ArmenPress
Feb 14 2005
ARMENIANS IN JAVAKHK AGAINST PULLOUT OF RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 14, ARMENPRESS: Ararat Yesoyan, the chairman of
Reforms and Democracy Center, a non-governmental organization in
Georgia’s Samtskhe-Javakhk province, that has a predominantly
Armenian population, told today in Yerevan that Armenians there will
be looking at Russia for a long time as the sole guarantor of their
physical security.
He said many people in the region still remember that had not
Russians hurried to their help in 1918 the invading Turkey should
have eliminated the Armenian population of the region, as it did in
other areas of the Ottoman empire.
He said the Russian military base in the region, which Georgia
wants to be pulled out as soon as possible, has, apart from security,
also economic importance, as it gives jobs to thousands of local
Armenians. “Two regions, Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda which have
128,000 Armenian population, receive from Georgia’s state budget 6
million laris (about $3 million, though some 70 million laris are
necessary to provide minimum life support. Many ethnic Georgians who
work for the base are also against its withdrawal,” he said.
“If there were a NATO base there, people would get higher wages,
working for it, but there is no need to talk about a third force. As
a Georgian citizen I think we have to develop out country by our own
efforts, but if Georgia joins NATO the Armenians in the region would
not be prepared to look at Turkey’s troops as their security
guarantee. We would agree rather to having French or Canadian troops
there,” he said.