GEORGIAN PRESIDENT DISCUSSES US RADAR PLANS ON VISIT TO ARMENIA – PAPER

Iravunk, Yerevan
30 Mar 07

Text of Piruza Meliksetyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Iravunk on
30 March headlined "They also discussed the radar problem"

The one-day visit to Armenia by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
has not been covered very well. But it is clear that the state
functionaries who are very busy would hardly meet up in Tsakhkadzor
just to ski.

A Georgian source of Iravunk says that during his talk with [Armenian
President] Robert Kocharyan who is considered to be a "strategic
partner" of Russia, the American "operator" in the South Caucasus,
Mikheil Saakashvili, also touched (naturally on behalf of the
Americans) on the attitude of Armenia and specifically, Akhalkalaki
towards the American programme to set up a radar station in the
South Caucasus.

He carefully tried to clarify the position of the Armenian leadership
and whether the Armenians of Javakhk [Georgia’s Armenian-populated
region of Javakheti] will oppose this programme. According to the
same source, in return for the loyalty of the Armenian leadership and
Javakhk, Saakashvili even promised that the USA will "turn a blind
eye" to the problem of the legitimacy of the parliamentary election
in Armenia.