"War in S. Ossetia closed NATO doors to Georgia"

Right after the August conflict in South Ossetia last year, it was clear that Georgia will not become a NATO member while Saakashvili is in power, said Dmitry Babich, a political analyst from the RIA Novosti News Agency.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Conflict
• Military
• NATO
• Ossetian War
• Dmitry
• Babich
• South
• Ossetia

[MDSingerling]

So should Bush.

[fostereric]

sakashvilli should be tried for war crimes and executed

[Armenia1918]

This is not so, I never heard of Abkhaz attacking Armenians. I have been to Abkhazia and Armenians are in very good relations with the Abkhaz people.

It was regular Georgian army that attacked Armenians and started killing Armenians. There is even an interview by the then Georgian defense minister who says he will turn Abkhazia into graves of Abkhazians and all those Caucasians that have come to their defense.

[Armenia1918]

Yes, and in this light the Armenian historic alliance with Russia (which goes back to the Byzantine times) has withstood the test of time.

Georgia wants to be in a military alliance with Nato and Turkey, our arch enemy. Georgians do not have the conflict and issues that we have with Turkey, so perhaps they are thinking they can do so. However the recent war only showed that Georgia has actually seriously hurt its chances of ever becoming a Nato member, although they have not learned sadly.

[hosank]

well to be precise, it was mostly gamshaxurdia militias that attacked armenians in abkhazia, mostly under consideration that, "if you're not georgian, you're an abkhaz sepratist". but in fairness many armenians were also killed by abkhaz, including the community leaders. and yes, i agree with you that georgia did not properly conduct the wars in 1994 (including its own civil war at the same time)..but armenians were cought in a conflict that didn't concern them

[hosank]

ok, but still georgia's aim for nato is the result of some 200 years of mistrust for russia. it sees nato as a guarentor. in effect, georgia is playing a political game which is not-unlike the one played by armenia, that is, opposition to the turks by aligning with russia. the reality is that there is no such thing as "neutrality" in the caucasus, leaders of small countries feel themselves to be pawns of larger powers in the region, which personally i find quite sad

[Armenia1918]

meant to say "on Abkhaz side."

[Armenia1918]

Believe me it does, they even attacked Armenians in Abkhazia who otherwise would never join the conflict. When Armenians fought back to defend their lives and property, the Georgians began to bemoan why Armenians are fighting on the Georgian side.

It is this type of illogical and utterly arrogant and chauvinistic attitude (that Georgians act upon and LATER vehemently deny) that is not helping the situation, but quite to the contrary is in fact destroying Georgia.

[Armenia1918]

If Georgia would remain "neutral" whatever that means Russia would not be worried that much. But Georgia is openly pro-Nato and anti-Russian. That is what troubles Russia because Nato is not a "neutral" party and clearly has an agenda. Russian leadership has said it time and again that if Georgia or even Ukraine for that matter would not align themselves with a force that is viewed as a perceived threat Russia would not interfere because you are right there is a bigger fight here.

[vendetta007mike]

Saakashvili is a sucker. What was he thinking when he was provoking Russia? Or better, what was he drinking? Because only idiots with such ignorant armies like his, could do suck foolish thing against a country which has to sneeze on the enemy like this to win the war.

[hosank]

again, i also agree that georgia has been a troubled country for the last few decades, and this has been reflected in its policies towards its minorities. basically, georgian officials need to stop seeing its historic minorities as "fifth colomns" of foreign interest, or face a self-realising prophessy. the issue however is much greater since russia sees suxumi, tskinvali and tiflis as nothing more than pawns in a wider attempt to re-ignite a cold-war between "east" and "west"

[hosank]

granted, but then again, inter-ethnic clashes were quite common throughout the former soviet union, from moldova to turkmenistan. and i do agree, and have said that the abkhaz historically feared georgian cultural domination, and it IS true that georgian mentality towards the resolution is lacking in logic necessary to end it (a georgian girl once told me the abkhaz were actually a group of georgians etc..) but the reality is that assimilation into 120 milion russian swould be harder than 4 mil