AS A RESULT OF ESTABLISHMENT OF CLOSE RELATIONS BETWEEN RUSSIA AND TURKEY ARMENIA WILL GAIN IN RESPECT OF COMMUNICATIONS, GARIK KERIAN CONSIDERS
Noyan Tapan
Se p 12, 2008
YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN. Colored revolutions carried out in
some former USSR countries in the past years had considerably weakened
Russia’s positions, which, however, again became stronger as a result
of the Georgian-Ossetian armed conflict. Garik Kerian, the head of
the political science chair of Yerevan State University, expressed
such an opinion at the September 12 discussion at the National Press
Club. According to him, the situation formed in the South Caucasus can
have a positive impact on Armenia’s communications. In particular,
as G. Kerian mentioned, today Turkey tries to create some alliance
in the region, and Russian diplomacy can prove to be behind Turkey’s
idea. "If it is really so and there is Russian-Turkish consent,
we can hope that Kars-Gyumri railway will be put into operation,"
the political scientist said.
Another participant of the discussion, former National Assembly
deputy Tatul Manaserian, in his turn, said that the aggravation
of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict was just an occasion for new
geopolitical developments in the region. That conflict, according to
his observation, was not so much the problem of Georgia and South
Ossetia as of Russia and the United States. As regards Armenia’s
position to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
according to T. Manaserian, President Serzh Sargsyan’s statement that
Armenia cannot recognize the independence of Kosovo, South Ossetia
or Abkhazia until Nagorno Karabakh is recognized was quite right.