NGO OUTRAGE AT MP’S COMMENTS
By Ekaterina Basilaia

The Messenger, Georgia
April 17 2007

NGO Multinational Georgia gave ruling party MP and leader of the
Majoritarian Faction Beso Jugheli a deadline of 12 pm Monday to
apologize for his recent remarks made in reference to ethnic minorities
residing in the historic districts of old Tbilisi.

"We are giving him a chance to apologize, nevertheless, we have already
decided how to confront this manifestation of fascism from a ruling
party member," head of the Multinational Georgia Arnold Stepanyan
told The Messenger.

The confrontation began following discussions of a new tax initiative
proposed by the Ministry of Culture, Monument Protection and Sports,
to impose a "cultural rehabilitation tax" on residents of Tbilisi,
Mtskheta, Sighnaghi, Kutaisi and other historical places that would
range from 10 tetri to GEL 3 per square metre of property monthly
during restoration works.

Jugheli has been in favour of the new controversial draft, which
critics claim could force many property owners to sell their homes
because they wouldn’t be able to pay the fee.

In his interview with the newspaper 24 Saati (24 Hours) on April
12, Jugheli addressed the fears expressed mainly by the opposition,
saying that the proposal "is not directed against Georgians."

"Mainly Armenians, Azeris, Kurds and other nationalities live in the
historic districts… It is not necessary for Mikirtuma [a common
Armenian name often used to refer to the ethnic group] to always
live in Sololaki [a historic district in old Tbilisi]," Jugheli said,
as quoted by 24 Saati.

As this paper went to press, Jugheli had yet to issue an apology.

The NGO plans to distribute the flyers among MPs with slogans printed
on them like "Antipathy -Anti-party," starting on Tuesday morning.

"This is the first step," Stepanyan said, adding that the next step
will be consultations with the members of the National Movement on
replacing Jugheli as chair of the majoritarian faction.

"We call on the leaders of the ruling party to comment on the Jugheli’s
statement," he said.

Along with these measures, the Public Movement Multinational Georgia
plans to set up an anti-fascist movement, together with some other
human rights NGOs, the work on which will start from Tuesday as well.

Furthermore, the coalition will prepare a notice that will be
distributed among international organizations locally and abroad,
calling on them to appropriately react to the incident.

"We will do all these things in order to combat the trend that has
been emerging in the country lately; this trend will lead Georgian
statehood to failure, and we are going to do this irrespective of
whether Mr Jugheli apologizes or not," Stepanyan told the paper.

Stepanyan warned that unless Jugheli apologizes, this will lead to
the end of his political career, as "we [human rights NGOs] will do
our best to banish him from the political arena so that he will not
be accepted in any political movement."

Ethnic Armenian MP of the ruling party Van Baiburt called Jugheli’s
remark "black humour", saying he is convinced Jugheli was not implying
"anything serious" behind his words.

"I would admit that Beso’s statement was a mistake and the outcry was
justified among the local Armenian community. Nevertheless, I would
say his remarks came during a confusing interaction with journalists
and he didn’t mean any harm," Baiburt told The Messenger.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress