International Relations Subcommittee, pressed by ethnic Armenians in the United States, was welcomed in Yerevan on Tuesday as "a serious step towards determining the truth." Turkey, which denies genocide took place, could adopt measures against Armenia if the U.S. Congress votes approval to the non-binding resolution calling on President Bill Clinton to "characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1.5 million Armenians as genocide".
Georgia, like Armenia, has thousands of Russian troops on its territory.
(Reuter)