Any step towards the strengthening and development of Armenian-Georgian relations is hailed and evaluated positively, an activist from Goergia’s Armenian-populated region of Javakhk had said, commenting on a proposed initiative to launch a friendship bridge.
Speaking to Tert.am, Vahagn Chakhalyan said he finds the two countries have to do far more to deepen the bilateral relations.
The idea to build the friendship bridge was proposed during Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili’s visit to Armenia.
“The relations, of course, are good today, but they can be better, as there is both the opportunity and need,” Chakhalyan noted.
Under a protocol concluded between the Prime Ministers Irakli Gharibashvili and Hovik Abrahamyan, an agreement to build the bridge is to be signed by 2015.
“The Armenian-Georgian relations have to focus on the Armenians of Javakhk, and Javakhk has to become the connecting ‘bridge’ of Georgian-Armenian friendship,” he added.
Chakhalyan, who also heads the democratic alliance United Javakhk, further referred to the past two decades’ meetings between Georgian and Armenian officials, which he said have always been held in a positive atmosphere. “But the important thing is the outcome, the actual implementation of the agreements reached,” he said.
Asked whether he doesn’t think that the two countries’ decisions to join different supranational unions (the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union) may hamper the bilateral efforts to deepen relations, Chakhalyan replied, “What matters here is the presence of a political will by the two sovereign countries’ leaderships. Hence, I am definitely convinced that membership in different unions will not prevent the two centuries-old neighbors from developing relations,” he added.
Commenting on the Georgian-Armenian relations, Tatshat Vardapetyan, a Georgian-Armenian MP from the ruling Republican faction, also highly praised the existing level of partnership.
“The number one concern for me is the residence status of those Georgian Armenians who were forced to obtain citizenship of the country to leave for Georgia as employment migrants,” he said, praising the Georgian premier’s recent promise in that connection.
“The matter was fraught with unpredictable aftermaths and revolts. So we now have to wait and see the promise become reality, because the Armenians in Javakhk are in a panic today, with the question demanding an urgent solution,” he added.
As for Armenia’s membership in the EEU, the Republican MP said he expects the two countries’ integration into different blocs to be mutually beneficial. “Membership in different unions may be mutually beneficial for Armenia and Georgia, as the brotherly relations between the two bordering states having many common interests have to gain a special status based on our historical past. And that stems from both countries’ interests,” he explained.
Vardapetyan said he sees that the Armenian authorities have been recently demonstrating a more active interest in the problems facing the Armenians of Georgia. “It’s an expression of good will by a politician gifted with state thinking, and the more frequent the mutual visits, the more we see desired positive achievements in the Armenian-Georgian relations,” he added.
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