Epress.am News from Armenia
Despite recurring problems at the diplomatic level, on the whole, Georgia-Armenia relations can be called normal, said Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD) Project Coordinator Marina Elbakidze in an exclusive interview with Epress.am.
“When the resolution on Abkhazia and South Ossetia refugees was being approved at the UN, Armenia didn’t support it. This angered the Georgian side, but there was no disappoint on an official level,” she said.
The press, however, according to Elbakidze, reacted quite negatively.
“They began to analyze why Armenia is not interested in supporting such decisions at the UN. One explanation is that it’s the [Nagorno] Karabakh conflict: if Armenia agrees to the return of refugees to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it must also think about the return of refugees to Karabakh.
“Armenia’s position was also explained another way: Armenia was against refugees returning to Abkhazia because Armenia itself is interested in Abkhazia. Then, they began to recall the 90s, the Georgia-Abkhazia war, the Baghramyan military unit and so on. However, this is not an official rendition of the issue, but just groundless rumors,” she said.
According to her, a far more acute political and strategic issue for Georgia is the Russian military base in Gyumri, which has become a serious topic of discussion.
“Recently added to that is the recently signed Russian-Armenian military agreement on mutual assistance and cooperation. Political imagination on this issue can be of various genres, but the issue itself is very important from a strategic perspective, including where and what type of military base it is, how interested are big players such as Russia , and what can lead to such interest,” she said.
The CIPDD program staff member also noted, at the diplomatic level, the two countries demonstrate a formally declared friendship and discuss important issues, including acute issues such as the southern Georgian region of Javakheti with its large ethnic Armenian population.
“Then they inform the public, what issues were discussed at these meetings, but they never say what decisions were made,” said Elbakidze.