Sahakashvili is coming to speak
Georgian President Mikheil Sahakashvili's visit to Armenia cannot have a negative impact on Russian-Armenian ties," says leader of the "New Times" party Aram Karapetyan assuredly.
Karapetyan says that Sahakashvili's visit is aimed at solving the issue of Javakhk and trying to find out from Armenia what plans Russia has for Georgia, taking into account the Russian-Armenian ties.
"Georgia is interested in knowing just how Russia is going to allocate its military bases in the region. How is cargo, especially military cargo, going to be transferred out of Armenia when the Turkish-Armenian border remains closed? Thus, the transit road is a very important issue," said Karapetyan.
Karapetyan is sure that Sahakashvili will also discuss Armenia's handover of railways to Russia, taking into account the fact that the Georgian opposition recently blamed the president for selling the Georgian railways to the Russian government.
As for prohibiting Armenian MP Shirak Torosyan's visit to Georgia, Aram Karapetyan sees that within the context of the Javakhk issue. "If they don't let an Armenian parliamentarian cross the border, they are officially sending a signal that he is "persona non grata" in Georgia. With this, Sahakashvili proved that he has a very firm position on Javakhk and will not let Armenia interfere in the life of Javakhk."
According to Karapetyan, Sahakashvili is also concerned about losing the votes of Javakhk Armenians and the combined efforts of over 200,000 Armenians of Javakhk may turn into a serious issue for him.
The leader of "New Times" believes that Sahakashvili's visit will not be a turning point because Georgian-Armenian ties don't exist as such.
