Armenian Georgian Relations

[Federate]

Re: Armenian Georgian Relations

Very interesting development, keeping in mind this possibility. Can anyone tie the knots?
-------------------------------------------------------------
Georgia, Armenia to formalize strategic relations - diplomat

05.04.2009, 03.23

TBILISI, April 5 (Itar-Tass) - Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said Georgia and Armenia will formalize strategic relations.

"Georgia and Armenia will formalize strategic relations by all means; I believe it will happen shortly," he said in an interview with the Rustavi-2 television company on Saturday.

The strategic relations with Armenia will become an integral part of the country's new strategy of foreign policy.

The previous strategy was drawn three years ago for the period 2007-2009.

At present, the Georgian Foreign Ministry is preparing new documents for 2009-2010. In the previous document, it named its strategic partners the United States, Turkey, Ukraine, and Azerbaijan, and is expected to continue to treat them as such.

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Armenian Georgian Relations

Surb Grigor Lusavorich Church consecrated in Akhaltsikhe
06.04.2009 12:26 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Surb Grigor Lusavorich Church was consecrated by head of the AAC Georgian Diocese, Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan in Akhaltsikhe after 2 months of reconstruction works.

Some thousand people attended the sacred ceremony.

In his speech, Bishop Mirzakhanyan thanked Manuk Zeynalyan, the spiritual leader of Akhaltsikhe, and the Armenian population of the town for their contribution to reconstruction of the Church.

For his part, hieromonk Bagrat Salbiyan voiced hope that the second Armenian Church in Akhaltsikhe - Surb Nshan Church – will also be reconstructed and returned to its owner, the AAC Georgian Diocese.

source: http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=30148

[Federate]

Re: Armenian Georgian Relations

Georgia outraged by Saakashvili’s remark on Armenia
13.04.2009 17:57 GMT+04:00 Print version Send to mail

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s recent remark on Armenia is outrageous and thoughtless, Development and Collaboration Center Projects Manager Paata Zakareishvili told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

“A high ranking official must now permit himself to make such statements, and especially about his neighboring country. The statement outraged many in Georgia,” the expert said.

“The step is president’s attempt to distract Georgian people’s attention from existing issues and prove that the neighboring country is in a worse state than Georgia.”

“If I compromised with Russia, we’d lose all our democratic values, like Kirgizia did, or be as poor as Armenia, with economy fully dependent on Russia,” Newsweek cited Saakashvili as saying.

http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=30392

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Armenian Georgian Relations

Georgian opposition pulls out of constitutional reform talks

TBILISI, May 15 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's opposition parties that have been demonstrating for over a month demanding the president step down are refusing to take part in a constitutional commission, an opposition leader said Friday.

Eka Beseliya, leader of the For a United Georgia movement, who, along with other parties, met with President Mikheil Saakashvili's on Monday to try and find a compromise to end ongoing civic unrest, said his initiative "is aimed at strengthening his authority."

Saakashvili proposed holding consultations, which was accepted by the parliamentary opposition but not by the non-parliamentary opposition. On Thursday morning, hundreds of protesters took to the streets once more in an anti-presidential protest outside the state television center.

The leader of the New Right party, David Gamkrelidze, said the initiative was also aimed at playing for time.

The opposition's HQ said Friday that protests would be held in Batumi and Kutaisi on May 20 and May 21 respectively.

A Georgian opposition leader denied on Thursday President Mikheil Saakashvili's claim that opposition members were receiving funding from Russia.

Opposition groups, who first took to the streets in Tbilisi on April 9, have criticized Saakashvili for failing to carry out democratic reforms and dragging the country into the disastrous war with Russia last August, resulting in the permanent loss of two separatist provinces.

Last week, Georgian opposition leaders gave Saakashvili a three-day deadline to meet with them to discuss their demand for early elections, saying that if he refused to negotiate they would start blocking the country's highways.

Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer who came to power on the back of mass street protests five years ago, agreed to the talks, and the meeting took place on Monday behind closed doors in the Interior Ministry, however the opposition said they ended in deadlock.

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Armenian Georgian Relations

Police beat dozens of opposition protesters in Georgia

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Masked police beat dozens of opposition protesters in the Georgian capital on Monday in the latest flare-up during a weeks-long street campaign against President Mikheil Saakashvili, witnesses said.

Dozens of black-clad police officers armed with truncheons confronted a protest of about 50 people at Tbilisi's main police station demanding the release of six opposition activists detained since Friday.

Police seized cameras from photographers and cameramen, including a Reuters photographer. The cameras were later returned but the Reuters photographer's images had been erased. Other photographers said their memory cards had been taken.

Tensions are running high in the former Soviet republic, after more than two months of opposition protests and roadblocks demanding Saakashvili quit over his record on democracy and last year's disastrous war with Russia.

The volatile country of 4.5 million people sits on Russia's southern border, at the heart of a transit region for oil and gas to the West.

"This is absolutely unacceptable," protest leader and former Saakashvili ally Nino Burjanadze said of the violence. "We demand a response from our Western partners, to give their assessment of the situation."

Saakashvili said he was tolerating a state of "lawlessness" and accused his opponents of trying to provoke him.

"They think Saakashvili is hot-headed, they insult (parliament speaker David) Bakradze and (Prime Minister Nika) Gilauri, and they try to make us crush them," he told a televised meeting of the parliamentary majority.

Police firing tear gas and rubber bullets dispersed the last mass demonstrations against Saakashvili in 2007. Watched closely by the West, authorities are wary of taking a hard line again, but analysts question how long the stalemate can continue.

Both sides have traded blame for a spate of violent incidents, vying for the sympathy of Georgia's Western allies.

The opposition said that statements by several Western embassies on Friday, in which they criticized opposition protesters for throwing rocks and bottles at Bakradze's official car, had encouraged the government to take a hard line.

"The statements made by the U.S., French and Czech ambassadors clearly gave impetus to the authorities to act as criminals and bandits today," opposition leader David Gamkrelidze said.

The Interior Ministry said in a statement that protesters were hampering traffic and resisted police efforts "to unblock the entrance to the police station and restore traffic movement." It said 39 protesters were detained.

Deputy Interior Minister Eka Zguladze said police had acted inappropriately toward journalists. "It is our mistake. We admit it and apologize," she told a news conference.

Pro-opposition television stations Maestro and Kavkasia said they would temporarily halt broadcasting in protest.

Turnout at the demonstrations has waned, but dozens of mock prison cells erected around parliament continue to block traffic through central Tbilisi. Earlier on Monday, men in civilian clothes armed with knives broke up mock prison cells behind parliament.

The opposition accuse 41-year-old Saakashvili of monopolizing power since the 2003 "Rose Revolution" that propelled him to the presidency.

He has faced renewed pressure since last August, when Russia crushed a Georgian assault on the breakaway pro-Russian region of South Ossetia. But analysts question whether the opposition has the unity or the numbers to unseat him, Reuters reported.

[Federate]

Re: Armenian Georgian Relations

Meeting against Saakashvili’s visit to Yerevan dispersed

24.06.2009 12:50 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ On June 24, 11 a.m., Armenian Mitk (Idea) analytical centre planned to conduct a protest action in connection with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s visit to Yerevan. Police intervened in protesters’ attempts to place placards near presidential residence, reasoning that they had to clean the area. “We want to ask President Saakashvli about the anti-Armenian policy against Armenians of Samtskhe-Javakheti. Georgian authorities are currently conducting aggressive policy in relation to Armenians. Recently, they denied MP Shirak Torosyan’s entry to Javahkk and threatened Armenian teachers,” Mitk centre expert Vahe Sargsyan said.

According to him, Georgian frontier guards recently prohibited transportation of Armenian books to Georgian territory. “It turns out we are not entitled to send books to our compatriots. Georgian authorities commit cultural genocide against Armenians of Javakheti,” Sargsyan stressed. Although protesters did not manage to carry out their plans, they declared of their intention to organize protests in other parts of Yerevan.

http://panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=33427

[Federate]

Re: Armenian Georgian Relations

Don't agree that there has been a deterioration in Georgia-Azerbaijan-Turkey relations but in general, worth a read.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Is Georgia looking for new strategic partner in Armenia?

30.06.2009 18:27 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "Saakashvili's visit to Armenia is not accidental," armenologist Aykazun Alvrtsyan told a news conference. According to him, the main purpose of the Georgian President Saakashvili's visit to Armenia is the search for a new strategic partner. The West no longer wants to support Georgia, while Azerbaijan and Turkey are more likely to create internal problems for Georgia, rather than support it. The relationship with Russia deteriorated after the Russian-Georgian war. "All steps of the Georgian President are conditioned by helplessness Tbilisi, currently under pressure from all sides," Aykazun Alvrtsyan said.

"Armenia and Georgia have never been strategic partners, we have had just "good relations”, “Georgia has had strategic partnerships with Azerbaijan and Turkey, but never with Armenia. By visiting Armenia, the Georgian president wanted to show that such relations are possible,” Mr. Alvrtsyan said.

"Georgia now has strained relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan. For each action related to these countries Georgia is striken back,” he said.

In his opinion, Moscow is trying to isolate Tbilisi and show its helplessness, a good example of this purchase of gas from Azerbaijan. Georgia is now looking for a new way to communicate with outside world, and Armenia is the only convenient way to attain that goal.

Regarding awarding with Order of Honor Mikheil Saakashvili, Mr. Alvrtsyan noted that Russia had to show its displeasure. “In fact, Russia's strategic partner received its enemy, however there have not been official statements from Moscow. I noticed only one grave expression of Russian deputies which reflects mere illiteracy, " expert said. According to him, Armenia has already faced a similar reaction from Russia, when President Serzh Sargsyan, visited Georgia, but no deterioration in the Armenian-Russian relations has been recorded and on the contrary, relations have improved.

http://www.panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=33729

[jgk3]

Re: Armenian Georgian Relations

Let them stop neglecting and repressing Javakh if they're that crazy about being fuzzy wuzzy with us.

[hipeter924]

Re: Armenian Georgian Relations

Let them stop neglecting and repressing Javakh if they're that crazy about being fuzzy wuzzy with us.

Because I doubt they would want to go that far, simply because their relations are tense does not mean it won't crawl back to its former allies eventually.

[Federate]

Re: Armenian Georgian Relations

Expert: Georgia to vanish from world map


“Georgia is recently concerned about the problems with Azerbaijan that might lead to Azerbaijani-Georgian conflict,” Haykazun Alvrtsyan stated at August 18 press conference on Armenian-Georgian issues.

He considers Georgian Kvemo Kartli (in the essence North Lori region of Armenia) is nearly fully inhabited by Azeris.

“The number of Borchalu Turks increased to the extent that soon they will number as much as Tbilisi, Tsalka, Javakhk population and shortly also Ardahan (region in Turkey). Turkey pressures Georgia that jeopardizes Javakhk too,” Alvrtsyan said.

According to the expert, Georgia carried out open-door policy for Turks, ousting Armenians from those regions for decades. “Azeris not only lays claims to this territory, but also speaks out loudly. Georgians will be unable to offer rebuff to Turks,” the expert supposes.

Georgia is going to face the regular dismemberment and the hazard to vanish form the world map.

“If Georgia loses Kvemo Kartli and Javakhk that links Turkey and Azerbaijan, Armenia will be entirely locked. Georgia will deprive of two vital military and economic regions, becoming a minor country. It will have no chances of resuming influence as dominating country in the region,” Alvrtsyan concluded.

http://news.am/en/news/2719.html