GEORGIAN NEW PRIME MINISTER - AN OLD FRIEND OF ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Warm relations that connected Armenian leadership and Zurab Jvania were not at all conditioned by his ethnic origins. Working contacts with him were all crowned with success. Jvania personally coordinated the solution of several issues connected with Armenia. That is why besides sincere sympathy the tragic death of the Prime Minister caused Armenian leaders to worry about agreements reached with the late head of the government. It is hard to say whether the appointment of Zurab Nogdayeli will preserve the friendly atmosphere in the relations between Armenian and Georgian governments. But in current conditions this appointment was perhaps optimal in all senses and harmless for Armenian-Georgian relations.

Armenian political leaders know Nogdayeli very well. Yet being a deputy he participated in Armenian-Georgian inter-Parliamentary contacts as well as agreements on the level of Armenian and Georgian youth organizations. As a minister of finance he had normal working relations with the members of Armenian government. He worked with Armenian minister of finance Vardan Khachatryan, foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan and transport minister Andranik Manukyan. As a minister of finance, Nogdayeli has twice been in Yerevan in February and September, 2001. Both visits were aimed at discussing the destiny of the 20 million debt of Georgia to Armenia. In that period the behavior of the minister seemed a bit strange since he cast doubt on the sum that Georgia owed to Armenia and then evaded giving an answer about the terms and forms of paying back the debt. In Yerevan Nogdayeli showed himself as characterized by the speaker of Georgian parliament Nino Burjanadze: a tough, uncompromising person. It is hard to say how the negotiations on the debt would end if president Shevarnadze did not call the minister to start the payment of interest on debts. Anyway, it is worth mentioning that Nogdayeli's hard behavior in negotiations was not at all conditioned by any special attitude towards Armenia. The minister just felt the heavy responsibility for budget implementation and watched every penny. As a result, failing the budget he had to resign which he did beautifully, expressing disagreement with the course of Edward Shevardnadze.

The appointment of Nogdayeli is on the whole convenient for Armenian community of Georgia. Being a minister Nogdayeli tried to focus attention on the problems of Javakhq. Particularly he promised in December to find funds for constructing Tbilisi - Ninotsminda road and implementing other programs in Javakhq. Nogdayeli is on good terms with the leadership of Armenian community of Georgia. As it is known Nogdayeli was one of the most reliable members of Zurab Jvania's team where the president of the Union of Georgian Armenians Gena Muradyan played an important role. The new head of the government and the head of Armenian community represent one political clan. This allows hoping that Muradyan will keep his position after changes in the personnel. (Muradyan occupies the position of deputy president of the department that coordinates industry, trade, transport and communications)

Political correspondents initially predicted that the future Prime Minister will be a person who was fateful to Jvania. This appointment is aimed at preserving the ruling triumvirate. But now, it is already obvious that the candidature of Zurab Nogdayeli as a Prime Minister is not convenient for Nino Burjanadze, so it is possible that there may be serious contradictions between the key components of the ruling triumvirate. On one hand this will allow Georgia to gain healthy opposition which is now missing but on the other hand it will weaken the positions of the ruling power. This can be alarming also Armenia since а a lot of things depend on the stability in the neighboring country.

Artyom Yerkanyan