Armenian Public TV , Armenia
May 23 2008

Armenian, Georgian premiers discuss high transit tariffs, church dispute

[Presenter] A session of the council of CIS country leaders has been
held in Minsk. An Armenian delegation headed by Prime Minister Tigran
Sargsyan attended the session. Before the start of the session our
prime minister met his Georgian counterpart. Besides discussing
cooperation programmes, Tigran Sargsyan expressed Armenia’s concern
about the high tariffs imposed on Armenian goods transported through
Georgian territory. He said it was important to inform the Armenian
side of how these [tariffs] are fixed.

The Armenian prime minister also drew his counterpart’s attention to
the Armenian Church’s legal status in Georgia as well as to the
periodic endeavours and provocations made by the church and civil
radicals in Georgia against Armenian churches. This adds to tension in
society, Sargsyan said.

He particularly noted the recent illegal fencing of the Surb Norashen
[Saint Norashen] church in Tbilisi, and the far-reaching intentions of
this condemnable action, of which people who have committed this
illegal action speak in public.

[Georgian] Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze condemned the radical
approaches and provocations and promised to mediate after
investigating the problem in more detail. [Video shows the meeting]
From: Baghdasarian