Civil Georgia, Georgia
March 11 2006

Ombudsman Rules Out Ethnic Motives Behind Tsalka Clash

Georgian Public Defender Sozar Subari said on Saturday that a clash
in Tsalka, Kvemo Kartli region, on March 9 which resulted into death
of Gevork Gevorkian, 24, and injury of four other young men, was a
result of `an ordinary hooliganism’ which has nothing to do with
ethnic confrontation as claimed by the local population in Tsalka and
some minority advocacy groups.

At a joint news conference ethnic minority advocacy group
Multinational Georgia and union of ethnic Armenians in Georgia `Nor
Serund’ condemned the incident and demanded from the authorities an
immediate and unbiased investigation of the case.

Maria Mikoian of the `Nor Serund’ said that clash erupted after a
group of Georgian young men irritated by the Armenian music in a
restaurant in Tsalka attacked ethnic Armenian young men.

`Unfortunately ethnic confrontation more and more often becomes a
reason behind criminal acts in Tsalka,’ Agit Mirzoev, executive
director of the Multinational Georgia, said.

But Public Defender dismissed this reason as groundless. `Our
representatives traveled there and probed into the case. We can say
that this dispute has nothing to do with ethnic confrontation… Law
enforcers should immediately investigate the case and persecute those
who are guilty,’ Sozar Subari said on March 11.

Police said on March 10 that five suspects were arrested.

Meanwhile a group of about 200 local residents rallied in the town of
Akhalkalaki in Samtskhe-Javakheti region which is predominantly
populated by ethnic Armenians, on March 11, the Georgian media
sources reported. Protesters demanded a fair investigation of the
Tsalka incident.

Clashes between the locals erupt sporadically in recent years in
Tsalka district with population of 20 000. Ethnic Armenians comprise
57% of population, according to the Georgian department of
statistics. 4,500 ethnic Greeks, 2,500 ethnic Georgians and up to
2,000 Azerbaijanis also live there.