{"id":291605,"date":"2019-06-11T15:22:17","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T11:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epress.am\/?p=291605"},"modified":"2019-06-11T15:22:58","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T11:22:58","slug":"armenia-presents-a-pleasant-surprise-to-georgia-at-the-un","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2019\/06\/11\/armenia-presents-a-pleasant-surprise-to-georgia-at-the-un.html","title":{"rendered":"Armenia Presents a \u2018Pleasant Surprise\u2019 to Georgia at the UN"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A \u2018pleasant surprise\u2019 is how Georgian experts described the actions of the Armenian delegation during the UN General Assembly\u2019s 73rd session.<\/p>\n<p>Armenian diplomats at the UN have for the first time since 2008 abstained from voting on a resolution on Georgian refugees from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In recent years, Armenia had always voted against this Georgian initiative, inviting harsh criticism from Tbilisi\u2019s political leadership and policy circles.<\/p>\n<p>Political scientist Giorgi Gobronidze believes that after this move by the Armenian delegation, the mood inside Georgia may change. \u201cThis is definitely a positive feat as Armenia constantly voted against Georgia\u2019s initiative over the past ten years. In doing so, Armenia, on the one hand, demonstrated its loyalty to [Moscow] by not coming out against the anti-Russian resolution. On the other hand, by not opposing the resolution proposed by the Georgian side, Armenia demonstrated a pragmatic approach \u2013 one that primarily emerges from the unresolved issues of the Karabakh conflict. This time, by not participating in the vote, Armenia simultaneously avoided Russia\u2019s possible dissatisfaction while refraining from [criticizing] a segment of Georgian society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>79 UN member states voted in favor of the resolution on the Status of Internally Displaced Persons submitted by Georgia. 15 states voted against, including Russia, Belarus, Venezuela, Syria, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. 57 states abstained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe document condemns forced demographic changes in Georgia\u2019s [occupied] regions and reaffirms the right of all refugees to return to their homes. This document also has a practical component. It instructs the UN Secretary-General to prepare a special report on refugee status in Georgia every year\u201d, Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani said at a press conference in Tbilisi.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This time, by not participating in the vote, Armenia simultaneously avoided Russia\u2019s possible dissatisfaction while refraining from [criticizing] a segment of Georgian society\u044e\u044e\u044e<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[73301,20315,20316,73302],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291605"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291605\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}