LEGISLATIVE INITIATIVE ON GIVING ARMENIAN LANGUAGE STATUS OF SECOND STATE LANGUAGE IN REGIONS COMPACTLY POPULATED WITH ARMENIANS TO BE PRESENTED TO GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT

Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Mar 21 2006

AKHALKALAK, MARCH 21, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. At the regular
sitting of the Samtskhe-Javakhk Armenian Public Organizations’ Council
which was held on March 16 in Akhalkalak, it’s decided to make a
statement on a legislative initiative on giving the state status to
the Armenian language parallel with Georgian in Samtskhe-Javakhk
and its neighboring region of Tsalka. Representatives of public
organizations intend to present their legislative initiative to
the Parliament with the help of all the 4 Armenian deputies of the
Parliament. If the issue doesn’t enter the Parliament with the help of
the Armenian deputies, then the Council will make a statement about
the legislative initiative according to the order envisaged by the
Constitution of the country. According to the “A-Info” agency, the
issue of giving the Armenian language the state status was touched
upon at previous sittings of the Council as well, and after a long
discussion the Council made the above-mentioned decision.

During its discussions the Council also took into account the
fact that Georgia signed and certified the Framework Convention
for the Protection of National Minorities (Strasbourg, February
1995), according to Article 10.2 of which, “in places, populated
traditionally or with considerable quantity of people belonging
to the ethnic minorities, if those people ask and this request
corresponds to real needs, the sides, as much as it’s possible, must
strive for providing such conditions which will give possibility to
use the language of the minority in relations among those people and
administrative authorities.” The Council also took into account that
when joining the Council of Europe, Georgia undertook obligation
to sing and certify the European Charter for Regional and Minority
Languages where in this sense the rights of minorities are defined more
detailed. According to the Council representatives, in the region,
giving the state status to the Armenian language in parallel to the
Goergian one will create guarantees for the language-cultural safety
of the Armenian inhabitation as well as will decrease the interracial
tension in the region incomparably.