GEORGIA: ETHNIC ARMENIAN MP, NGO CONCERNED ABOUT TENSION IN SOUTHERN PROVINCE

Imedi TV, Tbilisi
15 Mar 06

Hamlet Movsesyan, an ethnic Armenian member of the Georgian parliament,
has expressed concern about recent tension in ethnic Armenian populated
areas of the Samtskhe-Javakheti province in southern Georgia. He said
that local people were worried about ethnic Armenian officials who do
not speak Georgian being replaced by ethnic Georgians. The head of the
Multiethnic Georgia non-governmental organization, Arnold Stepanyan,
also an ethnic Armenian, has said that the teaching of Georgian has not
been mandatory in ethnic Armenian areas for the past 15 years and it
is “unreasonable” to require local people to speak the language. The
following is the text of a report by Georgian Imedi TV on 15 March:

[Presenter] Complaints by MPs in Armenia and ethnic Armenian MPs in
the Georgian parliament are starting to resemble each other. Some
want political autonomy while others want cultural autonomy for
Samtskhe-Javakheti.

What did the MP for Akhalkalaki [town in Samtskhe-Javakheti, scene
of recent protests and riots] want to say to the president, why do
Armenians not speak Georgian, and is the national minority being
discriminated against because of that?

[Uncaptioned ethnic Armenian protester in Akhalkalaki, in Russian]
This happened before. You probably know that this already happened
in 1991. Do they want a repetition of that? We can do that, no problem.

[Correspondent] In 1991 [as heard] separatist statements were first
made in public in Tskhinvali and Sukhumi. The conflicts in South
Ossetia and Abkhazia have still not been resolved. The Javakhk
organization does not rule out the possibility of history repeating
itself in Samtskhe-Javakheti.

Noyan Tapan news agency reported a statement by someone called
Madoyan [Razdan Madoyan, member of the Javakhk council]. There
are two ways events could develop: this could either become another
Nagornyy-Karabakh or another Naxcivan, Madoyan says. Javakhk believes
that, if necessary, Armenia should send troops to Javakheti.

[Beso Jugheli, Georgian MP addressing parliament speaker Nino
Burjanadze] Kalbatono [polite way of addressing a woman] Nino, have
you spoken to Akhalkalaki constituency MP Hamlet Movsesyan? Hamlet
Movsesyan is asking for a meeting with the president.

[Correspondent] What did Hamlet Movsesyan want to say to the
president? The Akhalkalaki MP feels that many problems have
accumulated, the most important of which is that knowledge of the
Georgian language is a requirement for appointment to official
posts. The Akhalkalaki MP himself does not speak Georgian.

Another thing that concerns people there is the appointment of
Georgians in the region who do not speak Armenian. The local Armenians
are angry not so much at not being able to communicate with them as
the restriction of their rights.

[Hamlet Movsesyan, in Russian] The local people still do not speak the
state language, unfortunately. For that to happen needs time. Local
people are, of course, worried about Armenians being dismissed and
replaced with Georgians.

[Correspondent] Today Armenian MP Albert Bazeyan told journalists in
Yerevan that Javakheti should have cultural autonomy.

Van Baiburt, [an ethnic Armenian] member of the Georgian parliamentary
majority, says that Bazeyan’s call for cultural autonomy is a
mistake. He believes that Armenians in Georgia have had an unwritten
cultural autonomy in Georgia for a long time.

He has already apologized on behalf of Armenians for the riots
in Javakheti [on 11 March]. He does not like the analogy between
Nagornyy-Karabakh and Javakheti.

[Baiburt] Comparisons between Javakheti and Nagornyy-Karabakh are
completely without foundation. It is such a crude, crazy thing to
say. These are not so much anti-Georgian statements as they are
anti-Armenian and against Armenia.

[Correspondent] The situation in Javakheti reminds the head of
Multiethnic Georgia [NGO] of the American film Home Alone. That is how,
in his opinion, Samtskhe-Javakheti was abandoned 15 years ago.

[Arnold Stepanyan, captioned as head of Multiethnic Georgia] Fifteen
years ago we forgot about one of our regions at home. Now we have
suddenly realized that this child is there. We have forgotten,
however, that this child has grown since then. Samtskhe-Javakheti
has effectively been developing in autonomous mode.

What did we expect when we were sacking judges in Samtskhe-Javakheti,
what did we expect when we were sacking customs officials?

[Correspondent] The main problem appears to be that they do not speak
Georgian. The head of the NGO believes that it is unreasonable and
illogical now to require the knowledge of something that has not been
mandatory in education over the past 15 years.

Movsesyan, Baiburt and Stepanyan today agree that it is not so
much separatism as social problems that are behind the conflict
in Javakheti.