PanARMENIAN.Net

Armenians of Georgia Ask Saakashvili Personal Control
of Investigation of Tsalka Incident

11.03.2006 18:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Public Movement Multinational
Georgia and Nor Serund Union of Georgian Armenians
have appealed to Georgian President Mikhail
Saakashvili, asking to take the investigation of the
case of attack against a group of Armenians in Tsalka
town under his personal control. As the Press Service
of the Multinational Georgia Common Civil Movement
union told PanARMENIAN.Net, a respective letter will
be sent to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of
Georgia. Besides, Public Movement Multinational
Georgia and Nor Serund NGOs demanded soonest possible
exposure of the murder case, identification of those
guilty and announcing their names, punishing them, as
well as admitting representatives of the NGOs to the
investigation.

To remind, On March 9, at about 06:00 p.m. local time,
in the city of Tsalka (regional center of Kvemo-Kartli
Region, Georgia) an armed attack was held against a
group of young ethnic Armenians. An Armenian,
23-year-old Gevorg Gevorgyan, died in the hand-to-hand
fight. The victims say, when they were getting into
the car, unidentified people suddenly attacked them.
Those attacking opened the door and slaughtered Gevorg
Gevorgyan absolutely without a reason. They also
injured other Armenians with knives. The victims say
that most of those attacking spoke the Svan dialect of
the Georgian language and that they did not know them
or have not seen in Tsalka before. Besides, the armed
attack did not have a cause – they had not even spoken
to those people.

Outraged with the incident, Tsalka Armenians held a
rally (some 500 persons) in front of the police
building. They demanded a fair punishment for the
murderers. The policemen batoned the protesting
Armenians. Witnesses say that along with police, local
criminal groupings took part in disseminating those
gathered. Eyewitnesses say that March 10 special
destination forces blocked roads, leading from
Armenian villages to Tsalka, as well as took under
control in fat all state institutions in the town.