TBILISI: Armenian, Georgian PMs dismiss autonomy calls in S. Georgia

Imedi TV, Georgia
29 Sep 05

ARMENIAN, GEORGIAN PREMIERS DISMISS CALLS FOR AUTONOMY IN SOUTH
GEORGIA

[Presenter] The demands for autonomy raised by certain groups in the
[southern Georgian] Samtskhe-Javakheti province are not serious,
Armenian Prime Minister [Andranik] Markaryan said after his meeting
with [Georgian Prime Minister] Zurab Noghaideli [in Yerevan today].

[Markaryan, addressing a news briefing, in Russian] These rumours and
discussions that arise at different times and for different reasons
have no grounds. If there are certain issues, they are being
addressed in an expeditious manner.

[Noghaideli, in Russian] The part of the public organizations that
demanded autonomy for Javakheti is just a small part of the
population, to put it straight, and in reality they do not represent
the population. The main thing is what I already told you when we
were visiting the tobacco factory in Yerevan: There will be three
autonomies in Georgia – the Ajarian, the Abkhaz and, in the
Tskhinvali region, the South Ossetian.
From: Baghdasarian