The trilateral meeting of the presidents of Georgia and Azerbaijan and the Turkish Prime Minister was foreseen for Wednesday. It was also foreseen to sign the Kars-Akhalkalak railway construction treaty.
The railway construction will cost approximately 400 million dollars. Azerbaijan and Turkey are ready to financially support the implementation of the project. The construction will most probably start in June of this year and perhaps there is no need to mention that Armenia will become more isolated. On Wednesday, when Tbilisi was waiting for the signing, Armenian government officials were responding to questions raised by parliamentarians. In fact, Wednesday was Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan’s birthday and on that day, in response to the deputies’ questions, Oskanyan made some interesting announcements, which were also of concern His announcements referred to the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalak railway. V. Oskanyan made those announcements by responding to Deputy Hmayak Hovhannisyan’s question, which was also worth getting worried over due to its wording. In particular, H. Hovhannisyan wanted to know why ties between Armenia and Georgia are valued as “strategic” when referring to Armenia’s national security strategy.
“Why are we so tactful towards our neighboring country and don’t tell them the truth; the fact that a part of the Armenians in Georgia [the Armenians of Javakhk] can’t put up with having the historical territory of Armenia turn into the dividing line between Armenia and Georgia,” mentioned H. Hovhannisyan, referring to the Kars-Akhalkalak railway construction. Responding to the abovementioned question, V. Oskanyan mentioned that it is necessary to approach the question emotionally.
“That (the Kars-Akhalkalak railway-R.T.) is not leading Armenia towards isolation in any way,” announced Oskanyan. According to him, the question should be approached the following way: why is the Kars-Akhalkalak railway being constructed when they can simply open and use the Kars-Gyumri railway? The reason, according to Oskanyan, is Azerbaijan and Turkey and not Armenia.
“We have offered help; we have not set preconditions for Turkey and have always called on establishing good relations, opening the border regardless of the problems existing between the two countries. But Turkey hasn’t accepted our help. They have joined Azerbajian to pressure Armenia so that we will go along with their demands and make unacceptable and absurd compromises for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” announced V. Oskanyan. According to him, the construction of that railway would have been possible if Armenia were to go along with the unacceptable compromises for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. So, what Oskanyan is saying is that “we can simply follow-up on what’s going on in Tbilisi calmly without getting too emotional.” “We don’t think that the railway will hurt Armenian economy in any way and that step doesn’t have many perspectives from the political point of view. We assert that,” announced V. Oskanyan once again in a serious tone and added: “Armenia’s position stays the same: the railway doesn’t isolate Armenia, it can’t hurt Armenian economy, it simply pollutes the political field and may have negative consequences on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution.”
The Armenian Foreign Minister also mentioned that we can’t blame Georgia “from the economic point of view”. According to him, Georgia was tactful enough and “probably waited a while” for Turkey to open the railway. It turns out that not everything is that clear and Georgians are trying to figure out what they will get out of this railway. “The fact of the matter is that Georgians reason that the railway may hurt the work of their harbors from the economic aspect. Armenia can’t have any pretentions from the economic aspect. The pretention could have been political provided that Armenia pressured both Turkey and Azerbaijan to open the current railway and not spend all that money for no reason,” announced V. Oskanyan. As for Georgia being Armenia’s strategic ally, Oskanyan mentioned that Georgia is of strategic significance for Armenia, but Armenia may not be of strategic importance for Georgia.
“What does Goergia currently have that runs through Armenia’s territory that could be of strategic significance? Geography dictates,” he said.
So, it turns out that the railway doesn’t isolate Armenia, Armenia is not to blame that it is being constructed; what’s more, Georgia is guilty for not pressuring Turkey and Azerbaijan more so as not to construct that railway and “spend all that money for not reason”. Well, Armenia can’t change anything because “geography dictates”. Poor Armenia; it is enough to take a look at the map to see that based on geography, the Baku-Jeyhan oil pipeline had to pass through Armenia because it’s short; that the Kars-Akhalkalak railway mustn’t be constructed because there already exists the Kars-Gyumri railway, that Armenia could have become a transit Iranian gas country…and although Vardan Oskanyan suggests not looking at questions “emotionally”, however the fact that the abovementioned “geographical dictations” haven’t become reality is because Armenia’s foreign policy is entirely “emotional”.
As for the announcements made by the minister, they are simply yet another unsuccessful try to hide the shameful failures of the not too promising foreign policy that Armenia has adopted. Another interesting thing: Vardan Oskanyan declares that the Kars-Akhalkalak railway construction “doesn’t lead Armenia towards isolation in any way”. It is worth mentioning that Armenian high-ranking government officials have announced several times that there are political motives behind the construction of that railway and that it doesn’t benefit Armenian economy. A question comes up: What is the political motive of that railway construction if it is not leading Armenia “towards isolation in any way”? It’ s simply amazing to hear the Foreign Minister suggest following-up “calmly” on how Tbilisi signs the railway construction treaty. Interesting, isn’t Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan worried over the railway construction? “I’m very worried about that,” said A. Markaryan in response to that question.
So, what is Armenia doing to prevent i? “For the time being, Armenia can’t do anything besides express well-wishings,” says the Armenian Prime Minister. But instead of expressing well-wishings, it would be better to draw conclusions on the failures of Armenia’s foreign policy and review that “emotional” foreign policy.