PRESIDENT SAAKASHVILI VISITS MAINLY ETHNIC ARMENIAN JAVAKHETI REGION
Written by Ramaz Mitaishvili
Abkhazia, CA
Ju ne 25 2007
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili today visited the predominately
ethnic Armenian-populated Javakheti region. Saakashvili opened a
sports hall in Ninotsminda together with locals who had participated
in the Patriot youth camp programme. The president also opened a dairy
factory in the village of Spasovka, where in remarks to journalists he
touted the region’s potential in the tourism and agriculture sectors.
"There are three main factors in this region: one is stability and
calm, the second is the permanent supply of electricity, which is
very important, and the third is good roads. During my first term as
president, none of the main roads in Javakheti – a region which had
been forsaken and ignored by everyone and left destroyed and ruined –
will remain in poor condition.
"Agriculture here has a unique potential which will be fully
realized. There is a great potential for agriculture here and there is
a great potential for tourism. There are lakes, mountains and forests
here, there are various minerals and curative means here that are
not found in Europe or anywhere else.
"But there was no road and there was no information. A very important
thing has happened in this region over the past years which many
people cannot yet see. This region has become completely integrated
into Georgia. Now we are much more confident and this is the result
[holds up a piece of cheese on a toothpick]. This is not just cheese,
this is the combination of stability, roads and electricity,"
Saakashvili told journalists at the factory opening.
The president then travelled to Akhalkalaki, where he met students
who had failed to pass university entrance exams because they do not
know the Georgian language. Saakashvili promised that special stipends
would be allotted for the region’s prospective university students
to encourage them to receive a higher education inside Georgia.
"I declare today that from August we will allot 100 presidential
stipends for natives of Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda so that they can
enrol in preparatory faculties in Tbilisi and later become students.
We will give stipends to all of you. We will teach all of you for
free so that you can later properly continue your studies in the
departments you choose.
"Of course, I know that there are people who go to Minsk and Yerevan
and other institutions of study in Kiev and in Russia. I propose –
and I will facilitate this – that you stay in Georgia, in your own
homeland. Study in your homeland. We will give you the best education
in the region," Saakashvili said in Russian before a group of students
in Akhalkalaki.