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The Economist: Looks Like Armenia Has Mastered Levitation

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  • The Economist: Looks Like Armenia Has Mastered Levitation

    PanARMENIAN.Net

    The Economist: Looks Like Armenia Has Mastered
    Levitation
    23.11.2006 16:52 GMT+04:00

    /PanARMENIAN.Net/ Despite the war, the economic
    collapse that went with it and a terrible earthquake
    that preceded it, Armenia seems to have levitated out
    of trouble. The Economist writes in an article titled
    The Art of Levitation: the Caucasian Version, Armenia
    benefits from an indulgence not afforded to
    pro-Western Georgia. Per person, Armenia is one of the
    biggest recipients of American aid (thanks to the
    powerful Diaspora there, which remembers vividly the
    massacres of 1915). Yet that American help does not
    trouble Russia, which has a military base in Armenia.

    Some in Russia want the Armenians to take sides
    against the Georgians, perhaps by stirring up the
    Armenian minority there. `We refuse to choose,' says
    Vartan Oskanian, the foreign minister. Indeed:
    alienating Georgia would be suicidal.

    But the Kremlin's leverage is growing. Russian firms
    already control the energy sector and want a greater
    stake elsewhere. Mr Oskanian says `our needs today are
    too dire' to worry about future risks. Azerbaijan's
    hydrocarbons windfall makes it sound confident, even
    bellicose, stoking Armenian reliance on Russia.

    `American interest in the pipelines that link the
    Caspian to the Mediterranean, doglegging round
    Armenia, mean that renewed fighting would echo far
    beyond the Caucasus. Internationally sponsored talks
    about Karabakh limp on - Mr Oskanian met his Azerbaijani
    counterpart this week - and Western diplomats try to
    sound upbeat. But a deal, or even a fudge that would
    at least allow normal trade relations, looks all but
    impossible. Sporadic shooting continues at the
    dividing line,' the newspaper writes, reports InoSMI.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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