Georgian border closure not to affect Russian-Armenian relations – paper

Hayots Ashkarh, Yerevan
6 Oct 04

Text of Vardan Grigoryan report by Armenian newspaper Hayots Ashkarh
on 6 October “Situation at Verkhniy Lars and around it”

The fact that hundreds of lorries bound for Armenia have been stranded
at the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint on the Russian-Georgian border is
being assessed differently.

The situation was created after the incredible terrorist act in Beslan
when the Russian leadership decided to close land borders with Georgia
and Azerbaijan. But this has affected Armenia more than the countries
mentioned. It turns out that due to limited communication
opportunities and the blockade imposed by Turkey and Azerbaijan,
Armenia has found itself in this situation “through no fault of its
own”.

It has nothing in common with the rumours disseminated recently that
allegedly by closing the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint on the
Russian-Georgian border, Russia is trying to punish Armenia along with
Georgia for cooperation with NATO or for the intention to send
Armenian servicemen to Iraq. If Russia had really wanted to punish
Armenia, it could undoubtedly have found more effective levers.

This forcible step taken by Russia in the context of the antiterror
fight has created a very contradictory situation in both
Russian-Georgian and Armenian-Georgian relations.

The speaker of the upper chamber of the Russian State Duma, Sergey
Mironov, who was in Yerevan recently, promised that the situation
would be settled. Moreover, he hinted that the problem of the
Transcaucasus railway link to Sukhumi would be also
settled. Certainly, it is a very pleasant piece of news for Armenia,
but at present the settlement of such a complex problem is coming up
against the political dispute about the return of Georgian refugees to
Gali District, as well as the fact that the Sukhumi-Zugdidi sector of
the railway is badly damaged.

A question arises: Are these measures of Russia fruitful while it is
evident that terrorists penetrate this country through mountains and
gorges? Georgia, which has sea ports and receives large western loans,
does not at all submit to Russia’s requests to capture and extradite
them [terrorists] to Russia. Thus, the problem is not in closing the
Verkhniy Lars checkpoint but in turning the measures against Georgia
into “targeted” ones. We think that in this context economic and
political steps could be taken which will not directly affect
Armenia’s interests. This gives us the hope that they will finally
find mutually acceptable solutions that will take Armenian cargo
transportation out of this misunderstanding.

By the way, the closure of the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint may be used by
some forces to call into question Russian-Armenian strategic
partnership. Certain political forces in Armenia are interested in
this, they are spreading incredible rumours about Moscow-Yerevan
relations and politicizing the problem. But the majority of the public
understand that the situation created at the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint
is not that problem which can cast doubt on Armenian-Russian strategic
partnership. Russia is not the country which Armenia can have problems
with because of this kind of incidents. Thus, we are sure that today’s
search for mutually advantageous options to resolve the situation
created around the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint will yield positive
results and thwart all attempts to discredit Armenian-Russian
relations.