Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

[RSNATION]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Russians seize Georgian military base

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hV2N6fVKS5slf10A13Dj_uIdaZ4QD92G4T0O0

Russia seizes Georgia base, opens second front
By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI – 33 minutes ago
TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Russia opened a second front of fighting in Georgia on Monday, sending armored vehicles beyond two breakaway provinces and seizing a military base in the country's west, Georgia's Defense Ministry and a Russian official said.
The development indicates that Russian troops have invaded Georgia proper from the separatist province of Abkhazia while most Georgian forces are locked up in fighting around another breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Nana Intskerveli, the Defense Ministry's spokeswoman, said Russian armored personnel carriers rolled into the base in Senaki, about 20 miles inland from the Black Sea port of Poti.
In Moscow, a government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give his name, confirmed the move into Senaki and said it was intended to prevent Georgian troops from concentrating.
The move followed Russia's warning to Georgian forces west of Abkhazia to lay down arms or face a Russian military action. Senaki is located about 30 miles east of the Inguri River, which separates Abkhazia from Georgia proper.
The Russian move is certain to draw a strong condemnation from the West which has sharply criticized Russia's military response to Georgia's attack on South Ossetia as disproportionate.
Associated Press Writer Vladimir Isachenkov contributed to this report from Moscow.

[yerazhishda]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

The Russian move is certain to draw a strong condemnation from the West which has sharply criticized Russia's military response to Georgia's attack on South Ossetia as disproportionate.

America, Russia doesn't fight wars like you do. Russia intends to win with the fewest casualties on their side. There is no such thing as a "just war". War sucks.

[Federate]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Saakashvili loses presence of mind

This is so funny!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWlQ_fzECl4

LOL, he's lost his mind.

[Federate]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Fifty Azerbaijani volunteers to leave for war in Georgia
[ 11 Aug 2008 17:22 ]
Baku. Lachin Sultanova –APA. Fifty Azerbaijani volunteers living in Georgia will leave for war, Azer Suleymanov, Georgian MP told APA.

Suleymanov noted that he would head volunteers.
“We stood in a queue for buying military dress and arms. We will leave for conflict zone tonight”, he said.

Azerbaboon source http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=86553

-----------------------------------

Two Azerbaijani citizens die during military operations in Georgia-Ossetia conflict zone
[ 11 Aug 2008 15:01 ]
Gakh. Hafiz Heydarov-APA. Georgians living in Azerbaijan’s Gakh Region died during military operations in Georgia-Ossetia conflict zone, representatives of Georgians living in Gakh-ingiloy village of Gakh Region told APA Shaki-Zagatala bureau.

To them, several local residents joined Georgians returning from Gakh-ingiloy village to Georgia after declaring mobilization in the country. There are contradictious reports on Georgians, who are Azerbaijani citizens. Casualties are reported. Gakh-ingiloy executive representation told APA Shaki-Zagatala bureau that Tamazashvili Illarion Giviyevich was wounded during fighting in Ossetia.
Moreover, officer Irakli Kulashvili, who was born in Gakh-ingiloy village, but moved to Georgia four years ago, died during bombing of military base by Russian jets near Tbilisi yesterday.

Azerbaboon source http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=86536

[Federate]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

The first effects on Armenia are starting to show:

Thousands Pour Into Armenia From War-Stricken Georgia

Armenia evacuated thousands of its citizens and received a significant number of foreigners from neighboring Georgia over the weekend and on Monday as the Russian-Georgian military conflict increasingly escalated into an all-out war.

The Foreign Ministry in Yerevan said at least 7,500 Armenians spending their summer holidays on the Georgian Black Sea coast and some 2,000 foreign nationals, including relatives of Tbilisi-based U.S. diplomats, have entered the country since the outbreak of large-scale fighting in South Ossetia on Friday.

Georgia’s attempt to win back the breakaway region triggered a harsh Russian retaliation involving air strikes on military and civilian targets across the South Caucasus state. Armenia expressed serious concern about the worst regional crisis since the early 1990s and urged Armenian vacationers to return home on Saturday. The vast majority of them appear to have heeded the call.

Scores of cars and minibuses, which the Armenian government helped to send to popular Black Sea resorts in Georgia’s Ajaria region, have since been streaming into Armenia, bypassing Tbilisi and the main Georgian road leading to the Armenian border. The highway passes near airfields and other military facilities bombed by Russian warplanes.

The convoys of Armenian evacuees, led by Georgian police patrols, have moved along a longer road than runs through Georgia’s Armenian-populated Javakheti region to the Bavra border crossing in northwestern Armenia. A kilometer-long line of vehicles could be observed there in the early hours of Monday. Each vehicle needed hours to go through rigorous passport and customs checks on either side of the frontier.

Security at the Georgian and Armenian checkpoints was visibly tightened. Armenian border officials there told RFE/RL that more than 1,500 vehicles carrying more than 7,600 people have crossed into Armenia through Bavra since Saturday.

“The situation was very tense there in the last few days,” said one man returning from the Ajarian town of Kobuleti with his family. “There is hardly any vacationer left there. Everyone is coming back. Kobuleti is now empty.”

“We decided to come back because it was impossible to rest in that panicky situation,” explained another, female vacationer.

Another woman said she and her family headed to Ajaria shortly after the Georgian assault on South Ossetia. “We saw the war with our own eyes,” she told RFE/RL. “On our way to Georgia we saw a bomb explode just a 100 meters away from us.”

The Georgian Black coast has become a popular holiday destination of Armenians in recent years. An estimated 50,000 of them spent their summer holidays there last year.

Armenia’s consulate-general in Ajaria’s capital Batumi was tasked with organizing the evacuation process. According to Hakob Haji-Hakobian, the consul general, more than 300 Armenian nationals left the area on Monday morning.

“The situation is calm at the moment, but you can’t take any chances,” Haji-Hakobian told RFE/RL by phone. “It is certainly right to leave the area because the situation is unpredictable.”

Armenia also appears to be the main transit point for thousands of Western nationals caught up in the Georgian-Russian fighting. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, about 2,000 of them have entered the country from Georgia as of Monday afternoon, heeding travel advisories issued by the U.S. and European governments. Armenian immigration bodies were instructed to issue them with visas swiftly and free of charge.

Some 130 Italians evacuated from Tbilisi returned home on Monday night on board a plane sent by the Italian government to Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri. Another plane was sent to Yerevan by the government of Poland. It was due to collect 180 mostly Polish citizens waiting there. According to a Spanish diplomatic source cited by AFP news agency, a group of Spanish
tourists have already been also evacuated through Armenia.

The evacuees also included members of the families of the U.S. embassy staff in Tbilisi. “They were relocated to Yerevan and will stay here for the time being, until circumstances improve,” a spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Armenia, Thomas Mittnacht, told RFE/RL. He said the Armenian authorities have been “extremely helpful” in the evacuation of these and other American citizens.

From http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeni...140DB11E38.ASP

[Federate]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

The first effects on Armenia are starting to show:

Armenia Faces Trade Blockade As Russia Widens Georgia Assault

Russia’s intensifying military campaign against Georgia has reportedly paralyzed commercial traffic through two Black Sea ports handling the bulk of cargos shipped to and from Armenia, threatening to cut off the country from the outside world.

In a related development, the Armenian national gas distribution company said on Monday that Georgia has abruptly reduced the volume of Russian natural gas shipped to Armenia via Georgian territory. "There has been a reduction of gas delivered to Armenia from Russia via Georgia," ArmRosGazprom spokeswoman Shushan Sardarian told AFP news agency. She said a 30-percent supply reduction occurred with no advance warning.

At least one of the Georgian ports, Poti, has been targeted by Russian warplanes bombing military and civilian targets across Georgia following the outbreak of all-out fighting in South Ossetia. Armenia has long been heavily reliant on its rail-ferry services with the Ukrainian Black Sea port of Ilyichevsk and Russia’s Port-Kavkaz.

According to Vladimir Badalian, a government-linked parliamentarian co-chairing an Armenian-Georgian business association, both Poti and the other Georgian port, Batumi, are standing idle now because of the worsening security situation in the country. “Because the work of the ports ground to a halt, a fairly large numbers of goods are piling up there,” he told RFE/RL on Monday.

He said the military confrontation has also left 160 rail cars laden with goods bound for Armenia stranded in Port-Kavkaz. “Work is underway to transport those cargos to Poti,” he said without elaboration.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gegham Gharibjanian likewise assured journalists in Yerevan that Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian is personally dealing with the problem. He gave no details, though.

“Right now the Georgian ports of Batumi and Poti do not accept freight,” Railvneshtrans, a Russian company operating the Poti-Port-Kavkaz service, said in a statement cited by the Regnum news agency.

Regnum also quoted the executive director of the Armenian shipping company Trans-Alliance, Sarkis Martirosian, as saying that it is unable to move its goods out of Poti. He said authorities in the western Georgian city promised to allow their transportation “in the coming days” and to restore the ferry link with Ukraine “soon.”

The normal functioning of the port could be further complicated by the reported seizure by Russian troops of a nearby Georgian military base. Citing the Georgian Defense Ministry, the Associated Press news agency reported that Russian armored vehicles rolled into the base in Senaki, a town about 30 kilometers (20 miles) inland from Poti, later on Monday.

Armenia’s rail communication with Georgia appears to have not been affected yet by the unprecedented fighting. “There has been no change in the train schedule and trains from Yerevan to Tbilisi and Batumi continue to run as planned,” Susanna Tonoyan, a spokesman for the Armenian Ministry of Transport and Communications, told RFE/RL. “Another train will leave Yerevan for Batumi this evening,” she said.

No disruptions were also reported in international flights to and from Yerevan, many of which are carried out via Georgian airspace. According to Norayr Beluyan, chief executive of the national airline Armavia, the fighting and the Russian air strikes have so far forced no changes in the carrier’s flight schedule. “The air routes we are using are very safe,” Beluyan told RFE/RL. Armavia checks with Georgia’s civil aviation authority before every flight, he said.

A spokeswoman for the Armenian government’s Civil Aviation Department said several overnight flights from European cities to Tbilisi were diverted to Yerevan’s Zvartnots airport.

From http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeni...7ACB66D31D.ASP

[Federate]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Official Reports Reduction in Gas Supplies to Armenia Through Georgia

Posted on: Monday, 11 August 2008, 06:00 CDT

Text of report by private Armenian news agency Mediamax

Yerevan, 11August: The volume of natural gas supplies to Armenia through Georgia has fallen, a spokeswoman for [the Armenian-Russian company] ArmRosGazprom, Shushan Sardaryan, told Mediamax today.

"At present, we are trying to clarify the reasons and the exact volume of reduction in gas supplies to Armenia through the gas pipeline, which passes through Georgia", Shushan Sardaryan stated, noting that gas supplies to Armenia had reduced for about 30 per cent.

"At present, the shortage is covered by the reserves of ArmRosGazprom, which, taking into account that it is summer and the consumption is lower, should be enough to normalize the supplies," Shushan Sardaryan stated.

Originally published by Mediamax news agency, Yerevan, in Russian 0808 11 Aug 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Central Asia. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

Source: BBC Monitoring Central Asia

From http://www.redorbit.com/news/busines...rough_georgia/

[Federate]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Cyberwar has spread to Azerbaboon websites

--------------------

Russian intelligence services undertook large scale attack against Day.Az server
11 August 2008 [15:06] - Today.Az
Russian hackers by the tip of Russian intelligence services have undertaken an unprecedented attack against the servers of the Azerbaijani Day.Az news agency.

The reason of the attack was Day.Az position in covering the Russian-Georgian conflict.

According to Day.Az editor-in-chief Elnur Baimov, the hacker attacks from the "Russian direction" have occurred since the first day of the conflict but the current scale of the DDOS-attacks evidences the involvement of a group, regulated from a single center.

It should be reminded that Russian intelligence services have disabled the information and governmental websites of Georgia through the past two days.

"We are closely dealing with raising technical capacities to resist the attacks. We present our apologizes to the readers for inconveniences. The main thing is that we are right", said Baimov.

From http://www.today.az/news/politics/46885.html

[crusader1492]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

Thanks. My only concern is that the Russian have not ben successful in destroying the pipeline.

Maybe they'll have the PKK do it for them (the pipeline is already inoperable as we speak due to the first PKK attack last week )...

PKK THREATENS FURTHER ATTACKS ON BAKU-CEYHAN OIL-PIPELINE

Kurdish rebels threatened more attacks on economic targets yesterday after claiming responsibility for a blast in eastern Turkey that shut down the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, an agency close to the rebels reported. “Attacks on economic interests have a deterring effect (on Turkey)... As long as the Turkish state insists on war, such acts will naturally be carried out,” Bahoz Erdal, a commander of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), told the Firat news agency. The PKK claimed responsibility for a blast Tuesday night on a section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline near Refahiye, in Erzincan province. The explosion sparked a fire which continued to burn yesterday, triggering fresh jitters on world oil markets. The conduit, which supplies oil to Western markets, is expected to remain shut for about 15 days. The PKK said the explosion was “an act of sabotage” by its militants, the details of which would be revealed later. The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has sabotaged gas and oil pipelines in the past as part of its armed campaign for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast. Erdal said the pipeline blast and other PKK attacks in recent weeks were in response to an intensified Turkish crackdown against the rebels, both inside Turkey and in neighboring northern Iraq, where they take refuge. Turkish military action “has required us to boost our resistance in self-defense,” he said. The Turkish authorities have played down the possibility of sabotage of the BTC pipeline, and the Anatolia news agency yesterday quoted unnamed officials as saying that the PKK might be seeking publicity. An official from Turkey’s state-run oil and gas company Botas said Thursday that no trace of sabotage had been found but that a definite conclusion could be reached only after the fire at the pipeline was extinguished. Refahiye’s sub-governor had earlier ruled out sabotage, saying a fault had been detected before the blast. Inaugurated in 2006, the 1,774-kilometer (1,109-mile) BTC pipeline is the world’s second longest. It carries Azeri oil from the Caspian Sea fields, the world’s third-largest reserve, to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, from where tankers transport the crude to Western markets. It was pumping about 1.2 million barrels of oil per day before the blast. The fire may be put out today or tomorrow and repairs finished 10 days later, a senior source at Turkey’s Energy Ministry told Reuters yesterday, giving an earlier date than some expectations. Once the blaze is extinguished, efforts will be accelerated to assess the damage to the 1-million-barrel-per-day pipeline and bring it back on line within 10 days, an official said. Analysts suggest the shutdown could last longer than Turkish officials estimate and British energy giant BP said it was looking at alternative means of delivering supplies to Western clients. The PKK took up arms for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey’s southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives, the AFP reports.

[Federate]

Re: Georgian-South Ossetian conflict

"They of course had to hang Saddam Hussein for destroying several Shiite villages, but the current Georgian rulers who in one hour simply wiped 10 Ossetian villages from the face of the earth, the Georgian rulers which used tanks to run over children and the elderly, which threw civilians into cellars and burnt them — they (Georgian leaders) are players that have to be protected." - Vladimir Putin