FORMER RA PRIME MINISTER CONSIDERS INADEQUATE RUSSIA’S RESPONSE TO
GEORGIA IN AUGUST WAR
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. The August events in the Caucasus
gave nothing good either to Georgia or to Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Therefore launching military operations in the Tskhinvali region should
not be welcomed. Both aggression against Tskhinvali and the inadequate
response were inadmissible. The conclusion is that the result was bad
for everybody and it is impossible to solve anything through military
operations in the Caucasus. By the way, even without Tskhinvali it was
clear that it is this way historically. Wars in the Caucasus have never
given a victory to anyone. This was the evaluation former RA Prime
Minister Hrant Bagratian gave to the August war of Russia and Georgia
at the online press conference organized by the Caucasus Journalists
Network.
Estimating recognition of Abkhazia’s and Ossetia’s independence by
Russia, the former Prime Minister said that it met Russia’s
geopolitical goals, therefore it is normal from Russian point of view.
On the other hand, it shows that Georgia should have seriously attended
to Abkhazians and Ossetians, respected human rights, nations’
self-determination right and tried to find a solution within the
framework of territorial integrity. Unfortunately, it failed for this
or that reason.
According to H. Bagratian, there are no much changes in Armenia’s
position to Georgia after the August events. "One thing is clear that
Armenian-Georgian economic cooperation will decrease a little after
August, as at the worst, the land way to Russia is firmly closed. As to
estimation of relations between Russia and Abkhazia, to put it in the
diplomatic language, the fact of Russian-Abkhazian sea communication is
an "agreement to disagreement," he stated.
Answering the question about the guarantees that Russia will not be
able to involve Armenia in the conflict against Georgia, H. Bagratian
said that "knowing Armenians I can say that we as if genetically bear
the code of friendship with the Georgians. At that, I do not conceal
that we like to tell various anecdotes about each other. I suppose that
the Russians also understand these niceties. And I exclude for all
these three peoples, Armenians, Georgians, Russians the possibility of
provocations for the purpose of aggravating Armenian-Georgian
relations." He also refuted the rumors that "during the latest events
Russian bomber pilots took off from the territory of Armenia,"
mentioning that according to his data, nothing of the kind had happened.
In H. Bagratian’s opinion, Georgia’s geopolitical position plays "the
most immediate role" in Armenian-Georgian relations. He considers that
Georgian-Armenian relations in the region can be considered as model
ones. "Georgia is one of our four neighbors and the only Christian
state among them. Our two peoples during two thousand years practically
did not make any serious claims regarding territory to each other," the
former Prime Minister noted.