ON NATIONAL POLICY OF GEORGIA

"Noravank" Foundation
03 March 2009

The theme of the latest discussion arranged by "Arantsq" analytical
centre was the national policy pursued by the authorities of
Georgia. The expert of "Noravank" Foundation, Candidate of Historical
Sciences Tamara Vardanyan, the representative of "Mitq" analytical
centre Vahe Sargsyan, and the deputy director of the Institute of
Caucasus Sergey Minasyan took part in that discussion.

The participants of the discussion expressed their concern that the
struggle of the authorities of Georgia with the Armeniancy of Georgia
is not restricted by the known frontiers, i.e. spiritual and cultural,
educational and language, social, judicial directions. The split
of unity between two parts of Armeniancy of Georgia, i.e. between
Armenians of Javakhq and Tbilisi, is one of the manifestations of
anti-Armenian policy and it is implemented with the help of special
measures in the information field. For years Georgian authorities
have done everything to sow controversy between these two groups.

The expert of "Noravank" Foundation Tamara Vardanyan, while speaking
about the situation in Armenian community of Tbilisi, noticed that
the Armenians of Tbilisi have no potential for self-organization
as it is rather apolitical community and the most tolerant and
cosmopolitan one. The main wish of the Armenians of Tbilisi is to
live peacefully in t heir favourite city of Tbilisi. "There is no
consistency in the national problems to be seen, or any wish to resist
Georgian authorities as there is no necessary potential", – said the
expert. Due to these realities the Armenians of Tbilisi do not react or
support the just complaints of the Armenians of Javakhq. Even more,
"the Armenians of Tbilisi scare and are very concerned when the
situation in Javakhq has worsened", – concluded the expert.

Tamara Vardanyan also touched upon the unfounded rumours spread
in Tbilisi lately that allegedly Armenia wanted to initiate
war against Georgia and she did not exclude the possibility of
Azerbaijani-Turkish trace. T. Vardanyan noticed: "The dissemination
of such a misinformation in Georgia should bother us and this is
another evidence that we are not active in the information field. Who
if not Armenian side should refute such lies?" T. Vardanyan is of
the opinion that the accumulated problems can de solved only by the
activation of horizontal ties, on all the levels: from social to the
state and official. The spokesperson underlined the following thesis:
"both sides should clearly understand that the Armenian-Georgian
friendship is beneficial only for Armenia and Georgia and this should
be the base for the quality and level of their relations".

The representative of "Mitq" analytical centre Vahe Sargsyan tried to
illustrate with the help of the specific examples the similarity of the
manifestations of anti-Armenian policy in Azerbaijan and Georgia. If
during the Soviet period Azerbaijan could finally arrange mass exodus
of the Armenians from Nakhijevan and change the demographic picture
in Nagorno-Karabakh in their favour, then in the same way Georgia
divided Samtskhe-Javakhq-Tsalka region in the favour of Georgian and
Adjarian elements and changed the demographic picture. In the opinion
of V. Sargsyan the only difference between the policies of Azerbaijan
and Georgia is that "if Azerbaijan simply destroyed Armenians then
Georgian implies the same policy by estranging them". Saying that
Georgia has always carried out chauvinistic policy towards national
minorities V. Sargsyan concluded: "Today that policy has become even
more obvious and impudent. Meanwhile, the authorities of Armenian
are extremely prudent. We must change out tactics. The Armenians of
Javakhq and Georgia should become a political factor, we should use
our "wealth", i.e. the potential of Armenians of Tbilisi and Javakhq
and make Georgia stay abstain from anti-Armenian manifestations as
this can also be dangerous for Georgia".

Sergey Minasyan, the deputy director of the Institute of Caucasus,
noticed that the society of Georgia regards the problem of national
minorities, including the problem of the Armenians of Jvakhq, not
as a judicial but mainly as a political problem .. According to
S. Minasyan the Georgian society is afraid of taking liberal steps
towards national minorities and this is the reason why they do not
implement their commitment to the European institutions. He mentioned
that this kind of policy on behalf of Georgian authorities concludes
to the quite opposite result. For example, Armenians of Javakhq have
no confidence in Georgian authorities, the contradictions between
them aggravated. How a Javakhian can trust Georgian authorities if
"he is compelled to forget his mother tongue, or he is not regarded
as a full citizen"? The political analyst is sure that if there are no
changes in Georgian position on that issue then the commitments to the
European Union regarding national minorities will stay on the paper.