Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has committed a provocation by reposting on social media an advertising material of a Georgian travel company, where lands in the Lori region of Armenia are listed as “historical Georgia.” This was stated by former member of the commission on delimitation and demarcation of the Armenian-Georgian border, former Armenian consul in St. Petersburg Vardan Hakobyan.

He recalled that the ownership of the territory of Lori was never questioned by anyone during the delimitation negotiations. Of course, there were discussions about several kilometers, along which section to draw the border line, how not to infringe on the interests of Armenian or Georgian farmers. But it was certainly not about, for example, who owns the monastery complex “Sanain,” Sputnik Armenia quotes Hakobyan.

The expert did not rule out that Zurabishvili was pushed to such a provocation by her Western political advisers in order to set Georgia against Armenia, especially considering the West’s attitude towards the current Georgian government. The West now essentially wants to destabilize the South Caucasus and exacerbate relations between the countries of the region. But it is possible that such a stunt by Zurabishvili is intended to earn political points in the eyes of local nationalists, Akopyan believes.