The passing 2011 was rich with events which impacted the world, Anatoly Tsyganok, Head of the Russian Center of Military Forecasts, told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

“These [events] are the global terrorism, the tsunami in Japan, NATO military operations in Libya, the situation in Syria, [and] the growing tension around Iran’s nuclear plan,” Tsyganok said. In his words, these developments are extremely important for South Caucasus. 

“There is truly a bizarre situation in the region. NATO, CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization], and SCO [Shanghai Cooperation Organisation] function here at the same time. If Armenia has warm relations with NATO and is a CSTO member at the same time, we could say Georgia and Azerbaijan have “become NATO members.” Everything is neglected in the case of Georgia. They learn English there, and this will result in that the country will remain outside of the general depiction of the Caucasus. Russian is the language of communication in South and, even more so, in North Caucasus, and the young Georgian generation does not know it. As a result, Georgia cannot conduct a dialogue with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Chechnya, and even with Abkhazia, and South Ossetia,” the analyst maintained.             

Commenting on the situation concerning Iran, Tsyganok said everything is unequivocal. If they strike Iran, Armenia would adopt a hard position and condemn these operations, since they harm its immediate interests. By and large, South Caucasus is opposed to a strike against Iran,” he argued.      

And considering the Christmas and New Year holidays, Anatoly Tsyganok wants peace from Santa Claus. “Peace in the Caucasus, Middle East, [and] the whole world,” he says.