TENSE SITUATION IN JAVAKHK

Armenian Gendarme Beat Several Residents of Akhalkalak

October 5, 2005

AZG | YEREVAN – Situation in Akhalkalak was very tense yesterday. Tax
officers from Akhaltsakha closed 10 stores demanding acquirement documents
for the goods they traded. Shop-keepers told them that they bring goods from
Tbilisi and get no document there. A few hundred residents of Akhalkalak
gathered before the town administration protesting activities of tax
officers. Nairi Iritsian, mayor of Akhalkalak, told daily Azg on the phone
that Armenian gendarmes from local gendarmerie tried to break up the rally
but met resistance. The gendarmes used bludgeons calm down protesters;
several shots were heard too. As Iritsian said, one people from each side
were taken to hospital as a result of the fight. Our source in Akhalkalak
said that Georgian President’s representative in Samtskhe-Javakhk region,
Georgi Khachidze, was in Akhalkalak yesterday evening.

Mayor Iritsian claims that what they call “gendarmerie” operates only in
Javakhk and Tsalka. It employees local Armenians to press on Armenians of
Javakhk, Iritsian said.