Paper blames Moscow for provoking row in Armenian-populated Georgian district

Aravot, Yerevan
1 Apr 05 p 2

By Tigran Avetisyan

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a notable statement at a
news conference in Yerevan recently. He described the CIS as a club
where the member countries could speak about common problems, for
instance, the refugee problem.

It is remarkable that the Russian president skipped over all possible
and known categories of refugees and underlined in particular the
possibility of Armenian refugees from Georgia. It becomes clear that
was not just an example. Unfortunately, this time as well we have
come across a Russian destabilizing factor.

The latest quite alarming events taking place in Javakhk [Georgia’s
Armenian-populated Javakheti region] should be viewed in this
context. Yesterday [30 March] about 3,000 people held a rally in
Akhalkalaki [Georgia’s Armenian-populated district]. They criticized
the Georgian government and along with other problems they demanded
that the Russian military base deployed in Akhalkalaki should not be
pulled out. It seems that this problem could have been settled long
ago at different levels of Armenian-Georgian relations. That is to
say, the authorities in Armenia should have had enough wisdom to use
their influence on Javakhk in a right way to put an end to such absurd
and dangerous demands.

What is going on? The decision to withdraw Russian military bases from
Akhalkalaki and elsewhere in Georgia was made long ago at the OSCE
Istanbul summit, which was signed by not only Georgia but also Russia
and Armenia. Even Moscow does not argue that Russian military bases
should be withdrawn from Georgia. But the latter has disagreements
with the Tbilisi government over the terms of withdrawal. The Armenian
factor has resurfaced against the background of the Russian-Georgian
disagreement. It turns out that what the Armenians of Javakhk want
from the Georgian government is something against which Tbilisi has
been fighting for a long time, something which has long slipped out of
Moscow’s authority and which is next to impossible.

We have to guess what consequences the creation of a new hotbed of
tension in the region will have for Armenia, which has the Karabakh
problem that is getting complicated by the day, especially taking into
account that it is obviously being provoked by Moscow using the
Armenian factor.