{"id":75661,"date":"2011-03-15T11:07:42","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T07:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=75661"},"modified":"2011-03-15T11:08:46","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T07:08:46","slug":"georgia-tries-to-improve-relations-with-russia-through-armenia-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2011\/03\/15\/georgia-tries-to-improve-relations-with-russia-through-armenia-opinion.html","title":{"rendered":"Georgia Tries to Improve Relations with Russia through Armenia: Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the Karabakh conflict, the idea of Georgia&#8217;s possible mediation can be born not in Tbilisi, but in the European Union. This idea is currently in an embryonic state \u2014 it&#8217;s been thrown into society, to test the waters. This opinion was expressed by Tbilisi-based analyst Mamuka Areshidze speaking to Epress.am in the geographical center of the South Caucasus \u2014 Tekali, Georgia \u2014 following a mock trial in which he presented counter-arguments to Georgia&#8217;s possible mediation in the Karabakh conflict.<\/p>\n<p>Tbilisi, according to Areshidze, tries to maintain the role of initiator of an active policy in the South Caucasus. &#8220;Georgia is more free as it has no state disputes with its neighbors. Therefore, the idea of joining and engaging in regional problems arises in Saakashvili&#8217;s administration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The analyst also noted that in Georgia, it is widely believed that the country&#8217;s authorities try to normalize relations with Russia through Armenia. This matter, in Areshidze&#8217;s opinion, is often discussed during meetings between the presidents of Georgia and Armenia, along with other sensitive topics, such as problems with the Church and economic cooperation.<\/p>\n<p>As for the role of Azerbaijan in the region, Areshidze said, Azerbaijan is a &#8220;self-sufficient state and feels itself master of the situation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When such a small country has a reserve fund of 25 billion, it can afford not to think toward creating a union, a confederation with its neighbors and can summon weak neighbors to act as mediators to solve its problems.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;With regard to Armenia, it is far too dependent on Russia and cannot conceive of calling Georgia to mediate in problems with Azerbaijan. In principle, that&#8217;s right,&#8221; he concluded.<\/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>Tbilisi-based analyst Mamuka Areshidze spoke to Epress.am in the geographical center of the South Caucasus \u2014 Tekali, Georgia.<!-- 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":1,"featured_media":75593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75661"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75661\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}