New Turkey-Georgia Railway exposes a wagonload of manure.
From RFE/RL: Leaders of Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan signed an agreement Wednesday to build a railroad line that will link the three nations and provide a new route for trade between Turkey and the Caucasus Mountain nations.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the deal in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi...
Construction is expected to start in June on the $600 million rail line...
Well this news article says so much about other headlines - and their believability.
First of all, let me clarify to those of you who weren't aware, there already IS a railway connecting Turkey to Georgia and Azerbaijan - but it happens to pass through Armenia, which means Turkey has closed it down.
Rather than simply reopen it, they plan to spend SIX HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS - money that certainly all three countries could use elsewhere.
So what do the new headlines stating that Armenia and Azerbaijan are very very very close to a peace deal mean in light of this news? That Azerbaijan is not really serious about sealing the deal at all. Otherwise they could easily depend on the old rail line functioning before the ink on the peace deal even dries.
What does it mean in light of Erdogan's post-Dink assassination comments? He's full of shit. This was his big chance to announce he is opening the border with Armenia. Instead, he is tightening the last screw he possibly can in isolating Armenia further. He says all the right things to the public, the media and the west. Then he does what he means to do. I wish the Armenian community of Istanbul would take the huge step of publicly demostrating against this now. Stating it is NOT what Hrant Dink would want. The publicity would be immense and there would have to be some kind of a reaction.
What does Saakashvili's comment later on in the article, stating "We are witnessing huge changes. We do not want any neighboring country to be left outside these processes." mean? Well he's a politician... actions speak louder than words.
posted by Raffi K. at 9:40 PM
7 Comments:
600 million would not be a high price for Azerbaijan or Turkey to pay in order to further weaken Armenia. We all know that their ultimate goal is the elimination of Armenians as a nation.
Recently I had a an entry on my blog about ways to put pressure on the signing parties not to go ahead with the railroad plan.]
http://hnazarian.blogspot.com/2007/01/some-thoughts-on-kars-akhalkalak-baku.html
It's too late now.
I think you might want to live in Istanbul as an Armenian before suggesting they take to the streets!
This railway project is very bad news for Armenia.
sincerely.
And what does it say about the current Armenian government that sheepishly did what was ONLY in the interest of Russia - by decreasing the diameter of the gas pipeline from Iran and selling the pipeline itself to Russia??
The gas pipeline from Iran could have been used as a carrot to keep Georgia out of the railroad deal. It would also decrease Azerbaijan's and Turkey's influence on Georgia as well.
But no, the Armenian government chose to serve the Russian interests.
Nazarian, you are exactly right. This is the most in-your-face example of betraying the national interest of Armenia by its own government! This is as close to an impeachable offence as it gets (and it WILL be judged so by history, mark my words! Not by the current cowed and apathetic population of Armenia or the spineless Diaspora, unfortunately).
This just reminds me of a previous convo of what kind of president Armenia needs... a STRONG (ya, dictator-like) and BALLSY person who is going to have Vartan Mamigonian's determination, Sassountsi Tavit's might, Toumanian's creativity and the intellect of Mashdots... We need a new Dikran Medz who in this case would've told the Russians to get lost, and is gonna make things happen for us.. and onlyyyyyyy us!
Find me this person... i'll start raising funds for the campaign! :)
Shooosh,
This has nothing to do with a specific person. Every country, however small, has its own resources and some leverage (some, maybe not big, but some). And it is supposed to use those resources to serve its own national interest. As Armenia, by the way, has been doing more or less successfully with respect to Iran. I recall Oskanian's statement about a year ago: "We can do a lot of things for the United States, but there are some things that we can't do" (the Bush Administration was probably asking for some really unwise hostile move toward Iran, I forget now what exactly). And he was right!
Whereas simply folding under the foreign (Russian) pressure in direct detriment to vital long-term interests of your own country is NOT right! And impeachable. And it's not funny...
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