BEYOND A JOKE
The Messenger, Georgia
April 17 2007
The comments of MP Beso Jugheli, who said that a proposed tax for
people living in historical areas is "not directed against Georgians"
because many people of non-Georgian ethnicity live in historical
neighbourhoods, not only shame the parliament of Georgia, but are an
affront to the thousands of years of Georgia’s multi ethnic history,
are a setback for conflict resolution, a gift to those that want to
characterise Georgia as an ethno-nationalist pariah, and undermine
President Saakashvili’s concerted effort to build a sense of nationhood
built on civil rather than ethnic principles.
Even if said in jest, the comments, said in an interview with Georgian
daily 24 Saati on April 12, were in extremely poor taste and must
immediately be retracted, and the MP must make a full and frank
apology even if no harm was intended. As this paper went to press,
the MP had not apologised.
The comments are just plain wrong on so many levels. Firstly, the
ethnic Armenian, Azeri, Kurdish inhabitants of old Tbilisi have been
a part of the fabric of the city since time immemorial, and have
contributed enormously to Tbilisi’s development, success, and charm.
President Saakashvili, speaking recently of the old town, pointed
out that in few other locations in the world can you find a church,
synagogue and mosque on the same block. Indeed, when King David
the Builder retook Tbilisi from the Arabs in 1122 he protected
the city’s multi faith, multi ethnic population, and protected
religious freedom. As if that wasn’t proof enough of his cosmopolitan
credentials, he invited some 40 000 North Caucasian Kipchak tribesmen
to settle in Georgia, and his first wife was Armenian. This is
something that Georgians of all ethnicities should be proud of, and
in his speeches the president consistently refers to all Georgians,
enumerating Ossetian, Abkhaz, Armenian Georgians and so on. At a
speech in Bakuriani he even mentioned Dutch and American Georgians.
But, not only do Jugheli’s comments define Georgians purely in terms
of ethnicity, they also indirectly advocate ethnic discrimination. In
justifying a law by saying it targets non-ethnic Georgians the comments
inadvertently support discrimination on ethnic grounds.
Russia regularly accuses the Saakashvili administration of being
virulently ethno-nationalist, hell bent on establishing ‘Georgia
for the [ethnic] Georgians’, and statements like these totally play
into their hands. They will very likely make considerable hay out of
these comments. Similarly, the separatist regimes in South Ossetia and
Abkhazia-regimes which genuinely discriminate on ethnic grounds-will
be provided with extra ammunition. We doubt the comments will go down
well in Georgia’s predominantly Armenian region of Javakheti also.
MP Jugheli represents the constituency of Chugureti, a multi-ethnic
district at the heart of the city, and one that was actually built by
nineteenth century immigrants to the city, so it would be very much
in his interests to apologise to his constituents. We trust that
his comments were a joke that misfired, a gaffe, embarrassing but
forgivable, but nonetheless, he must take immediate steps to redress
the situation and apologise for the enormous offence he has caused.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
