The Messenger, Georgia
Dec 20 2004

Language and economy: two links to reintegrating Georgian regions

NGOs, European specialists and government officials team up to
improve integration in Javakheti region

By Keti Sikharulidze

ECMI’s John Wright, Tom Trier, Mikael Hertoft.

The European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI) has announced it will
start an economic development program in the Samtskhe-Javakheti
region beginning next year.

The project seeks to enhance the ability of the Georgian government
officials to develop policy regarding regions populated by ethnic
minorities.

The Javakheti region is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians, though
there are other ethnic groups as well: Greeks, Russians and
Georgians.

Due to impoverished conditions including damaged roads, electricity
shortages, poor communications and faulty railway system, the region
is badly integrated with the rest of Georgia.

Speaking at the press conference on December 17, the project manager
of ECMI Michael Hertoft stated that they would work mainly on two
fields: cultural and language issues as well as on the region’s
economic development.

“It is very well known that people are starving and they are very
poor and dissatisfaction will grow. But if the economic situation
gets better then they will actually cooperate economically with the
rest of Georgia,” Hertoft told The Messenger.

Hertoft also stressed that part of the problem that makes Javakheti
region distanced from the rest of Georgia is the population’s lack of
knowledge of the Georgian language.

“There is an information vacuum in the region as the majority of the
population does not speak Georgian, although they do have a desire to
learn Georgian language and to participate in the country’s political
process. But at the same time they demand to keep the Russian
language, which is most common in the region,” stated Hertoft.

The Georgian government adopted a new draft law on elementary
education in September that called for increased teaching of Georgian
in regions where it is a second language. However, as Hertoft stated,
some tensions have emerged in the Javakheti region because the new
law called on the Armenian and Russian language schools to change
their language of instruction.

“But the representatives from the Ministry of Education assured the
local population that the school council could choose which language
to teach at school. And this made all the tension and fear in the
region calm down,” stated Hertoft.

The majoriatarian deputy of Akhalkalaki region Hamlet Movsesian
stated on Friday that the problems regarding the language problems
began as early as Soviet times, since then it was common that a
teacher of Georgian language in non-Georgian schools did not know
Georgian themselves.

“Since then these problems have accumulated and the only way to solve
language problems is to start learning it by and by. The government
should work out special programs that would make it easier to learn
Georgian language in such regions as Javakheti,” stated Movsesian.

Movsesian also stated that the international organizations should
develop programs that could bring employment to the region. Moveseian
also stated that the central government intends to solve the road
problems in the region through a Tbilisi-Tsalka-Ninotsminda highway
next year. “The start of building this road is the beginning of the
integration of our region in Georgia,” stated Movsesian.

The deputy minister of education Bela Tsipuria told The Messenger
that the Ministry of Educations plans “serious activities” to teach
the state language in the region. Projects, such as the educational
project ‘Future begins today,’ have been launched in the region.

“From 2005 we start the civil integration program of Georgian
language. We also work on a OSCE project regarding the methods of how
to teach Georgian language in non-Georgian schools,” Tsipuria said.
“We fully realize the importance of this problem and try to solve it
by taking active steps.”

The political advisor of ECMI John Wright stated at the Friday
conference that they intend to working with the central government
and local government in order to better understand how to integrate
and develop the region through economic means.

“We have a plan that the project will continue during the coming year
and hopefully by the end of 2005, the government will have a very
clear idea of how this region can integrate and how to develop this
region,” stated Wright. He added that as a result the government will
know what steps to take and “what it wants the business community to
do and what it wants the international community to do.”

In addition to language teaching programs, ECMI has granted support
for other projects including a cultural integration project-regional
television programs about integration and an internet site for the
region with information about nongovernmental as well as governmental
organizations.

According to the project manager Tom Trier, ECMI intends to develop
the same program in Tskhinvali region from the coming year.