Day: November 17, 2023

Dean leads Georgia Southern against Jacksonville after 20-point …  Gettysburg Times

Killing of Georgian citizen “reminder” of Russian occupation’s impact …  Agenda.ge

Statements from Washington and Baku

The US State Department announced the cessation of military aid to Azerbaijan, suspension of meetings with officials from Baku, and advised to build a road to Nakhichevan through the territory of Armenia. This was followed by a sharp response from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry. According to political observer Haji Namazov, the West will have to accept the new realities in the region and build its policy on their basis. “Otherwise, it risks losing all its levers of influence in the South Caucasus,” the expert added.

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• Early marriage in Azerbaijan – is the problem getting worse?
• “Armenia is not an outpost for the realization of foreign plans” – Pashinyan
• Russia is the biggest threat for 77 percent of Georgian citizens. IRI survey

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The US State Department and the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry have exchanged sharp statements. JAMnews Azerbaijan asked political observer Haji Namazov to tell about the essence of the statements and their reasons.

What happened?

“The verbal altercation between the US State Department and the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry is absolutely not accidental. I would say that the States were too late with their statements and therefore look, to put it bluntly, ridiculous.

Let us analyse what happened in detail so that your readers, who do not follow the vicissitudes of the West’s policy in our region, will understand everything.

The US Congress held hearings on the “situation in Nagorno-Karabakh”. The very discussion of the situation in the region of a particular country in the parliament of a state whose citizens were not and are not there does not lend itself to ordinary logic. But the U.S. considers itself the masters of the whole planet, so let’s not focus on this surprising fact.

The deputy foreign policy chief of the United States made some harsh statements during the discussions. He said that the U.S. stops military assistance to Azerbaijan, from now on negotiations with high-ranking Azerbaijani officials will not be held, and official Baku should open regional communications through the territory of Armenia with the obligatory condition of preserving Armenia’s sovereignty over these routes”.

Who really needs military aid?

“Azerbaijan does not need US military aid from the word “absolutely”. At a time when the country’s budget includes billions of dollars for defence expenditures, millions from Washington are of almost no importance. But the US has always needed military assistance from Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani servicemen have served in Afghanistan and Kosovo. American military aircrafts used Baku’s air harbour to transfer their forces to regional countries. The US authorities have repeatedly thanked Azerbaijan for its military assistance. In other words, it remains to be seen who needs who in this respect.

I would like to dwell on the notorious 907th amendment prohibiting military aid to Azerbaijan. It was adopted in Washington in 1992, at the height of the first Karabakh war, when the regions of Azerbaijan were occupied one after another. At that time, the U.S. did not even want to hear about such a concept as territorial integrity of states, and deprived Baku of its assistance. At that time, the young state, which found itself in an extremely difficult situation, needed it.

And now the 907th amendment has been recalled again, allegedly to protect the territorial integrity of Armenia. What can we call this but hypocrisy?”

Azerbaijan has refused to negotiate

“Everything about the negotiations with the Azerbaijani side also looks somehow unconvincing. Immediately after the anti-Azerbaijani statements of the State Department, Azerbaijan refused the Bayramov-Mirzoyan talks in Washington scheduled for 20 November. Which is quite logical.

But the statement of the US State Department representative after all this about his country’s support for the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia is completely illogical. How he imagines it, probably, nobody knows except Blinken”.

What was the reason for the allegations?

“And finally, and most importantly. What is the real reason for all this fuss.

After Armenia turned sharply towards the West, Washington and Brussels quickly realised that they could tear this country away from Russia’s protectorate. But a strong argument is needed to make loud statements and cover up their presence with far-reaching intentions. At first, the Zangezur corridor issue, which was on the agenda in Baku and Moscow, played into the hands of the Western forces’ plans.

In other words, defence of Armenia against possible aggression of Azerbaijan to forcefully penetrate the corridor to Nakhichevan became the main thesis of the US and Europe.

These statements could have been timely then, but not now. Why?

Because Azerbaijan made a very strong move by declaring that it had lost interest in the Zangezur corridor. Baku has decided that it is easier to build a road to Nakhichevan through the territory of Iran than to seek it from Yerevan. First of all, because Yerevan offered nothing except beautiful statements in the spirit of “Crossroads of the World”. The road itself does not exist, it is not being built, and it is difficult to even imagine when the road itself will be ready on Armenian territory.

And here is Iran with a ready infrastructure, which does not mind extra billions from the project connecting the East and the West. By the way, Iran is a net winner from everything that is going on, which can explain its flirtation with official Yerevan about the impossibility of the Zangezur corridor.

The West did not like this turn, as all their plans collapsed. What is the cover now, if no one needs the Zangezur corridor and Azerbaijan is not preparing for a new war for the south of Armenia?

Washington decided not to burden itself with long thoughts, and with one statement allegedly forbade Azerbaijan to build a road to Nakhichevan through Iran. But who can forbid Baku to build a road to its own territory through a neighbouring state that is not against it? There is no object for discussion here.

It is still unclear how all this will end. Only one thing is clear: the West will have to accept the new realities in the region and build its policy on their basis. Otherwise, it risks losing all its levers of influence in the South Caucasus”.

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Georgian President spoke against Ivanishvili

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has for the first time openly spoken out against Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country’s informal ruler and founder of the ruling Georgian Dream party. In an interview with Le Monde, Zurabishvili spoke about de-oligarchization and Bidzina Ivanishvili’s role in the country’s politics. Asked whether she considers Ivanishvili an oligarch, the president replied that Ivanishvili is and has been the only oligarch in Georgian politics.

“I don’t know what his real interference in the economic affairs of the country is. All this is absolutely not transparent, but it is obvious that it has a dominant influence on the current authorities. There is no other oligarch in Georgian politics today except Ivanishvili,” Zurabishvili said.

According to the Georgian president, the way to implement the EU recommendations on “de-oligarchization” is as follows [we are talking about 12 recommendations of the European Commission, which Georgia had to fulfill in order to get the status of a candidate country to the EU – JAMnews] is the upcoming elections and dismantling of the one-party system. Zurabishvili emphasized that Georgia has had a one-party system of government for thirty years. And de-oligarchization means that “the country needs the freest possible elections” with a real coalition of pro-European orientation.

“Ivanishvili is an oligarchy enriched in Russia”

Salome Zurabishvili says Ivanishvili is an oligarch who has enriched himself in Russia, who believes in its imminent victory in a bipolar world and has developed his strategy accordingly:

“He is an oligarch who has accumulated wealth in Russia. And his past directly influences his mentality. Today the world is divided in two. Ivanishvili is in the ranks of those who cannot imagine that Russia will be defeated, so he is trying to adapt in advance to a Russian victory, which could become even more aggressive. Relatively young people, educated in Europe, who are now in power in Georgia, under Ivanishvili’s influence show weakness and take a flattering stance towards Russia. This is a poor perception of the new geopolitical situation”.

According to the President of Georgia, Georgian youth thinks that Russia will never be what it used to be. Because it has already lost in many ways – both militarily and in terms of prestige. Finland and Sweden have joined NATO, and the integration of Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia into the EU will soon accelerate. According to Zurabishvili, all this is happening “by the grace” of Russia and “thanks” to it, as “our agenda was not designed for such a rapid pace.”

“In the end, Russia lost,” the president said.

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• Georgia: who is an oligarch exactly?
• Georgia’s shadow ruler Bidzina Ivanishvili made another $600 million in a year – Bloomberg

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“Ivanishvili did not play a positive role in accelerating our path to the EU.”

According to the Georgian president, Bidzina Ivanishvili may have played a negative role in speeding up the path to the European Union. However, as Zurabishvili notes, he played an important role in her presidency.

“It may have played a negative role [towards the EU], suggesting that it will inspire those in power when they make bad decisions. For example, such as my impeachment, which could not have happened without it. And if they succeeded, it would have played an extremely negative role in European decision-making.”

When asked by a journalist, “It was thanks to him that you came to power. What are you accused of?”, the president replied, “Probably the fact that I don’t depend on him.”

“It is clear that without the support of the dominant party, as an independent candidate, I would not have had any leverage to be elected. What he accuses me of is probably that I am not in his hands as a member of the ruling Georgian Dream party,” Zurabishvili said.

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• The European Commission has recommended Georgia for candidate status, but what conditions have they set?
• “Zurabishvili’s Petition”: What it says and who can sign it

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President on impeachment and visits

In an interview with Le Monde, Salome Zurabishvili also spoke about the impeachment process against her initiated by the Georgian Dream.

Asked if the president can feel free after the impeachment attempt failed, Zurabishvili said that “threats remain always.”

“I objected to these accusations in the Constitutional Court, despite the fact that it, like other institutions in Georgia, is itself less independent. Today it is already a closed case. But the threats remain. Maybe they will find something else. But there is no doubt that I will not stop traveling [the reason for starting the impeachment process was the president’s accusation that she went on a European tour without the government’s consent, which allegedly violated the Georgian constitution – JAMnews],” Zurabishvili said.

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• Experts on the attempt to impeach the Georgian President
• Ten years of Georgian Dream: Successes and failures. Expert analysis

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Communication with Ivanishvili

When asked whether the Georgian President communicates with Ivanishvili, Salome Zurabishvili said that she has not spoken to him for about three years. She also added that before that they had only talked about foreign policy and in general Ivanishvili prefers not to speak his own views:

“When I came back from my trip to the EU countries, I came to share my opinion on what we should do. It was more of a monologue than a real dialog. No one knows what he is really thinking.”

Killing of Georgian citizen “reminder” of Russian occupation’s impact …  Agenda.ge