Georgia’s reaction

These two Armenian leaders’ arrests were preceded by:

– The March 9, 2006 murder of an ethnic Armenian, Gevorg Gevorgyan in Tsalka region; and

– The July 21, 2008 illegal arrest of the leader of the United Javakhk Democratic Alliance Vahagn Chakhalian. Chakhalian is credited for having led the protest rallies condemning the brutal murder of Gevorgyan in Tsalka.

Chakhalian, the leader of the United Javakhk Democratic Alliance said in a statement issued on 28 January: “The Georgian authorities undertake successive actions to encourage the immigration of the Javakheti Armenians and to change the ethnic picture of the region. Thus … attempts to georgianize the Armenian churches are made… In Javakheti there is no alternative to using the Georgian language, which is imposed at all levels of social life. The Javakheti Armenians are refused the right to establish an Armenian language based university.”

He continued: “After the murder of the ethnic Armenian – Gevorg Gevorgyan in Tsalka region on March 9, 2006, his relatives and friends organized a protest action which was forcefully broken up by the police. This caused a well-grounded discontent of the Javakheti Armenians. The ‘United Javakhk Democratic Alliance’ placed itself at the head of this wave of protests.”

He added: “After each protest action I, as a leader of the ‘United Javakhk Democratic Alliance,’ had a meeting with the Georgian authorities. The latter kept on promising to solve the problems regarding the Javakheti Armenians, however, the promises remained unfulfilled. The authorities advised us to refrain from mass protest actions and to pursue our objectives through participation in elections and other democratic processes. The ‘United Javakhk Democratic Alliance’ followed this advice. In October 2006 we took part in the elections to the local self-administration bodies, however blatant falsifications of the voting results by the authorities deprived the ‘United Javakhk Democratic Alliance’ of the opportunity to have any visible participation in the local self-administration bodies. The protest action organized by the ‘United Javakhk Democratic Alliance’ was put down by police by means of provocation and use of force. Throughout the year 2007 the Georgian authorities had been undertaking successive actions to liquidate the ‘United Javakhk Democratic Alliance’ and to ensure my political isolation and neutralization. The culmination of these actions became the events that took place in July 17-21, 2008.”

Chakhalian concluded: “Today, 6 months after my imprisonment, the Georgian authorities charge me with organizing protest actions in Akhalkalaki in 2006, – the actions by means of which the Javakheti Armenians voiced the problems and issues they were concerned about and requested the Georgian authorities to solve them; -the protest actions during which the Javakheti Armenians voiced their discontent about the blatant falsifications made by the authorities during the elections to the local self-administration bodies, claiming to declare the election results invalid. Thus, in this courtroom I am stating the following: this lawsuit is a farce, and the reason for continuously delaying the trial lies in the fact that the Georgian authorities are afraid of me, as a political activist, who is a mouthpiece for the rights of the Javakheti Armenians. By charging me you charge the Armenian minority of your country. The arrests of Akhaltsikha Armenian activists Grigor Minasyan, and Sargis Hakobjanyan are also the result of this fear. This is a new provocation, which aims to impel the Javakheti Armenians to extremist actions and by this to discredit the peaceful struggle of Javakheti Armenians for their language, educational and religious rights.”

This writer along with other peace- and freedom-loving activists worldwide, joins Mr. Chakhalian in urging the Georgian authorities to:

– Stop all the fabricated criminal cases brought against the members of the “United Javakhk Democratic Alliance;”

– Stop all illegal political and economic persecutions. Release all political prisoners who were arrested for their activities aimed at protection of the rights of the Armenian minority, including those arrested in Akhaltsikhe;

– Cease all the undemocratic programs aimed at the artificial change of the demographic picture of the Samtskhe-Javakheti and Tsalka regions;

– Solve all the linguistic-educational, socio-economic and cultural problems the Armenian minority of Georgia is concerned about;
Register the Armenian Apostolic Church and return to its jurisdiction all the churches that have been confiscated during the Soviet era;
– Legally authorize the use of the Armenian language in the work of the local self-administration bodies and in general office work in Samtskhe-Javakheti and Tsalka regions;

– Respect the right of the Georgian-Armenian community to establishing an Armenian university in Akhalkalaki.

Armenians are the largest ethnic minority in Georgia at about 10% of the population. The Armenian community is mostly concentrated in the capital Tbilisi and the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, which borders Armenia to the south. Armenians form the clear majority (over 58%) in this region. Javakhk is the historic name of the region in the southwest of Georgia, where 3 regions out of 6 are mainly Armenian populated, with some 100,000 Armenians living there. Another 100,000 or more Armenians live in Tbilisi and elsewhere in Georgia.

Armenians living in Georgia demand respect for their rights as a national minority which they claim are being violated by the Georgian authorities.

Minasian and Hakobjanian remain in detention in Tbilisi on fabricated and politically motivated charges of “espionage” among others. So far, the Georgian authorities have given no information about what country they had “spied for” and what kind of “armed group they had formed.”

Yerevan-based Doctor of Philology Haykazun Alvrtsyan said the accusations of the Georgian authorities were nonsense. The Georgian authorities “want to give a criminal implication to a political problem,” in order to justify a witch-hunt.

According to Alvrtsyan, the Georgian officials are trying to destabilize the situation and to ultimately cleanse Javakhk from Armenians, thus allowing Turkey to surround Armenia. He said: “Let’s not forget that Javakhk is the only link connecting Armenia” with the outside world and Europe.

Spokesperson for the Interior Ministry Shota Khizanishvili told Civil.ge on January 23 “further statements on the matter will be made later.” According to Armenian Public Radio, those statements were expected on January 26. No statements were made as of press time on Monday Feb. 2.

Following the separation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, many Georgians have suspected the country’s other ethnic minorities – currently comprising about 22 percent of the population and living outside the Georgian mainstream – of harboring separatist intentions.
Shirak Torosian is a parliament member from the governing Republican Party and leader of the Javakhk Compatriotic Union. He visited Akhhaltsikhe in late January.

Torosian, a proponent of Georgian-Armenian cooperation, reportedly warned that “Javakhk would not become another Nakhichevan,” referring to the Azerbaijani-controlled region from which all ethnic Armenians were expelled in the 19th century.

He said that either Javakheti’s issues are addressed through Armenian-Georgian cooperation, or the current tensions could lead to an outright war. He urged immediate involvement of the Armenian government.

The arrests were intended to “cement” Tbilisi’s control in Armenian-populated territories in the aftermath of Georgian reversals in South Ossetia and Abkhazia last August, Vahe Sargsian of the Yerevan-based Mitq analytical center suggested on January 26.
On Aug 29, 2008 F. William Engdahl, the author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order (Pluto Press), and Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation (www.globalresearch.ca), and a contributing writer of Online Journal wrote: “An examination shows 41-year-old Mikheil Saakashvili to be a ruthless and corrupt totalitarian who is tied to not only the US- NATO establishment, but also to the Israeli military and intelligence establishment. The famous ‘Rose Revolution’ of November 2003 that forced the aging Edouard Shevardnadze from power and swept the then 36-year-old US university graduate into power was run and financed by the US State Department, the Soros Foundations, and agencies tied to the Pentagon and US intelligence community.”

Further bringing the controversial Georgian Pres. Saakashvili’s real persona to light, Engdahl reported: “Since coming to power in 2004 with US aid, Saakashvili has led a policy of large-scale arrests, imprisonment, torture and deepened corruption. Saakashvili has presided over the creation of a de facto one-party state, with a dummy opposition occupying a tiny portion of seats in the parliament, and this public servant is building a Ceausescu-style palace for himself on the outskirts of Tbilisi. According to the magazine, Civil Georgia (Mar. 22, 2004), until 2005, the salaries of Saakashvili and many of his ministers were reportedly paid by the NGO network of New York-based currency speculator Soros — along with the United Nations Development Program.” 

Engdahl ominously noted that “With Russia openly backing and training the indigenous military in South Ossetia and Abkhazia to maintain Russian presence in the region, especially since the US-backed pro-NATO Saakashvili regime took power in 2004, the Caucasus is rapidly coming to resemble Spain in the Civil War from 1936-1939, where the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and others poured money and weapons and volunteers into Spain in a devastating war that was a precursor to the Second World War.”

Back in August 2008, by his misguided military move against Russia/South Ossetia, Saakashvili has triggered Russia’s trashing of Georgia’s army. One hopes that he does not commit a new set of political mistakes that can cause Georgia’s international isolation and further dismemberment.

Saakashvili’s mishandling of the Georgian-Armenians’ case is among other problems faced by his embattled presidency. The leaders of around a dozen opposition parties, in a rare show of unity, issued a joint declaration on Thursday (29 January), calling on Saakashvili to quit and hold free and fair elections for president and parliament.  “Mikheil Saakashvili and his team, in their five years in power, have led the country to catastrophe,” it read.

The Georgian authorities can ill afford to cause the West yet a new political embarrassment with another poorly devised decision igniting yet another losing war which could threaten its very existence. Obviously Georgia is over-reacting to its defeat in its war against Russia/South Ossetia by resorting to increasing judicial harassment and intensifying political repression against the Javakheti Armenians.

The politically-driven Georgian abuse of power against its own ethnic Armenian citizens will surely augment the level of discontent not only in Georgia but also around the world and will enable the Javakheti Armenians to earn worldwide empathetic understanding for their political struggle for cultural survival.

If Georgia continues its reprehensible policies, it will re-enforce its critics’ assertions that contrary to the Washington neo-cons’ propaganda, Georgia is not a beacon of democracy. And as such it shall pay the price by way of reduced foreign aid flowing from the United States and Europe.

Additionally, Georgia’s membership to world bodies, including Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, should be suspended for the mistreatment of its ethnic minorities, and especially the Georgian Armenians. 

In a Feb 3 commentary in The Daily Star of Lebanon, Joseph S. Nye, a professor at Harvard and author of “The Powers to Lead,” wrote: “”In situations where groups have difficulties living together, it may be possible to allow a degree of autonomy in the determination of internal affairs. Internal self-determination could allow degrees of cultural, economic, and political autonomy similar to that which exists in countries like Switzerland or Belgium. Where such loosening of the bonds is still not enough, it may be possible in some cases to arrange an amicable divorce, as happened when Czechoslovakia peacefully divided into two sovereign countries in 1993.”

But will Georgia learn from Czech Republic’s and Slovakia’s wise handling of their political problem?

Not Saakashvili’s Georgia.

Change is needed in Tbilisi.