Georgian and Armenian delegations went against each other during the main assembly of Black Sea countries in the capital of Albania-Tirana. The disagreements were for the start of the project of creating a passage for interregional communications. The debate began between Georgian MP David Saganelidze and president of the National Assembly of Armenia Arthur Bagdasaryan. “Alia” met with David Saganelidze and he told the story of what happened in Tirana…
The debate all started when discussion began about the Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi-Baku railway and Georgia’s Abkhazian section of the railway. The Armenian side demanded that in the first project, Gyumri be substituted for Akhalkalak. The second demand was that the quick transaction made for the Abkhazian section of the Georgian railway be recalled as part of the project for creating a road for interregional communications. The Armenian side is of the opinion that if their demands are not fulfilled, then Armenia will not be included in the roads of interregional communications. I, of course, was against the proposals. As for the Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi-Baku railway, that project has been confirmed by the presidents of all three countries back in summer of this year and it has already been proposed to the UN. At the UN, the project was recognized as necessary for the region and considered very important. It was also considered one of the main points of TRACECA. Currently, the project documents are being studied by the European Union’s Economic Council which is going to fund the project and we are talking about 400-450 million dollars. Most of the money will possibly be provided to Turkey because the Turkish section of the Kars-Akhalkalak-Tbilisi-Baku railway is the longest one. Evidently, neither Turkey nor Azerbaijan wants for their products or the cargo for them to pass along Armenian territory because they may run high risks by transferring their cargo through Armenian soil. As a matter of fact, the Armenian side was not making any demands during the corresponding session. During the assembly intermission, the Armenian side was able to get the support of the delegations of five countries, including Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Rumania, and if I am not mistaken, Albania. But the intermission was not long enough for them to look over the proposal by the six necessary votes.
After the intermission, the president of the Armenian National Assembly (I must say that there were the most delegation members in the Armenian side and a large number of journalists were in the group) Arthur Baghdasaryan started a debate for our side. But I made an intervention and explained to the assembly participants what the whole issue was. After that, the delegations that had agreed to support the Armenian side withdrew their proposals to help and asked us to forgive them. Feeling that it had lost, the Armenian side took its protest out of the agenda.
– Why were there only two people on the Georgian side?
– Georgia’s parliament did not have the means. But it was necessary for me and Zurab Davitashvili to be there because our speeches were on the agenda.
– How did you get the money to go to Tirana?
– Albania’s parliament financed the trip and the assembly paid for our stay.
“Alia” newspaper edition (Georgia)