GEORGIA BORDER CLOSURE HURTS ARMENIANS
By Naira Bulgadaryan in Vanadzor and Fati Mamiashvili in Tbilisi

Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
Dec 13 2007

Dozens of Armenians jailed or fined for unwittingly breaching Georgian
border regulations.

Hovik Elizbarian is currently in jail in the Georgian capital Tbilisi,
but is hopeful he will be freed in the new year, under the terms of
a recent presidential amnesty.

Elizbarian, 44, is an Armenian national and is serving a four-year
sentence after being guilty of crossing the Georgian-Russian border
illegally on his way home to Armenia in June. Dozens of other Armenians
are sharing his fate, in a problem that could harm relations between
the two South Caucasian countries.

All land crossings between Georgia and Russia have been closed for
more than a year as a result of the intense political dispute between
the two countries. But it is still relatively easy to cross from
Russian territory into the unrecognised territory of South Ossetia,
and from there into Georgia proper.

As Georgia lies between Russia and Armenia, many Armenians have chosen
to travel by this route, only to find themselves accused of a serious
criminal offence.

Lela Mchelidze, spokesperson for Georgia’s border police, said
violating Article 344 of the criminal code by illegally crossing the
frontier constituted a grave offence, whatever the nationality of
the person who did it.

Human rights activist Arthur Sakunts, who heads the Helsinki
Civil Assembly in the Armenian town of Vanadzor, counters that the
imprisoning Armenians for crossing the Russian border is a violation
of their basic rights.

"Because of the deteriorating relationship between these two countries
– Georgia and Russia – citizens of a third country are suffering,"
said Sakunts. "International conventions and freedom of movement are
being violated."

Sakunts has been working to secure the release of Elizbarian, who
comes from Vanadzor.

Just a year ago, Elizbarian left Armenia to go to Moscow, where he
had a job as a driver. He decided to return home overland as he did
not have the money for an air ticket. He crossed what is still the
Russian-Georgian international border at the South Ossetian checkpoint
of Nizhny Zaramag, unaware that the stamp he received in his passport
would cause him problems.

As he was about to cross from Georgia into Armenia at Sadakhlo,
Elizbarian was arrested by Georgian officials. He was told he had
entered Georgia illegally and that the only legal crossing point from
Russia was the one at Upper Lars, although it is currently closed.

On October 30, Elizbarian was sentenced to four years by a court in
the town of Gori.

He is not alone -around 70 Armenians have been prosecuted on this
charge in the first ten months of this year.

Lawyer Malkhaz Kapanadze, who defended Elizbarian during his pre-trial
detention, said his client was simply unaware of the regulations.

"The Russian border guards at Nizhniy Zaramag didn’t tell him that
South Ossetia doesn’t have an official border entry point for Georgia,
or that he could be violating Georgian laws and could be called to
account for it," said Kapanadze. "Elizbarian was given an illegal
stamp in his passport and told to go wherever he pleased."

Kapanadze says the court ordered Elizbarian to pay bail of 3,000
laris – around 1,850 US dollars – and that if this was paid he would
be released within a month, but his family failed to pay up on time.

Back in Vanadzor, Elizbarian’s brother Robert said the family managed
to collect the money with great difficulty, but were unable to bring
it to Tbilisi in time.

Armen Grigorian, the Armenian consul in Georgia, told IWPR most of
the 73 convicted Armenian citizens had been released after paying
fines, and the rest were still in jail in Tbilisi, waiting to hear
the verdict in their cases.

The Georgian authorities insist there is no selective punishment of
Armenians and they are merely enforcing the law.

Mchelidze provided IWPR with statistical data showing that 340
instances where people had crossed the border illegally had been
recorded this year, 125 of them involving Georgian citizens and 69
Armenians. Last year, 55 Georgians and 24 Armenian nationals were
detained.

"I don’t know why there’s an impression that the law acts
selectively. Both this year and last, Georgian citizens dominate the
statistics," said Mchelidze.

Archil Gegeshidze of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and
International Studies also argued that no exemptions should be made.

"I understand that travelling through Georgia is the cheapest and
most convenient way for Armenian citizens, but the Lars crossing is
closed through no fault of Georgia’s, and we cannot open the border
unilaterally," he said. "Nor can Georgia cannot change its legislation
in relation to Armenian citizens.

"Of course it is unfair when people learn they broken the law when
they reach the border, but they need to be informed beforehand and
provided with all the necessary information."

However, Armen Ashotian, a parliamentary deputy from the Armenian
Republican Party, said the issue has damaged relations between the
two South Caucasian countries. He said that he had raised the issue
with the Armenian government.

"Last year, I provided statements and complaints from the families of
40 detainees to the Armenian foreign ministry, but Georgia has still
not resolved this issue," he said. "We have to be twice as insistent
in our demands to get the matter resolved.

"The fact that Georgia cannot control territories which it regards as
its own are a problem for it, not for our citizens who are getting
convicted. Georgia prefers to burden our citizens with its own
problems, and that’s neither ethical nor right."

Ashotian noted that Armenia also has influence in Georgia because
of Javakheti, the Armenian-majority area of the latter country,
and concluded, "Both sides have an interest in having good bilateral
relations."

There are expectations that the Armenians currently in detention in
Tbilisi will be freed soon. According to Salome Makharadze, spokeswoman
for Georgia’s penitentiary department, everyone convicted under
article 344 of the criminal code should be released under amnesty
before January 1.

However, the issue is likely to recur as long as the Georgian-Russian
border remains closed and Armenians mistakenly choose the shortest
way home.

Naira Bulgadarian is a correspondent with Grazhdanskaya Initsiativa
(Civil Initiative) newspaper in Vanadzor, Armenia. Fati Mamiashvili
is a correspondent with Rustavi 2 television in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Both are members of IWPR’s EU-funded Cross Caucasus Journalism Network.