Ethnic Armenian editor favours federal status for Georgia – agency

Mediamax news agency
21 Jun 07

Yerevan, 21 June: There is a tendency for growth of anti-Armenian moods
in Georgia, the deputy director of the Caucasus Media Institute (CMI),
Sergey Minasyan, and the editor of Akunq newspaper of [Georgia’s region
of] Samtskhe-Javakheti Armenians, Mels Torosyan, stated in Yerevan
today.

Sergey Minasyan stated that the Armenians living in Samtskhe-Javakheti
are not perceived as full members of Georgian society. According to
him, this becomes a reason for Armenians’ reluctance to study the
Georgian language. Armenians make 98 per cent of the population of the
given region. He noted that Armenians, who live in Akhaltsikhe
[regional centre of Samtskhe-Javakheti] and Tbilisi, are to a greater
extent loyal to the solution of the language problem.

Mels Torosyan expressed concern in connection with the fact that the
Georgian media published information on the allegedly separatist moods
of the Armenians residing in Samtskhe-Javakheti. He noted that "after
the withdrawal of the Russian military base from Akhalkalaki, the local
population found itself face to face with the burden of socioeconomic
and political problems".

Mels Torosyan voiced opinion that Georgia should be reformed into a
federal or a confederal state, since the tightly living national
minorities make the considerable part of the country’s population. He
spoke for the provision of the language, cultural and educational
autonomy to Samtskhe-Javakheti until the final settlement of the issue
of Georgia’s state structure.