ARMENIA CANNOT REMAIN INDIFFERENT
Vardan Grigoryan
Hayots Ashkharh, Armenia
Aug 29 2007
Currently Georgia is involved in an intensive process of handing
over its country’s railroads, ports and other objects of strategic
importance to the foreign capital for long-term governance. And this
spontaneously brings Armenia face-to-face with new challenges.
Blockaded by two of its four neighbors, Armenia cannot be indifferent
as to which country’s companies will occupy leading positions in
the sphere of operating the Georgian communications that extend to
the shores of the Black Sea and the borders of Russia. So, now that
the Government of our neighboring country has, after handing over its
railroads to the English for the term 89 years, started the process of
looking for foreign governors to take the leadership of the sea ports,
the Armenian side cannot remain in the role of an outside observer.
Georgia has currently announced a bid for giving the port of Poti
for rent for the term of 49 years.
Although the deadline for submitting the claims is October 15, the
circle of the Armenian investors who have begun to take interest in
the port of Poti, is already being sketched. They are investors from
Russia and a number of Asian countries, "Dubai World" port holding
from the United Arab Emirates being the most active among them.
Of course, other foreign companies may join this process, since the
port of Poti cannot process 25 tons of cargo on annual basis.
The Georgian side is demonstrating a purely financial interest in
all this, at least outwardly, guided by the principle of selling
something to the purchaser that offers the highest price, as is common
to auctions. However, considering the Russian-Georgian relations,
it is difficult to say whether such principle will be applied to the
Russian companies that have announced a bid for the governance of
the port of Poti. In such conditions, it is not ruled out that the
companies of Turkey or Azerbaijan, countries that have encircled
Armenia, may also interfere in the process of renting the port of
Poti that plays the role of a sea gateway for our state.
Such danger will be even greater in case of Georgia’s announcing a
bid for giving Batumi, another important port, for rent because Turkey
still preserves its traditional pretensions to Ajaria. , And it is not
accidental that the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov,
who had already visited and studied the oil reserves situated
on the Turkish-Georgian borderline, was in the capital of Ajaria,
August 26-27. Regulating at least the "document-related" part of the
construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railroad, Azerbaijan is
also trying to occupy serious positions in Batumi, a port situated on
the Georgian-Turkish border-line which, by the way, not only used to
be a subject of Turkish pretensions, but also was included into the
territory of "Great Azerbaijan", together with Borchalu, Akhalkalaki
and Akhaltske, the country’s borderlines having been drawn by the
administrators of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan in 1918-1920.
Considering the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki railroad and
the prospect of inhabiting Batumi with Turks, the strengthening
of the Armenian factor in Batumi is first of all strategically
beneficial to Georgia, because the country will thus have the
opportunity to counterbalance the penetration of the other two
neighbors. Economically, Georgia also gains much profit, by receiving
thousands of Armenian tourists leaving for the resorts of Ajaria.
However, taking into consideration the fact that the English, who
have rented the Georgian railways for the term of 89 years, have also
started to take interest in the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi railroad,
Georgia is still trying to remain in the status of an obedient heifer
sucking milk from several mothers.
However, even for such a "sensible animal", the sea ports are the
only counterbalances that can guarantee the "natural alternative" of
railroads opening their way to Turkey. The thing is that the project of
constructing the Armenian-Iranian railroad can also enable Georgia to
open a window to the Near East and Middle East. And in that context,
the interest in the port of Poti by "Dubai World" port holding that
represents the United Arab Emirates is quite conceivable. The roads
extending from Poti to Armenia and then to Iran and the Arab world
may become the most reliable route linking Europe with the Middle East.
Therefore, Armenia should not be indifferent to the contest aimed at
acquiring the leadership of Poti. And the matter does not absolutely
consist in making direct use of this kind of "expensive pleasure". The
important thing is to prevent Poti and later Batumi from changing into
new objects of the Turkish-Azerbaijani policy of encircling Armenia.
And for that purpose, it is possible to invite the wealthy Armenian
representatives of the traditional or Russian Diaspora to submit a
claim or, which seems more probable, to support the claim of one of
the chief pretenders of winner. The Armenian capital of abroad should
not ignore the current contest aimed at the long-term rent of Poti,
a port playing the role of a "sea gateway" for Armenia.
The mutually beneficial solution to the problem of the long-term rent
of Georgia’s sea pots and first of all Poti, can, in the near future,
guarantee joint opportunities for Georgia and Armenia to acquire
alternative communications extending from Europe to Iran and then –
to the Arab world via a railroad.