Author: Tambiyan Samvel

World War 4 Report, NY
Oct 19 2007

Dalai Lama pawn in Bush’s oil wars?

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Fri, 10/19/2007 – 12:49.

We’ve already had to warn the heroic Buddhist dissidents of Burma and
colonized Uighur people of China’s far west against allowing
themselves to be exploited as propaganda fodder by the Bush White
House. Now it seems we have to warn the Dalai Lama – whose official
website boasts the text of his Oct. 17 Capitol Hill acceptance speech
upon being awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. It is truly
perverse to witness a single news story in the Los Angeles Times that
day in which Bush defends his decision to attend the ceremony for the
Dalai Lama (and to hold a private schmoozing session with him at the
White House a day earlier) – while calling the Armenian genocide bill
"counterproductive" meddling in Turkish affairs! This double standard
should clue the Dalai Lama in that he is being used. Turkey is a
strategic ally that Bush needs keep on good terms to stabilize
Iraq – and, at this moment, to restrain from threatened military
incursions into Iraqi Kurdistan. China is an imperial rival in the
critical scramble for Africa’s oil – and the key nation now falling
under the rubric of the 1992 Pentagon "Defense Planning Guide" drawn
up by Paul Wolfowitz and Scooter Libby which said the US must
"discourage advanced industrial nations from challenging our
leadership or even aspiring to a larger regional or global role."

China is reacting to the Congressional award much as Turkey is
reacting to the progress of the Armenian genocide bill. "We solemnly
demand that the U.S. cancel the extremely wrong arrangements,"
Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said Oct. 16. "It seriously
violates the norm of international relations and seriously wounded
the feelings of the Chinese people and interfered with China’s
internal affairs." China was protested the honors for the Dalai Lama
by pulling out of an international strategy session on Iran sought by
the US and planned for the same day the award was given. (AP, Oct.
16) The day after the ceremony, Yang summoned US Ambassador to China
Clark T. Randt to lodge a formal protest. "The move is a blatant
interference in China’s internal affairs. It has hurt the feelings of
the Chinese people and gravely undermined bilateral relations,"
ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news briefing. He urged
Washington to correct "the terrible effects of its erroneous act and
stop conniving with, and supporting, ‘Tibet independence’
secessionist forces." (China Daily, Oct. 19)

The Dalai Lama’s speech anticipated that he would be accused of
"hidden agendas":

On the future of Tibet, let me take this opportunity to restate
categorically that I am not seeking independence. I am seeking a
meaningful autonomy for the Tibetan people within the People’s
Republic of China… I have no hidden agenda. My decision not to
accept any political office in a future Tibet is final.

The Chinese authorities assert that I harbor hostility towards China
and that I actively seek to undermine China’s welfare. This is
totally untrue. I have always encouraged world leaders to engage with
China; I have supported China’s entry into WTO and the awarding of
summer Olympics to Beijing. I chose to do so with the hope that China
would become a more open, tolerant and responsible country.

Ironically, principled activists concerned with Tibet, Burma and
Darfur, as well as sinister neocons who seek to exploit these issues,
might consider the Dalai Lama too soft on China! Nonetheless, most
telling that His Holiness is in danger of being co-opted by the
all-too-worldly agenda of the Bushites is that his speech contained
not even the most allusive criticism of the war in Iraq – a nation
being ravaged by US imperialism as surely as Tibet has been ravaged
by Chinese imperialism.

Regnum, Russia
Oct 19 2007

Serzh Sargsyan called Pentagon to give equal military aid to Yerevan
and Baku

Armenia’s Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan met US Defense Secretary
Robert Gates in the United States. As REGNUM is told at the press
office of the Armenian government, during the meeting, noting the
high level of the Armenian-US relations, Serzh Sargsyan expressed
satisfaction with the development of the military and political
cooperation and thanked for the persistent assistance rendered by the
USA to the Armenian armed forces.

Speaking on rendering military assistance to countries in South
Caucasus, Serzh Sargsyan particularly noted importance of preserving
the parity in rendering military aid to Armenia and Azerbaijan. On a
request by Robert Gates, the Armenian prime minister informed him on
the activity of the Armenian government.

Speaking on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, Serzh Sargsyan
noted that Armenia supports sooner and political settlement of the
conflict grounding on mutual concessions. He informed that the dialog
within frameworks of the Minsk Group will bring about necessary
results.

NewsOK.com , Oklahoma
Oct 19 2007

Tone deaf: Pelosi should spike genocide resolution

The Oklahoman Editorial

It’s trouble when members of Congress get ahead of the State
Department on foreign policy. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was forced
to backtrack this week on a controversial resolution that would be an
affront to Turkey, a key U.S. ally in the Middle East.

Pelosi had promised a floor vote on a resolution labeling the mass
killings of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as "genocide.’
The speaker’s tone deafness on the issue was underscored when Turkey
recalled its ambassador from Washington after the measure passed in
committee last week.

The problem, apparent to many but not to the speaker or the
resolution’s authors, is that the Ottoman regime went out of business
not long after World War I. House passage of the resolution would
leave the current Turkish democracy bearing the sting even though
it’s in no way responsible for the acts of its defunct predecessor.

The cost of damaging relations with Turkey is huge, given its
willingness to be a transit point for U.S. military equipment bound
for Iraq and Afghanistan – not to mention Turkey’s unique role as a
Muslim democracy in the Middle East.

President Bush has applied considerable pressure to get the
Democratic House leadership to rethink the resolution. "Congress has
more important work to do than antagonizing a democratic ally in the
Muslim world,’ he said. In addition, eight former secretaries of
state wrote a letter expressing concern about the resolution’s
potential impact. It looks like the arguments finally sunk in. Pelosi
said Wednesday she was reconsidering her pledge and was noncommittal
on when or if the resolution would come before the full House.

Certainly, the world shouldn’t stand by while new acts of genocide
unfold. But embarrassing a valuable ally over a tragedy from nearly a
century ago doesn’t make sense. Pelosi should sideline the resolution
and leave diplomacy to the diplomats.

ARMENIA-GEORGIA
Vardan Grigoryan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Oct 17 2007

The parties will have increased chances

Held on October 15-16, the Sixth Session of the Inter-Governmental
Committee of the Armenian-Georgian Economic Cooperation can, without
exaggeration, be considered a turning point in both countries’
economic and political history.

During the past years, Armenia and Georgia were considered in the
world as poor countries with limited economic capacities, and the
international structures which maintained relations with them acted
as donors. The maximum that has been realized with joint efforts
up to date was the unhampered work of the life support systems. At
difficult moments the parties have always found relevant solutions to
the issues regarding the shipment of goods, gas and electricity supply.

Being in an economic blockade, Armenia managed, during the past years,
to open simultaneously two windows, one of them looking to Georgia
and the other – to Iran.

The last evidence of the above-mentioned is the opening of the Iranian
ports of Enzel and Bender Abas for the Armenian goods carriers. This
comes to supplement and replenish the shipments carried out via the
ports of Poti and Batumi. In such conditions, when Armenia is becoming
faced with serious alternatives, the issue of economic cooperation
with the neighboring Georgia is acquiring a mutually beneficial
character for two main reasons: First: the prospect of forming an
Armenian-Georgian Common Economic Area is viewed by the West as a
most important condition for the South Caucasian republics in terms
of strengthening their independence and integrating to Europe.

Second: this kind of prospect allows Georgia to overcome the
consequences of unilateral inclusion in or exclusion from the
Turkish-Azerbaijani economic and political area, and enables Armenia
to further increase its chances of joining the European and the
World Markets.

Therefore, without the slightest exaggeration we can already insist
that the Sixth Session of the Inter-Governmental Committee of the
Armenian-Georgian Economic Cooperation was the actual beginning of
the process of realizing the long-range program aimed at forming
an Armenian-Georgian Common Economic Area. Instead developing into
regular interstate negotiations, this actually changed into a joint
meeting between the two countries’ Governments.

In the course of their activities, which lasted no more than two
days, Prime Ministers Serge Sargsyan and Zourab Noghaidely managed to
sketch the general picture of the Armenian-Georgian Common Economic
Area and predetermine the primary problems. And they immediately gave
recommendations to the relevant structures of their countries for the
solution of those problems. That is, the decisions made during the
session became specific program of the two countries governments the
goal of the program being the formation of a market with its trade,
investment, energy, communication, customs and other components.

As justifiably noted by the Georgian Prime Minister Z. Noghaidely,
the South Caucasus is forming a relatively big and extensive market,
which already has 8 million consumers. It is natural that there will
be considerably chances and interests for making investments in this
market will increase considerably. There will be an increased interest
especially on the part of those Western financial and economic circles
that have learnt to work in a large market which, though composed of
independent countries like the European Unions, is economically united.

Of course, the European Union’s aspiration to make the newly-formed
South Caucasian market our economic and political fulcrum will play its
positive role as well. Considering both countries’ common past as well
as the fact of their belonging to the Christian world, this kind of
political-economic area will be viewed as one of Western Asia’s pivotal
points shifting the focus of the EU programs to its side. And this,
in turn, promises to considerably increase the two countries’ general
attractiveness in the World Market, as well as create prerequisites
for gaining privileged conditions in cooperation with other markets.

It is also necessary to bear in mind that the diaspora Armenian
businessmen also get greater chances for investments and transit trade.

Thus, the Armenian Georgian Inter-Governmental Session marked the
beginning of the process of transforming the two countries’ economic
cooperation into economic integration. The agreements achieved
during the Session went beyond the framework of solving the current
economic problems between Armenia and Georgia and predetermined the
new political prospects that are opening for the two neighboring and
friendly countries and peoples.

TONINO GUERRA IS LEAVING, TAKING WITH HIM INTERMINABLE IMPRESSIONS OF ARMENIAN MIRACLES

Noyan Tapan
Oct 18 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 18, NOYAN TAPAN. "Another two days and this miraculous
journey will draw to its end. However, it will draw to its end with a
festival, just as it started. This miracle started last lear, when I
came to Armenia for the first time for the purpose of taking part in
the "Golden Apricot" international festival." Thus, Tonino Guerra,
a poet and a sculptor, the Italian legendary film scenario writer,
shared his impressions and feelings with journalists and his admirers
on October 17.

"It seems to me that the journey to Armenia cannot be a simple one. It
also seems to me that to make a journey to Armenia means to make a
journey to the sky. During this visit I again went to the museum of
S. Parajanov and again looked for the mistery of his talent and depth
of his art. There I once again made sure that to visit Armenia means
to go up to the sky, as I feel a mighty outburst of imaginations
inside me," the great scenario writer mentioned.

Tonino Guerra also told journalists that he has visited Jermuk:
"That is a magic place. I wonder how it happened that this miracle of
nature appeared at a height of 3000 meters." The maestro also spoke
about another miracle of Armenia: Noravank, and mentioned that the
government of Armenia should put all the miracles of the country
together in a right way and make them available for visitors.

"I will leave for Moscow from here, then for Italy. I want to remember
Armenia as a source of outburst of imaginations before going to
sleep," the maestro confessed. Saying good-bye to the participants
of the meeting, Tonino Guerra added that Armenia is full of talented
people and stunning fruits.

At the end of the meeting the Italian musicians, who had arrived in
Armenia within the frameworks of the "Tonino Guerra and his friends"
festival, played for the participants. Pianist Andrea de Paolo and
accordeon player Mario Stefano Pietrodarki played some of the works
of Astor Piatsola, an Argentinian musician.

"NIG-APARAN" HAS BECOME SOLID AND EFFICIENT STRUCTURE WITHIN FIVE YEARS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 16 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The "Nig-Aparan" Patriotic Benevolent
Non-Governmental Organization has managed to become a solid and
efficient structure within the five years of its existence. According
to the information provided by Tigran Petrosiants, a member of the
Council of the "Nig-Aparan" Patriotic Benevolent Non-Governmental
Organization, at the third conference of the organization held on
October 13, "Nig-Aparan" has always been prominent with its actions of
national significance, in particular, such as the round dance organized
in 2004 around the mountain Aragats and the tree planting of 2006.

In the words of Tigran Petrosiants, the number of the members of
the "Nig-Aparan" Patriotic Benevolent Non-Governmental Organization
currently surpasses 93 thousand. There are figures from the spheres
of art, culture, science, literature, and sports, as well as famous
political figures among them.

In the words of Tigran Petrosiants, due to the efforts of the
leadership of "Nig-Aparan", the square of the city of Aparan has been
named after Tigran Petrosian, a famous Armenian chess player, and the
statue of the latter has been set up there. And in 2006 T. Petrosian
scholarships were determined in the Yerevan Physics-Mathematics School,
the Yerevan State and the Yerevan State Medical Universities due to
the sponsorship of the organization. It was mentioned that 100 socially
unprovided excellent students from the higher educational institutions
of Armenia will receive scholarships making a sum equivalent to 100
U.S. dollars since 2007.

FAMILIES OF 11 OFFICERS OF KARABAKH ARMY HAVE NEW APARTMENTS

KarabakhOpen
16-10-2007 12:07:25

Yesterday a block of 11 apartments for the families of officers of
the NKR Defense Army was dedicated in Stepanakert. NKR President
Bako Sahakyan, Prime Minister Ara Harutiunyan, Defense Minister
Movses Hakobyan, other officials were present, Regnum reported. The
NKR President handed out the documents to the officers. The officers
also got gift TV sets and DVD players.

TEHRAN-43: WRECKING THE PLAN TO KILL STALIN, ROOSEVELT AND CHURCHILL

RIA Novosti, Russia
Oct 16 2007

Interview with Russian intelligence veteran Gevork Vartanyan.

The historic significance of the Big Three conference in Tehran, Iran,
was enormous – at stake were the destinies of millions of people and
the future of the world. The deadline for the opening of the second
front was the main issue on the agenda.

Fully aware of this, the Nazi government instructed the German
intelligence service, the Abwehr, to assassinate Joseph Stalin,
Theodore Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. The number one Nazi saboteur,
Otto Skorzeny, planned an operation code-named Long Jump.

The security of the Soviet, American and British leaders was mostly
the responsibility of Soviet troops and security agencies. Acting
under the Russian-Persian Treaty of Friendship of 1921, the Soviet
Union sent troops into Iran’s northern regions in August 1941 to curb
the operations of German agents. Britain deployed troops in the south
of the country to guarantee the flow of British-American land-lease
supplies to the U.S.S.R. from the Persian Gulf.

The conference itself was held in the Soviet Embassy. It was the
perfect site for secret talks – a big mansion surrounded by a stone
wall, with buildings of light-colored brick scattered across the
park. One of these was converted into the U.S. president’s residence.

For security reasons, Roosevelt accepted Stalin’s invitation to
stay there. The U.S. diplomatic mission in Tehran was located on
the city’s outskirts, while the Soviet and British embassies were
(and still are) located across the street from one another. Soviet
soldiers broke down the walls, blockaded the street with six-meter
shields and built a temporary passage between the two diplomatic
missions, guarded by anti-aircraft- and machine-gunners. Four rings
of security surrounded the embassies. Nobody could break in.

If Roosevelt had stayed at the U.S. diplomatic mission, either he,
or Stalin and Churchill, would have had to travel to the talks through
Tehran’s narrow streets, where Nazi agents could easily have concealed
themselves in a crowd.

On his return to Washington D.C., Roosevelt said that he had stayed in
the Soviet Embassy because Marshal Stalin told him about a German plot.

Nazi intelligence learnt of the time and place of the conference in
mid-October in 1943, after cracking the American naval code. In 1966,
Skorzeny confirmed that he had been instructed to abduct or kill the
three leaders in Tehran.

Moscow received a cable about the plot against the allied leaders from
Dmitry Medvedev’s guerrillas operating in the Rovno forest [in Ukraine
– ed.]. Among them was the legendary Soviet intelligence officer
Nikolai Kuznetsov. Posing as a German Oberleutnant by the name of Paul
Siebert, Kuznetsov became friendly with SS Sturmbannfuehrer Ulrich
von Ortel, who even promised to introduce him to Skorzeny. Heavily
inebriated, Ortel boasted that he was going to Iran for the meeting
of the Big Three: "We will repeat the Abruzzi jump [a daring airborne
operation in which Skorzeny rescued Mussolini – ed.]! But it will
be the Long Jump! We will eliminate Stalin and Churchill and turn
the tide of the war! We will abduct Roosevelt to help our Fuehrer to
come to terms with America. We are flying in several groups. People
are already being trained in a special school in Copenhagen."

Following this report the [intelligence] center made us responsible
for security at the conference.

Tehran at that time was flooded with refugees from war-ravaged
Europe. For the most part, these were wealthy people trying to escape
the risks of the war. There were about 20,000 Germans in Iran, and
Nazi agents were hiding among them. They were aided by the pre-war
patronage extended to the Germans by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,
who openly sympathized with Hitler. The German field station in Iran,
headed by Franz Meyer, was very powerful.

Long before the conference – from February 1940 to August 1941 –
our group of seven intelligence officers had identified more than
400 Nazi agents. When our troops entered Iran, we arrested them all.

Meyer went deep underground. It took us a long time to find him –
he had grown a beard and dyed it, and was working as a grave-digger
at an Armenian cemetery.

Our group was the first to locate the Nazi landing party – six radio
operators – near the town of Qum, 60 km from Tehran. We followed them
to Tehran, where the Nazi field station had readied a villa for their
stay. They were travelling by camel, and were loaded with weapons.

While we were watching the group, we established that they had
contacted Berlin by radio and recorded their communication. When
we decrypted these radio messages, we learnt that the Germans were
preparing to land a second group of subversives for a terrorist act
– the assassination or abduction of the Big Three. The second group
was supposed to be led by Skorzeny himself, who had already visited
Tehran to study the situation on the spot. We had been following all
his movements even then.

We arrested all the members of the first group and made them make
contact with enemy intelligence under our supervision. It was tempting
to seize Skorzeny himself, but the Big Three had already arrived
in Tehran and we could not afford the risk. We deliberately gave a
radio operator an opportunity to report the failure of the mission,
and the Germans decided against sending the main group under Skorzeny
to Tehran. In this way, the success of our group in locating the
Nazi advance party and our subsequent actions thwarted an attempt to
assassinate the Big Three.

After the conference, Stalin went with Kliment Voroshilov and
Vyacheslav Molotov to the Shah’s palace in order to thank Mohammad
Reza Pahlavi for his hospitality. This was a very smart and important
step, which had a big effect on Iranian society. It did not occur
to either Roosevelt or Churchill to do so. The Shah was moved by
Stalin’s attention. When the Soviet leader entered the throne room,
the Shah ran up to Stalin and tried to kiss his hand. But Stalin did
not let him and raised him to his feet.

At that time, Stalin’s authority in the world was absolute – everyone
understood that the outcome of the war was being decided on the
Soviet-German front. Both Roosevelt and Churchill admitted this.

Churchill recalled in his memoirs that everyone stood up when Stalin
entered the hall of the conference. He resolved not to do so again.

Yet, when Stalin entered the hall on another occasion, some unknown
force again brought Churchill to his feet.

Gevork Vartanyan was not even 16 when he went into intelligence. His
farther was sent to Iran by Soviet intelligence in 1930 and worked
there for 23 years.

Gevork was declassified only on December 20, 2000. He and his wife
Goar, a member of his group, immediately received five decorations:
the orders of the Great Patriotic War, Battle Red Banner and Red
Star. The Gold Star Medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union was conferred
on Gevork in 1984 for his performance during the Great Patriotic War
(1941-1945) and the Cold War. He received the Order for Services to
the Fatherland when he turned 80.

Vartanyan believes that his biggest achievement was his and his wife’s
45 year-long record of successful service and safe return home.

"We were lucky – we never met a single traitor. For us, underground
agents, betrayal is the worst evil. If an agent observes all the
security rules and behaves properly in society, no counter-intelligence
will spot him or her. Like sappers, underground agents err only once."

Transcript by Yury Plutenko.

22320.html

ARE THE UNITED STATES AND TURKEY ON A COLLISION COURSE?
By Gallia Lindenstrauss, special for the Jerusalem Post

Jerusalem Post
Oct 16 2007

Turkish-American relations face two significant challenges. One has to
do with the Turkish inclination to enter northern Iraq in order to deal
with Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) fighters operating there. The other
is connected with an upcoming US House of Representatives vote on a
resolution to recognize as genocide the mass killings of Armenians
by the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Both challenges touch on
very sensitive issues for the Turks, who are convinced that the US
is insufficiently attentive to their needs and demands.

The Turks have threatened to intervene in northern Iraq on several
occasions since the fall of Saddam Hussein, but they now appear more
determined than ever to do so. In addition to the massive buildup near
the border, the government has now decided to ask for parliamentary
approval to send forces into Iraq. This decision follows the killing
of 30 soldiers and civilians by the PKK in the last two weeks, in
what are considered unusually severe actions by the PKK. According to
the Turks, the US has consistently failed to act against PKK fighters
hiding in the Kandil area of northern Iraq and does nothing to prevent
attacks on Turkey from that region.

The approval of the resolution by the House Foreign Affairs Committee
on October 10 prompted severe condemnation by Turkish leaders
and led Turkey to summon its ambassador in the US to Ankara for
consultations. President Abdullah Gul accused American politicians
of sacrificing big issues for petty games of domestic politics.

Given the Democrat majority in the House, it was expected that the
resolution would be approved by the Foreign Affairs Committee despite
strong opposition by the administration. Nevertheless, its passage
has added to Turkish frustration at the state of relations with the
US, and the expected majority for the resolution in the full House in
November has strengthened the perception of the Turks that they have
less to lose in terms of Turkish-US relations if they do act in Iraq.

Given that Turkey is more determined to do so and less likely to heed
American warnings not to intervene, it is possible that the US will
decide to minimize the negative consequences of Turkish intervention
by providing at least partial cooperation.

The publication of reports about secret plans for such cooperation
suggests that the possibility has already been extensively discussed
by the two sides, notwithstanding American concerns about stability in
the Kurdish-controlled autonomous area in the north of Iraq and about
a hostile reaction on the part of the Kurds, who have been the most
loyal American allies in Iraq. Indeed, these concerns suggest that
if the Turks do intervene, the Americans may also have to undertake
more aggressive actions. Given American failures in Iraq up until now,
it is doubtful whether the administration can permit another failure
in the form of unilateral Turkish intervention seemingly in defiance
of the US.

Such intervention would have negative consequences that could by
neutralized, at least with respect to Turkish-US relations, if the
Americans actually cooperated. By contrast, Turkey is unwilling to
compromise on the Armenian genocide issue and the administration
cannot impose its will on Congress. It is therefore difficult to
see how the damage to bilateral relations of the likely forthcoming
Congressional resolution can be limited.

Turkish policy indicates that while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and Gul are acting to promote domestic reforms that run counter to
the Kemalist legacy, in foreign affairs they act in conformity with
the hard-line Turkish tradition.

It is true that close ties with the United States are also a
traditionally important component of Turkish foreign policy,
but it is increasingly difficult today for Turks to reconcile the
contradiction between their interests and those of the US. Since the
American invasion of Iraq, Turkish public opinion has also become
more anti-American, and that influences decision makers to adopt
uncompromising positions regarding the Kurdish issue and ignore
American attitudes.

Although Turkish-American relations appear to be headed toward a
crisis, both sides remain aware of the importance of those ties and
therefore try to deal with the challenges they face.

But despite the common desire not to harm bilateral strategic
relations, there is a clash between Turkish and American interests that
may very well further convulse the already complicated reality in Iraq.

ARMENIA, GEORGIA VOW JOINT EFFORT TO ATTRACT FOREIGN INVESTMENT
By Shakeh Avoyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 15 2007

Armenia and Georgia pledged to boost bilateral trade and join forces
in attracting badly needed foreign investment into their economies
on Monday.

Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian and his visiting Georgian counterpart,
Zurab Noghaideli, said they agreed to create a "common investment
environment" that would make their small countries more attractive
to large foreign investors.

"We are going to start working on presenting Armenia and Georgia
as a single investment and trade entity to investors interested
in working with us," Noghaideli said after a meeting in Yerevan
of the Georgian-Armenian inter-governmental commission on economic
cooperation.

"Only together can we be of interest to big foreign firms," said
Sarkisian. He argued that the small size of Armenia’s and Georgia’s
populations is a major factor discouraging foreign direct investment.

"Whereas several years ago we were talking about how to make sure our
cargos go through Georgian territory without problems and unfettered
electricity supplies [to Georgia,] we are now discussing issues that
are more important to our peoples. One of those issues is the formation
of a common market," Sarkisian added at a joint news conference.

Neither premier would say how the two countries plan to harmonize
their investment and other economic legislation. A separate statement
issued by the Armenian government also gave no details, saying only
that the idea was high on the agenda of the commission’s meeting.

The meeting also focused on ways of increasing the still modest
volume of Georgian-Armenian trade. According to official Armenian
statistics, it rose by 16 percent to $51 million in the first half
of this year. The figure is equivalent to less than 3 percent of
Armenia’s overall external trade during this period.

"Georgia mainly produces goods that are not produced in Armenia and
vice versa," he said. "We are not competitors and can complement
deficiencies of our markets."

Noghaideli agreed, singling out the chemical and food-processing
industries. The government statement also cited him as stressing the
need to boost the capacity of Georgia’s railway network that processes
the bulk of cargos shipped to and from Armenia.

It was not clear if the two sides discussed the situation in Georgia’s
restive Armenian-populated Javakheti region or the persisting
Georgian-Russian tensions.