WIKILEAKS: ARMENIA TRIES TO BALANCE RELATIONS WITH GEORGIA
times.am
Nov 29 2010
Armenia
Here is the summary of the documents, published by Wikileaks,
where it is spoken about Armenian-Georgian relations. The summary
especially says:
Top Armenian officials are growing increasingly offended by Georgians’
non-responsiveness to Armenian efforts to reach out. The most
discourteous, perhaps, was the Georgian FM’s refusal even to meet
FM Nalbandian for a few minutes in Yerevan Airport, as she passed
through en route overland to Georgia in the early morning of August 15.
President Sargsyan is starting to take domestic criticism for his
presumed “failure” to call Saakashvili, after he did call President
Medvedev. Armenians feel their good intentions have been met with
an undeserved cold shoulder. Both the president and foreign minister
remain new enough in their jobs for such perceived slights to sting
more than perhaps would be the case of more seasoned hands.
Armenian officials are growing increasingly agitated, in private
meetings with CDA, about the continuing refusal of their Georgian
counterparts to take their calls, whether at the presidential,
prime minister, or foreign minister level. A key presidential aide
confided to CDA that President Sargsian had wanted to call Presidents
Saakashvili and Medvedev on the same day, so as to avoid any appearance
of Armenian bias between the two sides, but that when Medvedev took the
call and Saakashvili did not, the appearance of pro-Russian preference
was created. After repeated attempts to get a call through, Sargsyan
finally just sent a letter to Saakashvili , in a substitute effort
to show support for the Georgian side.
Local opposition newspapers have already sharply criticized President
Sargsyan for calling Medvedev and not phoning Saakashvili , and have
accused him of sacrificing Armenia’s national interests in a misguided
effort to cozy up to Russia. This is galling to Sargsyan after his
efforts to get Saakashvili on the telephone to offer condolences
and assistance.
The Prime Minister, likewise, was frustrated (reftel) by his inability
to reach his Georgian counterpart to discuss trade and transportation
issues which are of critical importance to the Armenian economy.
Meanwhile, Armenian officials have kept their public statements about
Georgia determinedly positive, even as their private exasperation
mounts, though they have begun to suggest that they will take a sharper
public tone if the cold shoulder from Tbilisi continues much longer.
The Foreign Minister called in CDA August 15 for a one on one
meeting, in which he vented his own simmering frustration, over
what he termed Georgia’s “hostile attitude.” Visibly agitated, FM
Nalbandyan noted that Armenia is trying to help Georgia by taking
in more than 4,000 refugees and offering to serve as a humanitarian
corridor for international relief efforts. He stressed that Armenia
needs a good relationship with Georgia not only for economic reasons,
but also for its contribution to regional stability. Nalbandyan added
that the GOAM had meticulously avoided any statements that could
be construed as siding with the Russians. Despite these efforts,
Nalbandyan fumed, Saakashvili has refused to return repeated calls
from President Sargsyan, and the Georgian PM has ignored calls from
his Armenian counterpart “for more than a week.
” The final indignity, according to the FM, was when FM Tkeshelashvili
arrived at Yerevan Airport at 4:00am on August 15 en route overland
to Tbilisi and declined Nalbandyan’s proposal for a short Airport
meeting at that hour. Tkeshelashvili said she was “under instructions”
to return to Tbilisi immediately. “What more do they want from us?”
Nalbandyan asked rhetorically. He said that the GOAM is “avoiding any
negative public statements about Georgia,” and warned that were such
a statement to be issued, the reaction of ethnic Armenians in Javakhq
(Javakheti) would be “very dangerous” for Georgia. Despite the obvious
threat behind his words, Nalbandyan insisted that “this is not a card
we could play” with Georgia, but “just a reality.”
CDA spoke briefly with the Georgian Ambassador August 15, after signing
the embassy condolence book. When CDA gave a brief synopsis of the
meeting with Nalbandyan, the Georgian ambassador said he had been
working the phones with Tbilisi for several days to try to set up a
Saakashvili -Sargsyan call, but to no avail. Although he expressed
frustration at Tbilisi ‘s lack of responsiveness, he attributed the
failure to the exigencies of the current emergency rather than to
any desire to slight the Armenians. The Ambassador added that he
would inform Saakashvili ‘s office in his next communication that
the American Charge had been called in by Nalbandyan about this issue.
And Times.am-Armenian news also presents the whole story on the theme,
which is published on finchannel.com. The article is mostly about
the Russian-Georgian war, but we have underlined the part conserning
Armenia at first.
The full story can be seen here:
From: A. Papazian