ON THE RIGHTS OF ARMENIANS

Lragir.am
11:40:59 – 27/10/2008

The "Yerkir" Union of Non-governmental Organizations for Repatriation
and Settlement sent a letter to all the international organizations
operating in Georgia, embassies and human rights organizations,
which holds:

"Despite international obligations assumed by the Georgian government
for the protection of the rights of ethnic minorities in Georgia,
despite numerous recommendations and appeals by international
organizations, including the UN Human rights commission and human
rights NGO-s to respect these obligations, the Georgian authorities
continue to ignore and disregard issues of concern to the Armenian
minority, contributing moreover, by a number of new steps, to the
aggravation of tensions and the increase of discontent.

Within this context, the Georgian authorities have not only continued
to disregard repeated demands by the Georgian Diocese of the Armenian
Apostolic Church asking to be handed over Armenian churches of Georgia
and particularly the Norashen church in Tbilisi, confiscated in the
soviet era, but have also tacitly encouraged and sometimes even
actively helped hostile actions on behalf of the Georgian clergy
which is actively embarked for a certain time now in the process
of self-appropriation of the Armenian churches in Georgia. In this
line of action, the Georgian authorities recently provided once again
construction permits to the clergy of the Georgian church neighboring
Norashen, allowing it to build around Norashen a surrounding wall
carrying Georgian religious ornaments, considerably complicating in
this way the access to the Armenian church.

Due to protest actions of the Armenian community of Tbilisi and to
appeals emanating from Armenian Apostolic Church authorities, several
Armenian NGOs, including "Yerkir" Organization, it was possible to
temporarily halt in May of the current year the hostile activities of
Georgian priests, but construction works around the Armenian Norashen
church resumed on a wide scale a few days ago (see attached photos).

In addition to this hostile policy towards the Armenian Apostolic
Church in Georgia, while dealing with the Armenian minority in their
country, Georgian authorities continue to violate basic international
human rights’ and democratic norms pertaining to this field. Thus,
among other shortcomings within this context, they continue to maintain
politically-motivated criminal charges against the political activists
of the Armenian populated Javakheti region and their family members,
lately arrested and imprisoned without real foundations.

Thus, Arthur Poghosyan, an activist of the political movement
"Democratic Alliance "United Javakhk", was recently sentenced to 2.5
years of imprisonment on the basis of fabricated charges. Another
activist of the movement, Gurgen Shirinyan, has a search warrant
issued against him by the authorities, while his father and aunt
are detained and waiting trial. The leader of "United Javakhk",
Vahagn Chakahlyan, in turn, as well as his juvenile brother, are
also in detention in Tbilisi, while their father, Rouben Chakhalyan,
has been set free on bail.

Other issues which are a matter of concern for the Armenian minority
still remain unresolved: – the Armenian Apostolic Church continues to
be deprived of a status of legal entity; – the Armenian Minority in
Georgia, particularly the part of it living compactly in the Javakheti
region, continues to be under-represented in all spheres of public
life; – the Georgian central Government continues to enforce the
laws obliging minorities to use exclusively the Georgian language
in all fields of public activity, and particularly in the local
administrations and local educational system within the context of
regional self-government.

– posts in the local administration, educational sphere or any other
post for the holders of professional diplomas continue to be contingent
on the knowledge of the Georgian language.

Under the actual circumstances, while Georgia is still recovering with
difficulty from the consequences of the recent armed conflict with
Russia and is announcing the launching of a wave of democratization
reforms and the enforcement of the rule of law, such a treatment by
the Georgian authorities of its Armenian minority looks in fact much
more irrational.

Taking into consideration the above mentioned facts, "Yerkir"
Union calls upon the appropriate and specialized structures of the
United Nations, the European Union, the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe, as well as of all
other concerned international organizations and human rights bodies,
to take immediate and direct measures to restrain Georgia’s negative
current behavior against its Armenian minority, to put an end to the
political persecutions in Javakheti, and to facilitate the emergence
of a solution for the Armenian community of Georgia, as far as its
minority rights are the issue, and in particular, to ensure this
result by obtaining from the Georgian authorities to: 1. Set free
all political prisoners recently detained in Javakheti and withdraw
all politically motivated criminal charges against them;

2. Implement the rule of law and guarantee the security of the Armenian
population of Javakheti;

3. Ensure the freedom of faith in the country and register the Armenian
Apostolic Church as a legal entity in Georgia;

4. Return all confiscated places of worship to their legitimate owners;

5. Allow by law the use of the Armenian language in all spheres
of public life in the local administrations of all regions where
Armenians represent a majority.

The international community must act now to avoid further aggravation
of the situation and prevent the emergence of a new seat of conflict."