The Messenger, Georgia
Sept 21 2005

Ethnic Azeri community demands more support

Events last week in the Kvemo Kartli village of Vakhtangisi, where
the local ethnic-Azeri population organized a demonstration demanding
better treatment from the central government, has touched Georgia’s
sensitive paranoia that certain forces are trying to cause
destabilization in Kvemo Kartli and to provoke a Georgian-Azerbaijani
confrontation.

Given their mutual political and economic interests, Georgia and
Azerbaijan seem fated to be close strategic partners. This
partnership began in the mid 1990’s, when the leaders of the two
countries were Eduard Shevardnadze and Heidar Aliev. The fruits of
this cooperation have been numerous and have included the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzrum natural gas
pipeline.

These energy projects are far from only Georgia’s and Azerbaijan’s
affair. Many other countries and large companies also have a major
stake. Accordingly, any confrontation between the two countries would
have wide-reaching negative geo-political and geo-economic results.
However, such negative results may play into the hands of certain
interested parties.

It is noteworthy that only a few months before the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline is to be fully operational, local
and foreign media outlets issue reports of provocations in the Azeri
population of Kvemo Kartli, leading residents to come forward with
complaints of persecution and demands for autonomy.

Last week the media widely covered a small demonstration in the
village of Vakhtangisi. Approximately 30 people blocked off the main
route linking Georgia and Azerbaijan. Then the organizer of the
protest, Telman Hasanov demanded autonomy for Azeri residents living
in Kvemo Kartli and accused the authority of violating the rights of
this ethnic minority.

According to the picketers, the Georgian authority did not fulfill
any of the demands in the proclamation issued during the warning
action on September 1. This is why they want to control their own
fate by being granted autonomy. The newspaper Basta reports that the
proclamation contained five demands: dual citizenship for Azeris
residing in Georgia, conducting the land reform process in accordance
with their interests, solving all cases regarding crimes against
Azeris, abolishing the existing customs fees at the border and
employing Azeri citizens in the state service.

Telman Hasanov was imprisoned for resisting police. The local people
state that Hasanov does not have right to speak for them and that
most inhabitants do not support him. Hasanov himself mentions that he
was acting only on his on initiative and that no organization is
behind him.

What is important here is not the protest itself, which was in fact
very small, but the fact that there was an attempt to create ethnic
confrontation in the country and the fact that such attempts may be
repeated in the future. Ethnic Azeri MP Kamal Murakhdanov told
Rezonansi that “other forces are behind Hasanov. He is either
fulfilling the orders of Russian special services or one of the
political parties.”

In such cases, “special services” of foreign countries are frequently
mentioned, though attempts to confirm such suspicions are rarely
successful. As for political parties, Muradkhanov was referring to
the Labor Party, though the party categorically denied any connection
with Hasanov.

The government must conclude from this event that it must not allow
problems with social conditions, accusations of crimes, unsolved
criminal cases and dissatisfaction with customs regulation to be
given an ethnic coloring. There are plenty of such problems in other
Georgian regions, but the fact that Kvemo Kartli is predominately
Azeri creates a risk for such problems to grow into ethnic conflict.

“Ethnically motivated” is a term often used by some to describe the
arrest of a drug dealer or the enforcement of stricter customs
regulations on small-time traders. In a way, such words represent a
provocation and an effort to scare the government. One of the
arguments for autonomy of the protesters in Vakhtangisi was the
“Armenian example” – the Georgian authority has recently initiated
special programs to aid Javakheti inhabitants because the latter
often come forward protests of poor treatment. In any case, this
incident underscores the need for the government to further integrate
its Azeri citizens into the Georgian state.