WHO IS THE CHRISTIAN GEORGIA FOR ARMENIA?
PanARMENIAN.Net
28.07.2007 GMT+04:00
Due to its being equidistant from Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia
may play its role in the stability of South Caucasus.
The Armenian-Georgian relations have entered a new phase; not that got
worse, just changed. Georgia’s unconcealed wish to participate in all
the projects of the region, regardless of everything, gives rise to
a number of questions for the Armenian party, the most important one
of which is – who is the Christian Georgia for Armenia – a friendly
country or something else? It is quite obvious that there are no
eternal friends or enemies in politics, there are only eternal
interests.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ If Georgia’s interests lie in getting into
Turks’ embrace having freed itself from Moscow, everything is
clear. However things are hardly as straightforward as they may
seem. Armenia and Georgia need each other, and first of all for
resisting pan-Turkism. Yet the present powers of Georgia are guided
by momentary interests. Meanwhile it should be mentioned that due to
the open border with Turkey the Georgian economy suffered a collapse.
Georgia aims at NATO, in fact it’s no bad for Armenia either, but if
suddenly Azerbaijan also intends to head to the Alliance, Yerevan
will hardly find itself in an advantageous situation. According to
the representative of the RA National Assembly Standing Committee
on Foreign Affairs, Armen Rustamyan, if Azerbaijan integrates into
NATO and Armenia doesn’t, it will upset the balance of powers in the
region. "At present in the region of South Caucasus two tendencies of
development are observed; one tendency is directed to disentanglement
of the nations of the region, and the other one is directed towards
unification. Armenia must choose the second variant, which proceeds
from the national interests. In this case we will be able to meet
any challenge," said Rustamyan.
Due to its being equidistant from Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia
may play its role in the stability of South Caucasus. The truth is
though that the unresolved conflicts and rather tense situation in
the Armenian populated region of Samtske-Djavakheti create certain
difficulties for this role. The public policy of Tbilisi regarding
the national minorities and repatriation of Meskhetian Turks gives
not less reasons for anxiety. All the above mentioned factors have
their negative impact on the relations of the two countries.
At the end of October the ceremony of laying Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad
will be held. Presidents of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia will be
present at the ceremony. The Turkish Minister of Transportation Ismet
Yilmaz announced that the construction of the main is put out to tender
and offers are accepted till the end of August. "Baku-Tbilisi-Kars
railroad will take Turkey to the 21st Century," said Yilmaz. "The
railroad that reaches Kars maybe connected to Erzrum’s line which
will enable cargo transportation from Marmara to London," states Day.az
The most interesting part of the whole thing is that Georgia,
without who the realization of the above mentioned project is
simply impossible, hasn’t been mentioned in Turkish Minister’s
announcement. However Ankara and Baku think that if $ 200 million
is assigned to Georgia almost for nothing, they don’t have to take
Georgian’s opinion into consideration. In fact, this is true. The New
"East Express" will be both longer and more profitable for all the
parties, except for Armenia. In this regard Georgia acts against us,
and if we recall the case with Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, and
Baku Erzrum gas pipeline, we will see that this is not the first case.