Week 17-23 March: Confrontations&Programs

In Armenia, after the lift of state of emergency, situation is supposed to be normalized. A coalition of government is taking shape, the new elected president made his first visit, to Moscow, not an official one yet, but a “business meeting” . Still, somehow, the capital city doesn’t seem pacified. For two days the downtown saw protesters mourning victims and asking for the detained to be released. The last point, if not led by an organized political force, is a mere petition. The oppositions gathered together the last days before the 1st of March is annihilated by arrests, with some exceptions, like Ter-Petrosyan, kept in his isolation, still focusing on election results, and the Heritage party, trying to voice against the new law on freedom of assembly and holding peaceful meetings. Such a fragmentation is not providing the chance to draw a united opposition program, to carry on a confrontation with a government that, clearly, is decided to move steadily on.

In Georgia, programs are quite clear. The Saakashvili administration played his cards to have the amendments on the Constitution – the 75 majoritarian seats – passed. Opposition is fiercely struggling against it, with a hunger strike of 42 persons, some inside the Parliament itself, in front of the Speaker’s office. Fight’s going on.
The President came back from his meeting with the American counterpart galvanized by the unconditioned USA support, felt so essential now that the goal of entering into the MAP could become a reality... And cause immediately the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Russia, a program not secret at all.

So was galvanized at the beginning of the week the Azeri public opinion, because of the new UN resolution about Karabakh. Proud suggestions were made to quit the Minsk Group, to change it, to leave some of its proposals unnoticed or consider them irrelevant. The cold shower arrived from Moscow, with a simple and dry statement about the Minsk Group, which is all right the way it is, and there’s no need to change it. So, future programs and confrontations still have a permanent frame to be discussed in.