In the context of European Integration of Georgia, great importance is attached to the knowledge and expectations of the population, including the ethnic minorities, regarding Georgia’s integration in the EU and implementation of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement. According to the surveys taken by various organizations, the popular mood in Georgia is positive where the EU-integration is concerned. Although the interest towards the association is substantial it does not rely on the specifics and dynamics of the bilateral relations. Mostly, the information the people get from the TV is superficial. One option to raise the popular awareness is to implement the Caucasus University Erasmus + Jean Monnet “Triangle Effect of European Studies at Schools” (TEESS) project and share the university knowledge of European Studies with public schools. The project aims at raising awareness of the European integration, the Association Agreement and DCFTA in the regions densely populated by the IDPs, namely, the school children, teachers and their families. The workshops staged in the Georgian, Russian, Armenian and Azeri public schools in the capital Tbilisi and the towns of Akhaltsikhe and Marneuli partly attended by the IDPs made the scarcity of the information and the interest evident. The discussions showed that most of them realized the importance of the EU support to Georgia. However, some of them were still skeptical. We suggest a different planning of the information campaign targeted at sharing the European values and generally the EU-Georgia relations, on the one hand and better instruction in the Georgian language in the regions populated with the ethnic minorities. The outcome of the project made it clear that supply of more comprehensive information on Europe at the history and civic education lessons to the school children could be a good option. That is what “The European Association Process in Georgia”, a quadri-lingual textbook published within the frameworks of the Caucasus University “Erasmus +” Jean Monnet project funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia is targeted at. We suppose stepping up the project activities by adding elements of informal education and last but not the least, closer involvement of public agencies and institutions.

This paper depicts the dynamics of the EU-Turkey relations beginning from the signing of the association agreement, i.e. the Ankara contract, to date. In addition, it aims to specify the factors preventing the bilateral collaboration and achievement of EU membership as aspired to by Ankara. The paper focuses on both the internal and international problems arising on Turkey’s path to EU membership, namely, the westernisation trend originating from Kemal Ataturk times, recent developments in Turkey, the democratisation of political institutions, the rule of law and protection of human rights, regional security, Turkey’s part in the refugee crisis, visafree travel, Greek-Turkey relationships, Ankara’s stance towards Cyprus, the Kurdish problem, and the Turkey-US and Turkey-Russia relationships. The authors discuss the EU Member States’ attitude towards the political and socio-economic developments in Turkey and the way Ankara looks at the requirements put forward by those Member States. We suggest several methods of rapprochement and brighter bilateral prospects.

Today, influence of globalization can be apparently seen in the spheres of politics, economics, culture and education. The countries are not able to isolate from one another anymore. Globalization influences social systems, institutes, communication sphere and this clearly shows that this process impacts the higher education as well. Changes in teaching of different discipline were put on agenda. Collapse of the Soviet Union, gaining of independence by Georgia, geopolitical position of Georgia, diplomatic contacts made, all these have increased the role of Georgia as an independent actor on international arena. Since that time, Georgia gradually became part of the global processes. Thus, in the 21st century, against the background of globalization and dialogue of civilizations, Georgia faced new challenges. The country has to take its position in the contemporary world. Today, implementation of the proper policies would determine our prospects, both, in short and long run. Goal of the research is to investigate the issue of education of the proper professionals against the background of such challenges. Today, regarding its political, economic and cultural relationships, Georgia increasingly needs highly qualified professionals in the spheres of regional studies and area studies. Mostly we imply gaining of wide knowledge about the European and oriental countries and generalization of this knowledge in the process of inter-country relationships development. Today we regard that due consideration of the experience of foreign countries is of great significance to adjust modernization and globalization to the historical and cultural traditions of our country. In this respect, it is important to study history and current situation of the Europe and Near East, Georgia has great traditions of this. As for the Europe, together with teaching Western European languages, it is desirable to develop teaching of European studies in interdisciplinary context, as this responds to the globalization challenges. Georgia’s active participation in Bologna Process, internationalization of education processes provide good opportunities, with respect of improvement of teaching of cross-cultural studies, though together with education, expansion of scientific researches, conducting of interdisciplinary studies is of significance as this would allow introduction of the new approaches, provide opportunity of training of the highly qualified and competitive professionals. In addition, teaching of cross-cultural studies should become more pragmatic to ensure its contribution to the state building.

In the context of European Integration of Georgia, great importance is attached to the knowledge and expectations of the population, including the ethnic minorities, regarding Georgia’s integration in the EU and implementation of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement. According to the surveys taken by various organizations, the popular mood in Georgia is positive where the EU-integration is concerned. Although the interest towards the association is substantial it does not rely on the specifics and dynamics of the bilateral relations. Mostly, the information the people get from the TV is superficial. One option to raise the popular awareness is to implement the Caucasus University Erasmus + Jean Monnet “Triangle Effect of European Studies at Schools” (TEESS) project and share the university knowledge of European Studies with public schools. The project aims at raising awareness of the European integration, the Association Agreement and DCFTA in the regions densely populated by the IDPs, namely, the school children, teachers and their families. The workshops staged in the Georgian, Russian, Armenian and Azeri public schools in the capital Tbilisi and the towns of Akhaltsikhe and Marneuli partly attended by the IDPs made the scarcity of the information and the interest evident. The discussions showed that most of them realized the importance of the EU support to Georgia. We suggest a different planning of the information campaign targeted at sharing the European values and generally the EU-Georgia relations, on the one hand and better instruction in the Georgian language in the regions populated with the ethnic minorities. That is what “The European Association Process in Georgia”, a quadri-lingual textbook published within the frameworks of the Caucasus University “Erasmus +” Jean Monnet project funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia is targeted at. We suppose stepping up the project activities by adding elements of informal education and last but not the least, closer involvement of public agencies and institutions.