SITUATION QUIET IN TSALKA

Armenpress
Apr 04 2006

TSALKA, APRIL 4, ARMENPRESS: A-Info news agency operating in the
southern Georgian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti that has a predominantly
Armenian population, said the situation in Tsalka where a group of
Svans (ethnic Georgians) attacked on March 9 and stabbed to death a
23-year-old Armenian man, was now quite.

It said local Armenians expecting a fair trial of several men of this
group arrested on charges of killing the Armenian man. A-Info also said
the Council of Armenian Organizations of Javakheti has become more
vigilant now and avoids any provocative actions. It particularly did
not react to some non-member organizations’ calls to stage a rally
on March 16.

Tsalka, population 22,000, is predominantly populated by ethnic
Armenians and Greeks. Up to 2,000 Azerbaijanis also live there. In
the early 1990s, the Georgian government moved a group of ethnic
Georgians (about 2,500, mainly Ajarians and Svans), to Tsalka after
a devastating landslide in their native mountainous villages.

Tsalka is also close to the predominantly Armenian-populated
Samtskhe-Javakheti locality, which is considered a “complex region”
because of the presence of a Russian military base and increasing
demands for political autonomy by some local Armenian groups. Clashes
between ethnic Georgians and the Greek-Armenian community in Tsalka
have been reported for several years, nevertheless, Georgian officials
continuously argue that the conflicts in Tsalka have no ethnic context
and represent mostly “communal violence.”