"The President of Georgia has published an advertisement of a Georgian tour agency on his personal Facebook page, where there are, to put it mildly, problematic wordings regarding the Lori region of Armenia," writes political commentator Hakob Badalyan, commenting on the publication shared by Zurabashvili.
He notes that the attitude towards certain historical and cultural monuments of Lori and Lori marz in Georgia is not new at all.
It is also known that the two churches, the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Georgian Orthodox Church, have been in rather complicated discussions for years.
"This is an extremely delicate topic that Armenia and Georgia have been trying to manage for more than three decades after the Soviet Union, at the cost of a lot of effort, both at the level of churches and governments.
Moreover, at the public level, such problems exist among all states, and therefore the question is always exactly how these delicate issues are managed at the elite level. takes the liberty of sharing material that deals with those very sensitive topics.
And, although he does it with his not official, but so to speak personal account, it is still not difficult to understand that even that account is associated with the presidential status, and therefore with the state status.
Accordingly, the President of Georgia makes a blunder, and on an extremely well-known and sensitive topic, he makes such a blunder that it is difficult to imagine that it was done "without understanding" to say the least.
What's more, this is being done in a very sensitive period for Georgia, which is no less sensitive for Armenia as well. The question arises, how often does the president of Georgia spread tour agency advertisements on his personal account, that he suddenly decided to do it in Armenia? on the subject, and even more so at this stage.
Especially since tours from Georgia to Lori region of Armenia are not a completely new phenomenon. By the way, it is very good that these tours exist. For years, I myself have expressed many times that there is a need for deepening of Armenian-Georgian tourism cooperation, including not only Lori, but also Shirak. role. And the action of the president of Georgia is provocative to say the least. And here another circumstance is essential.
In the past few days, there was another information provocation against the Armenian-Georgian relationship, as if Georgia does not allow French weapons to come to Armenia. I have almost no doubt that in the background of Georgia's election and the complex post-election reality, there is a purpose to provoke Armenian-Georgian tension and thus increase the atmosphere. pressure on the Georgian government.
The pursuers of that goal are naturally not concerned about the consequences of the same pressure for Armenia. My assessment is that Armenia should not give in to sensuality and not justify the possible calculation that may be with the involvement of the president of Georgia, either willy-nilly or not. Armenia and Georgia since February 2024, the relationship has been fixed by the declaration of strategic cooperation.
The relationship should be equivalent to that nature on a practical level, therefore, on the one hand, there should be high-quality work ability in managing sensitive issues, and therefore also in not succumbing to various provocations. At the same time, maybe France, of which he is a former employee of the Foreign Ministry, will be useful in "sensitizing" Zurabishvili? and a citizen of Georgia still the president.
Either way, there will be old ties to say the least. I don't think any Armenian-Georgian tension, any spark is useful for France."
