ARMENIAN REVOLUTIONARY FEDERATION DEFENDING HIMSELF FROM GACHECHILADZE

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18-03-2005

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau issued a press
release on March 18 in regard with some statements made by Georgi
Gachechiladze, advisor to the Georgian president on international
issues, and published in the March 14 issue of the Georgian newspaper
Rao-Rao. The release reads:

1. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation has never sought and does not
seek “Georgia’s destruction through North Caucasus.” The ARF is
seeking the protection of the Javakhk Armenians’ rights within
Georgia. Such statements of the Georgian president’s advisor may only
sow disturbance in the Caucasus.

2. On the eve of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the
Georgian president’s advisor is insults the memory of the Genocide
victims, accusing them of becoming a blind tool in the hands of
others. Actually, he is repeating the official position of
Turkey. Such unpardonable stance of the Georgian president’s advisor
is unfitted to the position he holds.

3. The Georgian presidential advisor’s threats directed at the Javakhk
Armenians prompt that the attempts to initiate disruption in Javakhk
are aimed at justifying those very threats. The Georgian presidential
advisor’s intimidating tone is no good for a country that claims to be
a democracy champion; it resembles the style of dictators speaking to
their subjects in tyrannies.

4. The level of the Georgian presidential advisor’s ignorance may be
low enough to call a Yeltsin aide an ARF member, but it should not be
as low as to overlook the real problems in Javakhk.

5. The ARF is ready to assist the Georgian authorities in protecting
the political and civil rights of the Javakhk Armenians as well as
resolving their socio-economic problems if the Georgian authorities
take such steps. Georgian authorities’ continuing discriminatory
policy towards the Javakhk Armenians will not result in favorable
consequences.