GEORGIAN AZERIS THREATEN TO BLOCK TBILISI-YEREVAN HIGHWAY

ArmRadio.am
10.08.2006 15:51

The Interim High Committee of the National Assembly of Azeris of
Georgia held an enlarged session in the Turkish town of Posof near the
Georgian border on August 9. Director of the NAAG information center
Abbas Muradkhanly has told REGNUM that the NAAG met to discuss the
recent murders, beatings and arrests of Azeris in Georgia.

Muradkhanly says that they have discussed "the political situation in
Georgia, the growing wave of national discrimination in the country,
the unconcealed oppression of Azeris by the Georgian police and
special services" and, more specifically, the events of the last 15
days: the murder of two Azeris, the beating and illegal detention of
three NAAG members, the official ban on the Azerbaijan-based "Hummet"
newspaper in Georgia.

In his selective telephone address, NAAG President Dashgyn
Gulmamedov said: " Unless they set free the arrested members of
our organization and give back the seized copies of ‘Hummet’ within
the next 20 hours, we will be forced to resort to radical actions,
particularly, mass protests. Our people will block the Tbilisi-Yerevan
and Tbilisi-Marneuli-Yerevan roads and will rally in Gardabani and
Marneuli (Georgian towns with mostly Azeri population — REGNUM).

The Georgian authorities have refused to give us permission to hold
mass actions for already three months, but this time we will not ask
them for permission. I should warn that full responsibility for what
may happen if our fair demands are rejected will be put on Georgian
Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili and Head of the Intelligence
Department of the Interior Ministry Shalva Zhgenti."