Armenian-Turkish rapprochement to impact on Georgia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Fall in Georgia started with a chain of events complicating the country's life. Re-establishment of diplomatic ties between Yerevan and Ankara and opening of Armenian-Turkish border will greatly impact on the country, depriving it of its key role in energy transit and freight transportation via "East-West" route.



Georgian experts predict the country will suffer great losses, although they have not yet made at least rough estimations in this regard. However, Georgian businesspersons anticipate considerable growth of their income due to reduced transportation costs and shorter time required for delivering freight to Europe via Central and South-Eastern Asia. Mediterranean Sea is currently used a transit route for transporting freight containers to Black Sea ports and redirecting them to their destination. Such circuitous itinerary via Georgia takes 10-12 days while Armenia's open border with Turkey will enable Georgian businessmen to transport freight within 4 hours. That will greatly affect Georgian economy and at the same time promote Armenia's economic growth, making it less dependent on Georgia's "whims".



September 4 marked a "black Friday" for Georgia. Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze carried out a working visit to Yerevan to "discuss current stage of Georgian-Armenian relations". The latter, however, became exacerbated after Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's statement which was characterized by Georgian media as "stab in the back". Furthermore, President Sargsyan recommended that Tbilisi grant Armenian language a regional status, ensure legal registration of Armenian Apostolic Church and take active measures towards preserving Armenian historical monuments in Georgia. What imparted sharp hue to Armenian President's statement was that such claims were made on official level for the first time, reiterating the demands of Javahk public leaders.



Tbilisi's response sounded sharp and unbalanced. State Minister for Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili made the following statement, "Armenia had better develop its native tongue on its native land, and we are very happy that Armenian is the only state language of Armenia." Georgian official obviously forgot that the conversation here was about a regional vs. a state language. Proceeding further with his remarks, Iakobashvili proposed the following thesis, "Georgia is a democratic country protecting the rights of all national minorities, including Armenians. However, international organizations have several times focused attention on unsatisfactory situation with national minorities' rights and recommended that Tbilisi grant Armenian and Azerbaijani languages the status of regional languages in Samtskhe Javakheti and Kvemo-Kartlu," Rosbalt news agency quotes Georgian official as saying.