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What Santa Brought Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

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  • What Santa Brought Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

    EurasiaNet.org, NY
    Jan 3 2012


    What Santa Brought Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia

    January 3, 2012 - 9:42am, by Giorgi Lomsadze


    It's gift-opening time here in the hung-over South Caucasus, and early
    reports indicate that Santa Claus left more sweets than switches in
    the stockings of all three of the region's countries.

    Armenia's present came, of course, from France. Le Père Noël brought
    preliminary passage of a bill that bans the denial of Ottoman Turkey's
    1915 massacre of ethnic Armenians as genocide. If the upper chamber of
    the French parliament approves the bill, France will become the first
    major country to pass such a law -- an event eagerly awaited in
    Armenia, where memories of the 1915 massacre run strong and bitter.

    Turkey, now barely on speaking terms with France, says that the
    massacre was -- to paraphrase a Russian saying -- too long ago to be
    true.

    Azerbaijan, Ankara's longtime pal, shares Turkey's anger over this
    pro-Armenia move, but it also has reasons to celebrate. On December
    26, it signed an agreement with Turkey on a $5 billion pipeline that
    will bring Azerbaijani gas to eager European customers, and even more
    cash to its cash-rich coffers.

    But Santa also brought Baku the chance to show some policy panache
    with its energy pedigree. In 2012, Azerbaijan wakes up in the city
    that never sleeps as the new, non-permanent member of the United
    Nations Security Council, an historic first in the country's short
    history as an independent republic. Its New York run kicks off on
    January 4, when the Council settles down to talk sanctions against
    Iran and the turmoil in Syria, among other topics.

    And Georgia also found a little something when it reached into its
    stocking. What can it be? Membership in the North Atlantic Treaty
    Organization? News that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was
    kidnapped by aliens? No, it's a US defense weapon.

    On December 31, President Barack Obama signed a bill that allows the
    sale of much-wanted American weapons to Georgia. It is not yet clear
    what kind of toys Georgia can buy with this gift card, and Obama may
    have included a disclaimer `for defensive purposes only," but, for
    Tbilisi, it's the thought that counts.

    2012 is shaping up as an interesting year, but, for now, longtime
    observers refrain from predicting whether the region's threesome will
    be naughty or nice.

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