THE AIR BLOCKADE OF RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE NO 102 IN GYUMRI
by Sarkis Gevorkyan
Hayots Ashkhar, Armenia
Dec 13 2006
Since 8 December a military and political blockade has been added
to the economic and communication blockade of Armenia as Georgia has
banned flights by Russian military aircraft to the Russian military
base in Gyumri via its territory. Under an agreement signed between
Russia and Georgia on 31 March 2006, Russia has the right to such
flights via the territory of Georgia. Russian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mikhail Kamynin assessed this ban as an attempt to hinder
both the normal work of the Russian military base in Gyumri and the
withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia.
The reason is obvious: the ban on the planned flights of Russian
aircraft via Georgia to Armenia hinders the final withdrawal of
Russian bases from Georgia and they find themselves in a blockade.
But do Georgian national interests require the creation of extra
tension in Russian-Georgian relations? On 8 December, as a result of
talks held in Georgia, the Turkish, Azerbaijani and Georgian energy
ministers came to an agreement in principle that Georgia’s gas demands
would be satisfied at the expense of Turkey’s share of the Azerbaijani
gas to be received via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline in
2007. That is to say, Georgia’s share increased from 250m sq.m. to
1.5bn sq.m., which will almost cover Georgia’s demand in 2007, which is
estimated at 1.8bn sq.m. Thus, as soon as it became clear in Tbilisi
that Russia’s last attempts to stop gas supplies to Georgia by means
of putting pressure upon Baku had failed, flights by Russian military
aircraft were immediately stopped. In fact, this step by Georgia is
compensation for the generosity of "brotherly Azerbaijan". To save
Georgia from a gas blockade, Azerbaijan and Turkey asked Georgia to
hinder flights by Russian planes to Gyumri so that to deprive Armenia
of an opportunity to make use of its main strategic bases.
This option has also been proven by the second demand put forward to
Georgia by Azerbaijani political experts who suggest that Tbilisi
should sharply raise the transit price of the Russian gas supplied
to Armenia beginning from 1 January 2007. In this way Azerbaijan,
helped by Turkey, is trying to blame Armenia for the tension in
Russian-Georgian relations and to put our state in a military and
political, as well as energy blockade ahead of restarting Karabakh
talks in January 2007. Baku understands very well that the OSCE Minsk
Group mediators are resolute. Moreover, the West is doing its best
to remove Russia from the region. For this reason, they have to take
advantage of the created opportunity and, by supporting the West’s
strategy, foil the energy blockade of Georgia, turn "grateful" Georgia
into an instrument with the help of which Armenia will be blackmailed.
Being a member of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization,
Armenia at the same time did everything possible not to meddle in the
fight between the West and Russia over Georgia. But instead the 102nd
Russian military base is blockaded while Azerbaijan is threatening
to restart war and Turkey is pursuing an openly hostile policy.
We think that Armenia should draw conclusions from this story and
revise its policy towards Georgia. What is the point of taking a
neutral and even reserved position in the events concerning Georgia
if the latter is carrying out an openly anti-Armenian policy?