After a short-term exploitation Lars passage again stopped its functioning. As the media informs yesterday 25 trucks were stranded there yesterday, which were supposed to get to Russia from Armenia. Those were mainly loaded with grapes and mineral water.
This passage located on the Russian-Georgian border has importance neither for Russia nor Georgia. It is important for Armenia because it is the main route for land transportation of cargo. Thus, despite the fact that the “games” connected with this passage are a result of the bad relations between Russia and Georgia but the main aftermath affects Armenia. Let us recall that the Upper Lars was first time shut down in 2004 by the Russians. The Russian side connected the shutdown with reconstruction activities. But it coincidentally matched with the period when Armenia sent troops to Iraq. Then it was opened but again shut down in two years in July 2006 once again by the Russians. At that time was the same situation. Many trucks were at the border, agreements were violated and the trucks had to go to Poti or Novosibirsk to reach the point of destination. After a long break when the Armenian businessmen have even forgotten about the passage rumors about reopening got activated. In the end of 2009, despite the fact that the Armenian side was denying the fact of negotiations the media claimed that the negotiations continue regarding the reopening of the border. On March 1, 2010 the Upper Lars reopened. It turned out that the negotiations proceeded with the mediation of the Swiss Embassy. The fact was indeed positive but it didn’t cause any excitement in the business world of Armenia because of only the fact that through the Upper Lars it is impossible to export or import products with excise stamps. The customs checkpoint must have a special permission to allow the movement of certain goods with excise stamps. As of the reduction of expenses then it wasn’t essential either. If the cost of one ferry boat from Yerevan to Moscow costs 4500-5000 USD (from Poti to Novosibirsk) then this cost amounts to 3500-4000 USD. And if we take into account the fact that in the event of importation and exportation the importation or exportation costs amount to 10-15% percent of the price of the product we may say that the Upper Lars lowered the prices of certain goods by 3-4%. But this doesn’t relate to all the goods. During the reopening of the passage the representatives of the Georgian side were saying that it was mainly done by the request of the Armenian side. But as we see, the Upper Lars gave little use to Armenia. At that time even other opinions were heard. For example, the state minister of conflicts resolutions of Georgia, one of the leaders of the united opposition Georgi Khaindrava said, “Russia opened the Upper Lars for only one reason in order to feed its military base in Gyumri. There can be no word of the Armenian profit in the opening of the Upper Lars because the passage is being closed 4-5 times a year.” Nevertheless, the Upper Lars started to function and certain Armenian companies started to redirect their cargos to the Upper Lars. Specifically, the food product exporters started to work on the Upper Lars direction because for food that is subject to short-term life the time does matter. But our exporters didn’t manage to have any profits of this. “Saturday arrived sooner than Friday.” Three days ago the Upper Lars was once again shut down. We could witness the same crowding, uncertainty, violated agreements and damage. The only difference is that the passage this time was closed not by the Russians but by the Georgians. As the head of the logistics department of Spayka company Gevorg Budaghyan informed the Tert.am two days ago the Georgian customs officers didn’t allow 8 Armenian trucks loaded with grapes cross the border. And starting from yesterday, they didn’t allow the inflow of other vehicles as well. In the words of the drivers yesterday at about 5 p.m. there were approximately 25 trucks at the border. If prior to this they wouldn’t let the grape trucks to cross the border then currently they are not allowing any vehicles to cross the border. Those trucks were loaded with juice, mineral water. Moreover, the Georgian side didn’t bring up any relevant reason why the Armenian trucks are not allowed to go through the passage. “We inform our Ambassador to Georgia of the created situation. We have called the hotline but didn’t receive any response from the Georgian side,” said Budaghyan by adding that due to the closed checkpoint the company already had a damage of several hundred thousand. “We have 9 trucks with grapes that we cannot send because we don’t know what will happen to them if we send.” The noteworthy thing is that not only private companies but state bodies cannot receive information about the reason of the shutdown either. “The Georgian side doesn’t give a clear explanation. The subordinate brings up the order of the superior and the latter says that no such order was released. Perhaps this issue has a political meaning,” told the panarmenian.net the media service of the ministry of agriculture of Armenia. They say that first the ministry of agriculture and then the state revenue committee were trying to resolve the issue. And even the prime minister and the president have interfered with the resolution of this matter. Another media agency, the news.am passed on the interpretation of the RA transport and communications ministry. “We were informed that the gathering of the trucks near the border is connected with technical matters. Currently the ministry is trying to get the official reasons of the delays and the shutdown so that we’d be able to undertake necessary means to resolve the issue.” Let us mention that the mass media, including the Russian media, bring up totally other reasons for the shutdown of the passage. Specifically, they are complaining that by doing this Tbilisi is expressing its compliant to Armenia for voting against the Georgian resolution in the UN. The second reason, according to the circulated rumors, is that the passage was shut down by the request of Turkey in order to oust the Armenian grapes from the Russian market. Yesterday NA MPs also adverted to this matter. The head of the Heritage faction Stepan Safaryan emphasized that between Armenia and Georgia there are even no normal neighboring relations, not to mention the friendship and partnership. And the ARF representative Hrair Karapetyan noted that the foreign affairs ministry of Armenia should deal with these matters and try to find out the reasons of the shutdown of the border. “If it turns out that there are political motives behind this then necessary steps should be undertaken,” he mentioned. Of course, Karapetyan didn’t mention what steps can be applied to settle the issue as indeed we don’t have anything to shut down to pressure on Georgia. Perhaps this issue may be resolved before this release of our newspaper. But that’s not the important thing. One thing is clear for sure. If in the past the Russians were considering us their outpost now the same is being done by the Georgians by showing contemptuous attitude to their eastern neighbor. Yesterday an MP of the Legal State Hovhannes Margaryan mentioned that there is no big tragedy in the shutdown of the passage because low amount of Armenian cargo go through the passage and besides that the Armenian businessmen always find alternative routes. But the tragedy is that the representative of the governmental party doesn’t see anything wrong with the fact that the Georgians don’t even bother to explain to the Armenian side the reason of the border shutdown.