AZERI PUNDIT BLAMES GEORGIAN LEADER FOR RED CARPET TREATMENT TO ARMENIAN HEAD
by R. Manafli Ekho
Ekho
Oct 3 2008
Azerbaijan
Georgia cannot decide
Said Azerbaijani pundit in a comment on the visit of Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan to Tbilisi from the Azerbaijani standpoint
"Russian jets took off from the Armenian territories to bomb Georgia
and Mikheil Saakashvili pretends he does not know this and renders
homage to Serzh Sargsyan upon receiving him," Mubariz Ahmadoglu,
prominent local pundit and director of the Centre for Political
Innovations and Technologies, made this statement in a conversation
with Ekho newspaper, while summing up the results of Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan’s visit to Georgia from an Azerbaijani standpoint.
We should say that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan paid a two-day
working visit to Tbilisi on 30 September – 1 October. Within the
framework of the visit, the Armenian president had a tete-a-tete
conversation with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Saakashvili
where they discussed bilateral relations as well as issues related
to the regional security. At a joint briefing after the meeting,
the presidents said that they took a decision to set up a joint
consortium of the two countries for the construction of a new road
to the Black Sea coast through Ajaria.
[Passage omitted: Georgia and Armenia decide to build a new road up
to the Black Sea coast of Georgia]
Azerbaijan is surprised at the "high-level Georgian-Armenian
relations", which was highlighted at the meeting of the two presidents,
in particular, after Armenia supported Russia’s military aggression
against Georgia. Anyway, as political expert Mubariz Ahmadoglu told
Ekho, Russian jets took off from the Armenian territories to bomb
Georgia and Mikheil Saakashvili pretends that he does not know this
and renders homage to Serzh Sargsyan upon receiving him.
Against this background, Saakashvili’s gratitude to Sargsyan that
Armenia backed Georgia’s territorial integrity seems ridiculous,
the director of the CPIT said. "How can one speak about the support
for Georgia’s territorial integrity by Armenia when immediately after
recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, they
began to speak about recognizing of unrecognized separatist bodies
in exchange for the recognition of Nagornyy Karabakh’s independence
by Russia?" asked Mubariz Ahmadoglu.
In his opinion, the reason for tension in our region is namely
connected with the fact that countries turn a blind eye to such
behaviour of neighbouring states. "Georgia so far cannot decide on
what position to take for the resolution of major regional problems,"
the pundit said, adding that Saakashvili did not only award Sargsyan
a state order, but at the same time, he saw him off to Yerevan,
although when French President Nicholas Sarkozy arrived [in Tbilisi],
he did not even think of doing so.
Commenting on the decision of the Georgian and Armenian presidents
on the construction of the road, the Azerbaijani pundit said that
Georgia helps Armenia to put an ancient Armenian dream of "from sea
to a sea" into action. "You know, by building this road, Armenia will
get a direct access to the Black Sea coast," said Ahmadoglu. To recap,
the head of the CPIT said that Georgia’s current policy with regard
to Armenia shows that Mikheil Saakashvili has bad advisers.
However, people adhere to this opinion not only in Azerbaijan but
also in Georgia itself. As a member of the board of the Azerbaijani
community in Georgia, [former MP] Zumrud Qurbanov, told Ekho, many
ethnic Azerbaijanis in Georgia are surprised at the level of reception
of the Armenian president in Tbilisi. "We are indignant at this. Do
politicians not know that South Ossetia and Abkhazia have in fact
become independent states owing to Armenia?" asked Qurbanov.
At the same time, he pointed out that Georgians also do not always
understand this, who quite often consider Armenians reliable and loyal
neighbours. "Although our attitude towards Armenians is different
due to known reasons, the Georgians see no reason for this," recapped
our compatriot.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
