Georgian governor vows to meet “fair” demands of ethnic Armenians

Kavkasia-Press news agency
23 Mar 05

Tbilisi, 23 March: The Georgian president’s representative in the
Samtskhe-Javakheti province, Goga Khachidze, yesterday held a meeting
with representatives of public organizations of the [predominantly
Armenian-populated] Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda Districts and activists
of the 13 March rally staged in Akhalkalaki [in protest at the planned
closure of the Russian military base in the area]. The meeting was
also attended by MP for Akhalkalaki District, Hamlet Movsesyan,
and the head of the Akhalkalaki administration, Artur Yeremyan.

At the meeting, the local activists raised several pressing issues.
The demanded that Khachidze address the issues of reopening a passport
office (which has been relocated to Akhaltsikhe) and teaching Armenian
history in Armenian schools. They also said that locals should
be able to communicate with authorities in the Armenian language,
stressed the need for more democratic election of local government
bodies, and requested the establishment of a customs checkpoint in
[the village of] Zhdanovka near the Georgian-Armenian border. At the
moment, customs clearance of goods imported in Samtskhe-Javakheti from
Armenia can be performed only in the town of Akhaltsikhe which is 100
kilometres away from the border. In addition, the participants said
that the Akhaltsikhe-Akhalkalaki-Ninotsminda-Zhdanovka road urgently
needed repair.

Goga Khachidze vowed to resolve the issue of reopening the passport
office in Akhalkalaki by 28 March. He also promised that the Georgian
Education Ministry would approve a programme of teaching Armenian
history in Armenian schools. As regards local government issues, MP
Hamlet Movsesyan said that a new local government law to be adopted
by the parliament would be more democratic.

The president’s representative was not ready to give complete answers
to the rest of the questions. The sides agreed to recommend to the
[central] authorities to set up an expert group which would draw up
proposals aimed at resolving the current problems.

Goga Khachidze told journalists that all demands raised at the meeting
were fair and promised to do his best to resolve the problems.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress