ARMENIA PURSUES CAUTIOUS POLICY TOWARD ISRAEL

PanARMENIAN.Net
16.05.2008 14:38 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The active Israel-Turkey economic and political
cooperation compels Armenia to pursue cautious policy toward the
Jewish state, a Russian expert said.

"Israel is displeased with the Iran-Armenia cooperation, the more so
because there are influential supporters of closer ties with Tehran,"
head of the interethnic department at the institute of political
and military analysis Sergei Markedonov wrote in "Israel: Caucasus
Priorities" article.

"The initial serious contacts between the foreign ministries of
Armenia and Israel were established in early 1990-ies. However,
in 2002 Israeli Ambassador to Georgia publicly refused to name the
Armenian massacre in the Ottoman Empire a genocide," he said. "Israel
in also discontent with the way Armenia media covered the developments
in Lebanon in 2000 and 2006."

"Nevertheless, an Armenian delegation which included then-Prime
Minister Serzh Sargsyan and CB President Tigran Sargsyan visited
Israel in 2005. According to Alexander Zinker, first chairman of the
Israeli-Armenian parliamentary friendship, the two states could become
partners in IT development, for Israel is the third major exporter of
hi-tech while Armenia is remarkable for its programmers and specialists
in electronic devices," Markedonov concluded, politcom.ru reports.