Georgia’s relations with neighboring countries are in a backlash. As observers say, that is due to the fact that local leaders of the country make quick and undecided announcements. In general, that is bad, especially in a delicate field like foreign politics.
The best example is the recent visit to Tbilisi by president of Estonia Arnold Riuytel. There were many meetings and even more topics for discussion. During one of those meetings president of Georgia Sahakashvili, who until then had been complimenting the guest and Estonia and getting the support of the Estonian president, suddenly started talking about education. Recently, whenever Sahakashvili starts to talk, you start to get worried. The president of Georgia was talking about providing computers to the schools, making reforms in the education sector and made it to the point where he said that Georgia was ahead of other countries with the reforms and quality, to the point where…Estonia can only dream of that. You should have seen the look on the Estonian president’s face at that moment. Although he stayed in tact, however he did have a bad feeling. The comparison remained a mystery.
It’s not even worth talking about Russia. Georgia gets what it wants and we must assume that the country gets it not only because of its independence (after all, all post-Soviet countries are independent, but relations with Moscow are not as bad as Georgia’s), but also because of the offensive announcements made by the country’s authorities. As one well-known Georgian politician said one time, Sahakashvili’s speeches about Russia remind us of Fidel Castro, who used to blame America for anything he used to talk about. The only difference here is that now we are dealing with Russia and not America and the result is absolute crisis.
The intimate ties between the two countries are currently facing a backlash. Those were the kinds of ties that former Georgian president Edward Shevardnadze had been able to establish with Turkey and Azerbaijan. Ankara is really agitated by hearing Georgia make big announcements about democracy, freedom and other values, which Tbilisi says to have advanced compared to other countries. But the thing that irritates Ankara the most is that Georgia has plans to become the major country in the region. Turkey is really angry at Tbilisi for trying to play games with the conflicts between Turkey and NATO from time to time.
“Before talking about playing a huge role in the region, we mustn’t forget the strong, dynamically developing Turkish economy and the fact that Turkey’s population will soon reach 100,000,000. Finally, we mustn’t forget Turkey’s territory,” this is what chief editor of the well-known Turkish “Hyuriet” newspaper told me a year ago.
Recently something happened in Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani government refused to construct a building for the Georgian embassy. The reason for this was the fact that Georgia hadn’t fulfilled its duties, one of which was to allot an embassy building for Azerbaijan in Tbilisi.
“According to our sources, in the beginning of this year the Ambassador to Georgia in Azerbaijan Zurab Gumberidze was invited to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Azerbaijan and was warned about that, after which the ministry took the keys of the building from him,” writes the “525th newspaper” of Baku. A contract was signed by Georgia and Azerbaijan back in 2000, according to which both sides would provide the other with embassy buildings. However, whereas the Azerbaijani side has fulfilled its requirement and provided an embassy building in Georgia in a short time, the Georgian side hasn’t done anything for the past 6 years. The “525 newspaper” writes that as a result, the Azerbaijani government has decided to consider the contract invalid and do the abovementioned. Besides that, the newspaper states that the Georgian side is making things more complicated by not providing space to install the statue of Heydar Aliyev.
The endless debates between Georgia and Armenia on Armenian churches, historical monuments and cultural heritage continue. Europe is agitated by the pro-American orientation of Georgian authorities. America, in turn, is more and more surprised to see what the Georgian “revolutionary authorities” are doing. U.S. Senator Frid is already talking about the authoritarian regime in Tbilisi.
So, with whom are Tbilisi’s relations OK?-at first sight Kiev. Everything will be fine between Georgia and Ukraine as long as Ukraine hasn’t come to terms with Russia, according to some politicians. However, there are some issues here too. Recently, a group of Georgians were exiled from Kharkov due to their illegal immigration. The Wine-maker Association of Kharkov had appealed to the government to put a ban on the import of Georgian wine so that they could protect the interests of their local producers. It seems as though the government will agree…
It’s tough. As if the internal crisis wasn’t enough…now we have a crisis from all sides.