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TBILISI: Armenia: Having Their Cake And Eating It Too

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  • TBILISI: Armenia: Having Their Cake And Eating It Too

    ARMENIA: HAVING THEIR CAKE AND EATING IT TOO
    By William Dunbar

    The Messenger, Georgia
    May 31 2006

    Outside every public building in Georgia the flag of Europe flutters
    away next to the five crosses of Georgia - a testament to the nation's
    western ambitions. But Georgia is paying a price for its occidental
    inclination; the drive west has incurred the wrath of the northern
    neighbor, and with every step Georgia takes towards 'Euro-Atlantic
    structures' a reprisal is issued from Moscow. Be it visa regimes,
    embargoes on wine and mineral water, or increasingly vocal support for
    the separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Russia-like a jealous
    lover-seems determined to punish Georgia for getting too friendly
    with the west.

    The Georgian authorities are at pains to point out just how far the
    country has come on the road to western integration, and significant
    progress has certainly been made. Inclusion in the new European
    Neighborhood Policy (ENP), the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)
    and the solidarity shown Georgia by Dick Cheney at the recent Vilnius
    summit of Baltic-Black Sea nations-not to mention last year's Bush
    visit, and the praise he heaped on the ' beacon of democracy'-all of
    these are achievements the Georgian government can be proud of.

    However, each of these achievements has been accompanied by
    deterioration in the relationship with Russia. Both the Russian and
    Georgian authorities are trapped in a lose-lose situation. They each
    see influence in Georgia as being like a cake: if the West gets more
    cake then Russia gets less, there is only so much cake to go round,
    after all. This 'zero-sum' thinking is leading both nations into a
    spiral of increasing hostility, damaging them economically and/or
    tarnishing their international image, and it seems it can only
    get worse.

    Yet there is a prime example to the south reminding us that influence
    doesn't have to be like a cake at all. Armenia is living proof that
    you can have it both ways. Armenia-a small, impoverished and landlocked
    country of some three million people-is home to the second largest US
    embassy in the world (Iraq is number one). Little Armenia receives more
    US government aid per capita than or almost anywhere else (including
    Georgia), it is also signed up to the ENP and the MCA. And how are
    Armenian/Russian relations? Well they're just peachy. No visa regime,
    no trade embargoes, no fiery rhetoric, and Armenian cognac is still
    readily available in Moscow. The historical hatred they continue to
    bear towards their Turkic neighbors notwithstanding, the Armenians
    are quietly getting along with the real powers that be; they even
    manage to have friendly relations with Iran and still get a huge
    slice of military assistance from the US.

    Armenia should be a lesson to both Russia and Georgia, politics doesn't
    have to be a zero sum game, and everyone can be a winner. You really
    can have your cake and eat it too.
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