During a conference, Republican National Assembly MP Gagik Minasyan said that great powers of the world, countries of the Southern Caucasus region, including Armenia, were expecting to see such tense relations between Russia and Georgia. According to him, Georgia has gotten into tense relations with Russia for two reasons: short-term and mid-term. Minasyan says that the short-term is that the Georgian authorities wanted to portray the image of a foreign enemy, so that they could reach success in the upcoming local government elections. The mid-term is that Georgia wants to settle the conflict between Abkhazia and Southern Osetia before the Kosovo conflict is settled. Since Russia is in favor of spreading a conflict similar to that of Kosovo to other countries and Kosovo is going to become independent, Georgian President Mikhail Sahakashvili, according to Minasyan, wants to quicken the settlement of the conflict between Southern Osetia and Abkhazia, so that Kosovo doesn’t become a case for them. “The tense conflict is going to quicken the settlement and as a result, the Southern Osetian-Abkhazian conflict is going to benefit Georgia while the international community hasn’t found itself in a situation where the nation’s autonomy right, in this case Kosovo, will be much more important than territorial integrity,” says Minasyan. If the process quickens, , then that will lead to the point when the conflict will benefit Georgia. Minasyan is of the opinion that the U.S. also plays a role here, in other words, the so-called pro-Western approach and strive to become a member of NATO. G. Minasyan’s opponent, vice-president of the Armenian National Movement administration Khachatur Kokobelyan, said that the Georgian authorities are really under the influence of the U.S., but that goes along with Georgia’s interests. Besides that, the West doesn’t want Georgia to do anything that may hurt Georgia’s national interest. Kokobelyan believes that the Armenian authorities are under the control of Russia and Armenia’s interests correspond to Russia’s chances. According to Kokobelyan, the Armenian government doesn’t really care about the Russian-Georgian conflict, in the meantime this may be tragic for Armenia’s economic situation. The vice-president of the ANM administration also recalled the announcement of the Armenian army commander during the first days of the tense relations, which according to Kokobelyan, didn’t differ from the opinion expressed by representative of the Russian Embassy in Armenia. “In fact, I believe that in this case, the Armenian authorities are going along with whatever Russia has to say,” said Kokobelyan. According to him, even if Armenian state officials are afraid of the situation at hand, they shouldn’t just make the announcements, rather do something to ease the tension between Russia and Georgia benefiting Armenia. According to the vice-president of the ANM administration, the Russian-Georgian tense relations proved once again that Armenia doesn’t have its own foreign politics and simply does whatever Russia wants. Obviously, G. Minasyan doesn’t share that opinion. He says that the Armenian authorities are doing everything they can in order to not have the Russian-Georgian tension have an influence on Armenia. G. Minasyan doesn’t think it’s worth reconsidering Armenian-Turkish ties with the purpose of easing the tension between Russia and Georgia. He says that that’s a big step and is certain that it’s not that possible that Russian-Georgian relations will get tenser. According to Minasyan, Georgian-Russian relations will go back to the same relations that they had two-three months ago and will continue until two-three months before the Kosovo conflict settlement. Kokobelyan also disagreed with Minasyan. According to Kokobelyan, not only won’t Russian-Georgian relations get back to normal, but we will also see new relations between the two countries, which will be based on Georgia joining NATO. Kokobelyan thinks that thinking about Armenian-Turkish relations is not a big step and besides that, there is a need for that.
