FIRST PUBLIC FORUM OF JAVAKHK PRESENTS PROBLEMS OF REGION AND WAYS OF THEIR
SOLVEMENT

AKHALKALAKI, December 16 (Noyan Tapan). The first public forum
held upon the initiative of the Armenian public organizations of
Samtskhe-Javakheti was held in Akhalkalaki on December 11. The
socio-economic problems of the region were discussed during the
forum. The issues of language, culture, self-government will be
discussed during the next forums.

The name of the forums, i.e “Integration, not Assimilation” the
Armenian public organizations of Javakhk explained by the fact that
the Armenian population of the region, which wasn’t against the
integration of the krai into Georgia, at the same don’t agree with
the policy of “integration” carried out by the central authorities,
which leads to assimilation in reality.

According to the A-Info Agency, participants of the forum listened
to the reports of two experts on socio-economic issues of the region
Ashot Shipaktsian and Artashes Palangian. Rapporteurs touched upon the
discriminating policy of the central Georgian authorities, as a result
the region populated by the Armenians is in so grave socio-economic
condition now.

In the approved resolution the forum presents the socio-economic
problems facing Javakhk, establishing that Samstskhe-Javakheti yielded
to other regions of the country on the indices of human development
greatly. Such problems are enumerated: unemployment, migration,
the collapse of the public health system, the low level of social
defense, the deepening of poverty, state of roads, fuel and energy
crisis, etc. The resolution emphasizes that the participation of the
national minorities in the public and political life of the country
and in the solution of the socio-economic problems isn’t provided.

The forum expressed worry about the fact that “the available problems
and the susceptibilities of the Georgian authorities’ policy in the
spheres of national minorities’ rights and demography (…) can damage
the international authority of Georgia and the development of democracy
in the country, the unsolved socio-economic and other problems can
strike a blow to the integration of the national minorities into
society, delays in the resoution of accumulated problems can create
new unwished tension, the atmosphere, which is explosive without this,
is becoming more heated as a result of the nationalistic propaganda
of some mass medias and public and political organizations.”

The resolution suggests the ways of the improvement of the situation,
including the creation of jobs, the development of transport and other
infrastructures, the repairs of highways connecting the region with the
seaside regions of Georgia, with Tbilisi and Armenia, as well as the
overhaul of inter-village roads, the application of new technologies
in the sphere of agriculture, the provision of the agricultural
products processing in the provinces, the rapid resolution of the
irrigation problem, the reconstruction and resumption of the work of
Akhalkalaki airport.

The forum thinks it is necessary that the measures contributing to
the formation, strengthening and preservation of the atmosphere of
tolerance in the international problems should be undertaken. The
forum also emphasizes the importance of cooperation with the
international organizations, which are engaged in the issues of
democracy development, human development, human rights protection
and economic integration.

The Council is charged with the establishment of the particularized
committee that should elaborate the program on the socio-economic
development of Samtskhe-Javakheti to present it to the corresponding
bodies interested in it. Besides, the forum decided to apply to the
central Georgian authorities and the local self-governmental bodies
once again with hope for multilateral discussion and the solution
of problems, as well as decided to cooperate with the international
structures, donor-countries, a well as public organizations and mass
medias, Armenian public organizations operating in Georgia.