Author: Jagharian Tania

IT’S POSITIVE THAT AZERBAIJAN TRIES TO GIVE UP AGGRESSIVE STANCE, NKR
PRESIDENT THINKS
Karabakh issue
Azg/arm
17 July 05
President of Nagorno Karabakh Republic, Arkady Ghukasian, called
a press conference yesterday. Focusing chiefly on his meeting with
the OSCE Minsk group co-chairmen two days ago, Ghukasian expressed
readiness to answer various questions of journalists.
Answering a question about the opinion of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly
reporter on Nagorno Karabakh Goran Lenmarker over connecting Karabakh
with Armenia, Ghukasian praised this valiant approach.
He emphasized that everyone who was into the settlement process got
convinced in the need to include Karabakh in the negotiations. “But
if Azerbaijan does not want to talk to Karabakh, it means it avoids
settling the confrontation”, the president said. He refused to comment
on the so-called alternatives of conflict settlement circulating in
the media, explaining that the talks are confidential.
Journalists were interested in the fate of Lachin in the possible
regulation . The president said that Lachin should not become an
object of negotiations as it is the road connecting Karabakh and
Armenia and is important for the Republic’s security.
Arkady Ghukasian agreed with the co-chairmen that the talks marked
positive shift, and Azerbaijan is trying to give up its aggressive
stance. “The key issue for us today is Nagorno Karabakh’s status,
and Azerbaijan is now discussing it with the co-chairs”, Ghukasian
pointed out. The next positive fact he mentioned is that the sides do
not avoid any more discussing issues put forward by the opposite side.
Speaking of the steps directed to bring together Karabakh and
Azerbaijan since the truce, Ghukasian said that the essential contact
was while signing a joined communiqué. The contacts fall on the period
before 1997 when Karabakh was a participant of the peace talks on
the sidelines of OSCE Minsk Group. Aside from this, Azerbaijani and
Artsakhi foreign ministers and parliament representatives got in
touch with each other.
President Ghukasian called untimely the “necessary stage” mentioned
by French chairman Bernard Fassie, saying that it may be needed only
after agreement is reached over key elements of the conflict.
The president excluded the possibility of making a joint announcement
with Azerbaijan at the present stage.
Is that possible, as Azerbaijan offers, to get in touch with the Azeri
community of Karabakh? Ghukasian dubbed this offer an “element of the
Azeri-run theatre”, noting that the Azeris also should make contacts
with the Russian, Greek and other communities of Nagorno Karabakh,
if we follow their logic.
Turning to other issues, Arkady Ghukasian informed that the commission
he chairs is working on the draft of the constitution of Nagorno
Karabakh. The opinion of the new forces at the parliament should
also be considered. Though the Venice Commission has stipulated
no conditions, Karabakh has to draw up a constitution in line with
European standards. The draft constitution will enter the national
Assembly by the end of this year.
By Kim Gabrielian in Stepanakert
–Boundary_(ID_gwzqMt2HGhhc9irzeWFWpQ)–

MarketWatch, NY
July 15 2005
Fighting the banality of evil
Commentary: As cultures collide, conflicts surge
By Marshall Loeb, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The scariest part of the terrorist attack
on London was the very ordinariness of the perpetrators.
They were not cold-eyed crazies from far away. Of the four known
suicide bombers, at least three had been born in Britain, raised in
Britain, schooled in Britain, employed in Britain. Two of them had
attended a local college in Leeds. One had married a Leeds woman,
had a baby, now aged eight months, and was expecting another. None
was known to have made any trouble — until now.
They reflected, as social historian Hanna Arendt said of the
rank-and-file Nazi war criminals who had so easily massacred innocent
women and children, “the banality of evil.”
But what set these terrorists off from the majority of Britons was
that they were Muslim; three had Pakistani roots, one Jamaican.
Apparently, this somehow made them feel different, and susceptible
to radical incantations.
That bespeaks a deeper and wider problem we all face. In many
countries, big and growing parts of the citizenry are segregating and
separating themselves from the broad majority. Instead of seeking
to integrate with the majority, they wall themselves off, creating
tensions that can literally explode.
The situation will only worsen because birth rates in many developed
nations are plunging. In order to stabilize their populations, and
find enough people to fill entry-level jobs, these countries need
immigrants, most of them from the Third World.
But that’s just what the majority populations do not want.
Almost overnight, large immigrant populations have risen throughout
Europe. Countries with the most liberal policies of granting political
refuge and admitting immigrants have had the most severe problems —
because so many have come flocking in.
For example: Norway. In Oslo, 7.3 percent of the population are
outsiders. Crime rates are surging, and most of the perpetrators
are newcomers.
Or take the Netherlands. In Amsterdam, TheoVan Gogh (a descendant
of the painter) was shot and stabbed to death on a busy street by a
Dutch citizen of Moroccan origin because he had made a film considered
critical of Islam by some radicals.
In Germany, which for more than 50 years has accepted large numbers of
immigrant Turks to fill low-level jobs, the Muslim population is up
to almost 6 million (out of a total 82 million) and tensions between
majority and minority are bruising.
So, too, in France, where the largely Muslim minority, primarily from
the former French colonies of Algeria and elsewhere in North Africa,
is 5 million, or 8.6 percent of the population.
The trouble is not confined to Western Europe. Almost everywhere that
different ethnic groups live side by side in this world, there has been
a long history of tension, often bloodshed and sometimes raw genocide
— as when the Turks massacred 1.5 million Armenians beginning in 1915,
or the Nazis slaughtered 6 million Jews beginning in 1939.
More recently, recall how the Orthodox Serbs destroyed the Muslim
Bosnians in the former Yugoslavia. Or how the Tutsis wiped out the
Hutus in Rwanda. Or how the tan-skinned Muslim majority of Sudan’s
North have been murdering the black-skinned Christian Animists of
the South.
Perhaps we can draw some warnings and lessons from this sad portrait:
— More and more groups of people — with different cultures and
clashing religions — will be thrown up against each other in the
future. That is substantially because the number of immigrants will
continue to expand, particularly in countries that need more workers
to empty the garbage, bury the dead and do other distasteful jobs.
— Countries that receive those immigrants should pay much more
attention to developing. policies to integrate them into the local
culture. Most important is to improve the schools, and require that
the newcomers learn the local language.
On these issues, the United States can give some guidance to the
rest of humankind. True, we should not boast, given our inexcusable
and sinful heritage of slavery; Until fairly recently the people who
came to America from Africa were involuntary slaves.
But still, ours is, along with Canada, one of the two most successful
polyglot immigrant nations in the world. Our immigrants benefit
America.
That is at least partly due to public policies and private institutions
that have worked together to make immigrants feel welcome, to help
educate them, meld them into the greater society, and to equip them
with the skills to rise in their jobs.
Settlement houses, often focused on aiding specific ethnic groups, have
done just that. Churches, synagogues and other religious institutions
have served to build the nation, not destroy it.
This is not to say that the attacks in London could have been avoided
if only Britain had spent more time and treasure in training those
four mad, but all-too-ordinary messengers of death.
But it is to say that many peoples in the world face an inscrutable
problem, that its roots run deep and that we had better create some
effective policies for dealing with the future waves of immigrants,
because they surely will come.
Reporter Sarah K. Wulfeck contributed to this article.

PrimeZone Media Network
July 13, 2005 Wednesday 12:41 PM EST
Global Gold Corporation Announces Commencement of Production at Santa
Candalaria and Further Exploration in both Chile and Armenia at
Annual Meeting
GREENWICH, Conn., July 13, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) — Global Gold
Corporation (OTCBB:GBGD) () held its annual
shareholders’ meeting today and announced that it commenced small
scale production at its Santa Candalaria mine in Chile. In addition,
the company announced that its drilling programs at the same property
in Chile as well as at its Hankavan property in Armenia have
commenced. By an over Eighty-Seven percent vote, the shareholders
re-elected the current Board of Directors and expressed support for
the company’s strategy and development. Re-elected as directors were:
Drury J. Gallagher-Chairman, Van Z. Krikorian – President, and
independent directors Nicholas Aynilian of NJA Investments, Ian Hague
partner at Firebird Management, LLC, and Mike Mason owner of Mineral
Services, LLC.
Global Gold acquired the Santa Candalaria mine in 2003 from the
previous operators, and conducted IP testing and other exploration on
the property leading to the current drilling program in the
identified alteration zone. After preparatory works were completed,
production commenced today on one of the vein structures previously
mined at an anticipated rate of 600 tons per month with sales to the
Chilean smelter Enami. In other developments, Lester Caesar,
previously Chief Accounting Officer became the company’s Chief
Financial Officer, and Allen Roth, PA was selected as the company’s
outside auditor.
Global Gold Corporation is an international gold mining, development
and exploration company with mining properties in Chile and Armenia.
Global Gold Corporation is located at 104 Field Point Road,
Greenwich, CT 06830. The main phone number is 203-422-2300. More
information can be found at
To the extent that statements in this press release are not strictly
historical, including statements as to revenue projections, business
strategy, outlook, objectives, future milestones, plans, intentions,
goals, future financial conditions, future collaboration agreements,
the success of the Company’s development, events conditioned on
stockholder or other approval, or otherwise as to future events, such
statements are forward-looking, and are made pursuant to the safe
harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this release are
subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual
results to differ materially from the statements made.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

SURPRISED BY LENMARKER’S STATEMENT
Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
12 July 05
The public and political circles of Nagorno Karabakh Republic were
surprised by and satisfied with the statement of the reporter of the
OSCE Parliamentary Assembly on Nagorno Karabakh Goran Lenmarker that
the unification with Armenia is the best guarantee for the security of
Nagorno Karabakh. The people of Karabakh who have never heard a
similar opinion from the mediators and the representatives of
international organizations, and it seems to them that in the
perception of the Karabakh issue by the international, more exactly
the European community, certain changes which are positive for Nagorno
Karabakh are taking place. Thus, according to the chairman of the
standing committee for defence and security of the NKR National
Assembly Rudolf Martirossian, the statement of the Swedish
parliamentarian is a longed-for surprise. He thinks in reference to
the NKR security this statement is a logical way out of the present
situation. `In fact, only the Republic of Armenia can guarantee
thesecurity of the people of Nagorno Karabakh. How and what mechanisms
need to be used is another question. If I am not mistaken, this
approach is introduced into the Bishkek agreement. Besides, NKR has
not yet worked out a doctrine of defence and security of the
country. In case such a doctrine is worked out, this postulate can
take its place in the document,’ told Rudolf Martirossian to the radio
Liberty. The vice chairman of the NKR National Assembly standing
committee for foreign relations Gagik Petrossian thinks that
Lenmarker’s statement is commendable in the sense that Europe does not
see NKR as part of Azerbaijan. According to him, this is a change in
the perception of the Karabakh issue by Europe.` Armenia has been
recognized by the international community. If Nagorno Karabakh is part
of Armenia, it will be easier to present the interests of the Karabakh
people to the international organizations. It is true that we have
made more effort for the recognition of the independence of NKR. And I
think that there is no difference between being independent and part
of Armenia,’ said G. Petrossian. Meanwhile, the idea of independence
of NKR is unacceptable for Lenmarker and the representatives of other
international organizations. In answer to the question if Lenmarker’s
statement about the probability of unification of NKR and Armenia
signals to Stepanakert and Yerevan the necessity to change their
policies, Rudolf Martirossian said, `The idea of unification with
Armenia has always lived in the hearts of the Karabakh people. But I
do not think that after this statement our political line will undergo
a major change. However, I think that this statement will result in
new tendencies of development.=80=9D Gagik Petrossian noticed that
unification is not a subject of manipulations but a goal. `But I also
have to say that in case of unification with Armenia NKR needs to have
a higher status that any of the regions of the Republic of Armenia.I
cannot tell whether it will be autonomy or something else. One thing
is for sure that the status of Nagorno Karabakh must be high until
Armenia finally becomes a developed democratic country,’ said the vice
chairman of the standing committee for foreign relations.
AA.
12-07-2005
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZG Armenian Daily #126, 09/07/2005
Home
POLITICAL PARTIES HIDE REAL NUMBER OF THEIR MEMBERS?
According to “RA Political Parties” — brochure issued by the Fund of
Political and Social Development with the support of US ambassador to
Armenia — the biggest party of Armenia is the People’s Party of Stepan
Demirtchian with 30.000 members, second biggest is the Republican Party of
prime minister Andranik Margarian, third comes the New Times of Aram
Karapetian with 15.108, forth is National Self-Determination Party of Paruyr
Hayrikian with 12.000. Surprising as it is, Sargis Asatrian’s Youth Party
counts 11.240 members, Powerful Homeland of Vartan Vardapetian — 10.300,
Armenian Revolutionary Federation — 7.000. Notorious All-Armenian Movement
of Ararat Zurabian, by the way, also has 7.000 members.
Interestingly, such parties as the Rule of Law (Artur Baghdasarian),
National Unity (Artashes Geghamian), National Democratic Party (Shavarsh
Kocharian) and Christian Democratic Union (Ghosrov Harutyunian) preferred to
withhold the number of their adherents.
By Ruzan Poghosian
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Schweizerische Depeschenagentur AG (SDA)
SDA – Service de base français
5 juillet 2005
Grand Conseil vaudois Le génocide arménien formellement reconnu
Lausanne
Lausanne (ats) Le Grand Conseil vaudois a formellement reconnu mardi
le génocide arménien. Il l’avait déjà fait indirectement en 2003.
La résolution adoptée n’engage toutefois que le législatif, le
Conseil d’Etat estimant cette démarche inappropriée.
“Les divergences portent sur la forme plus que sur le fond”, a assuré
le conseiller d’Etat Jean-Claude Mermoud devant le plénum. Le
gouvernement vaudois “préfère faciliter la tche de la conseillère
fédérale Micheline Calmy-Rey”.
En outre, cette démarche n’a plus vraiment de sens, puisque le
Conseil National a reconnu le génocide arménien en décembre 2003,
estimait le Conseil d’Etat. Le gouvernement vaudois proposait au
législatif cantonal d’en rester là.
M. Mermoud a rappelé que la prise en considération de ce postulat en
2003 avait provoqué le report du voyage en Turquie de la cheffe de la
diplomatie. “Les sensibilités sont encore à vif”, a-t-il souligné.
“Contre l’oubli”
Les parlementaires ont refusé de s’aligner sur la position de
l’exécutif. La résolution a été acceptée par 86 voix contre 35 et 25
abstentions. Elle indique simplement que “le Grand Conseil du Canton
de Vaud reconnaît le génocide du peuple arménien de 1915 et honore la
mémoire des victimes”.
Cette démarche n’est pas dirigée contre le peuple turc ni contre les
autorités actuelles de ce pays mais contre l’oubli, ont souligné
plusieurs orateurs. “Le devoir de mémoire est pénible, il ne
s’enclenche pas sans impulsion extérieure”, a commenté le radical
Jean-Claude Rochat, citant l’affaire des fonds en déshérence pour la Suisse.

Pan Armenian News
IT STATISTICS TO BE HELD IN ARMENIA
01.07.2005 07:37
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Starting with third quarter of 2005 the RA National
Statistical Service will hold IT statistics, Deputy Minister of Trade and
Economic Development Tigran Davtian stated during a press conference today.
The decision was taken during the sitting of the Council on Development of
Information Technologies under the RA Prime Minister. He noted that first of
all companies engaged in the sphere will be attacked to the `statistical
field’. T. Davtian expressed hope that till the end of the current year the
statistics will cover whole Armenia’s industry. When touching upon the
difficulties of the project T. Davtian noted that most problems were settled
by efforts of the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development, Enterprise
Incubator Foundation (EIF) and the RA National Statistical Service. `With
the assistance by EIF the lists of respondents were enlarged’, he noted. T.
Davtian also informed that the government requested the World Bank to
allocate extra funds for the investigation of the international experience
of holding statistics in the field under the conditions of developing
market. He said he does not expect any problems with taxes, as the IT sphere
is one of the most open spheres in the republic.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Boston Herald, MA
July 1 2005
`Yes,’ strangers can reach out across the rift
By James Verniere
Friday, July 1, 2005
Something sublime happens a few minutes into “Yes,” Sally Potter’s
modern romance written entirely in iambic pentameter. It’s not that
you forget it’s in verse. It’s that you stop paying attention to that
aspect of this rich, sexy, politically urgent tale of love between
people of clashing cultures.

Written in Shakespeare’s favorite meter and taking a
star-crossed-lovers cue from such works of Shakespeare as “Othello”
and “Romeo and Juliet,” the film is an offbeat triumph.

Potter’s lovers are from two different, but not entirely
dissimilar, worlds. “She” (Joan Allen) is an unhappily married,
American molecular biologist of Northern Irish descent familiar with
civil and religious war. “He” (Armenian-born French actor Simon
Abkarian) is a refugee from Beirut, a physician turned disgruntled
London cook who meets her outside a dinner she attends with her
British diplomat husband (Sam Neill).

Her husband is a rake and a heel who lives for seduction and
loves to betray his wife.

She finds passion, warmth, companionship and humor in the arms
of her lover, although she holds the strings because he’s living in
exile and is a virtual pariah in the West.

In the role of a cleaning lady, the priceless Shirley Henderson
is a one-woman Greek chorus, commenting on the action and reminding
us of the real and symbolic “dirt” we accumulate in life. The film
is a rhapsodic depiction of bridge-building between East andWest,
Christian and Muslim, male and female, art and life.

Potter, a Brit with a background in dance, theater, music and
film, wrote “Yes” as a response to 9/11 and to what she calls “the
demonization of the Middle East . . . and parallel wave of hatred
against America.” The film is rather obviously meant to force the
two cultures to look at one another and see similarities and shared
goals and interests. But Allen, who is quietly amassing her
generation’s most impressive body of work, and Abkarian keep it
grounded in the immediate concerns of two people struggling to keep
an unlikely love affair alive.
The film’s title is also a reminder of Molly Bloom’s incantatory
litany at the closing of James Joyce’s “Ulysses.” Like Joyce’s
monumental novel, Potter’s fine, if somewhat more modest, achievement
is both a work of art and a celebration of art’s power to redeem the
world. Say yes.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Pan Armenian News
ERDOGAN: EU CANNOT URGE TURKEY TO RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
01.07.2005 02:52
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ `There are no terms like the Armenian Genocide recognition
and opening of borders with Armenia among the Copenhagen principles the EU
has stipulated on Turkey. In case such terms are imposed, Turkey will not
accept them’, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is on visit to Baku at present,
stated. In his words, recognition or non-recognition of the Armenian
Genocide and opening of borders with Armenia are Turkey’s domestic issues.
`It is not the EU but Turkey to decide on these issues. Till today we have
been honoring all the commitments undertaken to the EU including the terms
of the Copenhagen principles’, he said
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GEORGIAN BASE CLOSURE SHIFTS STRATEGIC BALANCE
Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR)
June 30 2005
The transfer of Russian military hardware from Georgia to Armenia may
alter the balance of forces in the South Caucasus.
By Irakly Aladashvili in Tbilisi and David Petrosian in Yerevan
On May 30, after years of disagreements, Georgia and Russia finally
agreed on a timescale for Moscow to close its two remaining military
bases in Georgia. Moscow and Tbilisi are now negotiating the technical
details of the pullout – and the critical issue of what will become
of the significant numbers of Russian tanks in Georgia.
The Russian bases at Akhalkalaki and Batumi are to close up by the end
of 2008. Russia plans to transfer some of the equipment now stationed
there to its military base in Gyumri in neighbouring Armenia.
Although Georgian officials have hailed the pullout agreement as a
landmark, some observers believe the transfer of more Russian armaments
to Armenia could upset the already fragile balance of forces between
Armenia and Azerbaijan. The neighbours are still involved in a long
conflict over the disputed Nagorny Karabakh territory and lands
adjacent to it.
Peace talks to end the decade-old conflict have dragged on for years.
Recently, Azerbaijan, which lost 14 per cent of its territory to ethnic
Armenian forces in the fighting, has shown increasing impatience with
the situation.
The relocation of military hardware from Russia’s bases in Georgia to
sites in Armenia has been greeted with more concern in Azerbaijan.
President Ilham Aliev says his country will raise defence spending
by 70 per cent as a result. Azerbaijan has often accused Russia of
covertly backing Armenia in the conflict.
“It is true that this hardware is not being handed over to Armenia
but remains at the disposal of the Russian base,” President Aliev
said on June 25 as he addressed graduates at the Azerbaijani Higher
Military School. “However, it will nevertheless be transferred to
Armenian territory – and we have had to take proper steps, which we
did by increasing defence expenditure in the budget.”
According to the Military Staff of the Russian Troops in the
Transcaucasus, at the beginning of 2005, there were 1,700 military
personnel stationed at Batumi. In addition, the base had 31 tanks,
131 armoured fighting vehicles, AFVs, and 211 other vehicles, and 76
large-calibre artillery systems.
The base at Akhalkalaki had 1,800 personnel, 41 tanks, 67 AFVs and
61 other vehicles, and 64 large-calibre artillery pieces.
Three trainloads of weapons and munitions, including chemical and
nuclear warfare protection gear as well as anti-aircraft missiles,
have left the Batumi base for Gyumri since the agreement was signed.
Under the terms of the deal, around 40 per cent of Russian equipment
in Georgia is supposed to be relocated to Gyumri.
Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov said the relocation did not
mean that Armenia or Russia would exceed international agreements
governing arms restrictions in the Caucasus. And, on an official level
at least, Yerevan says the relocation is a normal measure regulated
by treaty obligations.
Some argue that Armenia needs the boost in weaponry on its territory
that the closure of the Russian bases in Georgia will give it.
One Georgian expert predicted that in the event of a resumption of
hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Georgia would try to
prevent new overland shipments of Russian armaments reaching Armenia
through its territory. “If the armed conflict between Armenia and
Azerbaijan is resumed, it may be assumed that Georgia will try to
maintain complete neutrality and will not allow the Russian military
to deliver additional ammunition to Yerevan,” said the expert, who
did not want to be named.
“However, it will be first and foremost Armenia that will suffer
from Georgia’s neutrality, as it will find itself under an almost
total blockade.”
“Today, the only thing that Yerevan – whose economic potential cannot
be compared with that of Azerbaijan — can think about is replenishment
of the stocks of Russian military equipment and ammunition.”
However, a number of experts in Armenia believe that the relocation
of Russian heavy armaments to Armenia will reduce Yerevan’s security,
not increase it.
Anatoly Tsyganok, a professor at the Academy of Military Sciences,
said, “All the control units for Russian anti-aircraft systems in
this region are currently in Georgia. Moscow reinforced them not
so long ago, in 2003 and 2004, as it considered it possible that
unsanctioned missiles could be launched from the south, perhaps Iran,
aimed at Russia.
“The impending elimination of these units will sharply reduce control
over the entire system. As a result, not only Russia but also Armenia
will encounter new problems.”
Four Russian military bases remained in Georgia in the early 1990s
when the Soviet Union collapsed. In 2001, in pursuance of agreements
reached at an OSCE summit in 1999, Russia gave up the Vaziani base
located near Tbilisi and the Gudauta base in Abkhazia.
Some observers say the two bases that were left lost any real strategic
value for Russia.
“The two bases remaining on Georgian territory were then deprived of
the main component – the airfield in Vaziani,” said Koba Liklikadze,
an observer on military affairs. “As there was no railway line to reach
them, the Batumi and Akhalkalaki bases found themselves blockaded and
encountered problems with the transportation of military contingents,
fuel, and weapons.”
Moscow and Tbilisi had been negotiating on the closure of the Batumi
and Akhalkalaki bases since 1999. The Georgians had maintained that
itn could be done in three to four years, while Moscow initially
demanded 17 and later 11 years.
Talks on closing the bases were significantly stepped up after
President Mikheil Saakashvili and his team came to power in Georgia.
Georgian defence minister Irakly Okruashvili said that the agreement
to close the bases marks the end of 200 years of a Russian military
presence in Georgia.
However, the question is whether Georgia will become a “demilitarised
zone”, as its leadership has said it wants, or join NATO, to which
the government also aspires.
This question particularly worries the almost 100,000-strong Armenian
community in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, as the Akhalkalaki military
base located there is not just the only source of jobs for the locals,
it is also viewed as a guarantor of security against NATO member
Turkey – located right across the border.
Some Armenian security officials are disappointed with the
Russian-Georgian agreement to liquidate the bases, seeing it as a
capitulation by Moscow.
“Moscow has given in to a weak country [Georgia], failing to protect
any of the diplomatic, economic, and military issues linked to its
national security, as well as the matters relating to its sole ally
in the region, Armenia,” an Armenian expert close to the government
who asked to remain anonymous told IWPR.
Irakly Aladashvili is a military observer for the Kviris Palitra
newspaper in Tbilisi. David Petrosian is a political observer for
the Noyan Tapan news agency in Yerevan