VAHAGN CHAKHALYAN’S LETTER TO THE GEORGIAN PRESIDENT
LRAGIR.AM
15:44:22 – 30/03/2009
After Georgia gained its independence, Gamsakhurdia and Shevardnadze
administrations initiated the policy of ignoring the problems of
Javakheti and fostered the perception of us, Javakheti Armenians,
as separatists, with the ensuing suppression of this imaginary
separatism. You also, unfortunately, continued the short-sighted
policy of your predecessors by presenting the Javakheti Armenians as a
particularly dangerous element for the integrity of the country. You
have even assigned the very fact that Javakheti has not yet seceded
to your flexible preventive actions.
You declared to the whole world that Javakheti Armenians only lack
the knowledge of the Georgian language in order to become equal and
integrated citizens, but these "stubborn" and "ungrateful" people
are persistently boycotting the multi-million-worth language training
programs initiated by the state.
Mr. President, believe me that if someone wishes to learn, no obstacles
can prevent him from doing it. Conversely, in the 21st century,
no money, or coercion can make people do whatever is contrary to
their will.
In the worst case, they will be obliged to take the path of protest
or emigration…
Therefore, it is necessary to take measures so that each representative
of a national minority living in Georgia feels the need to study
Georgian. Although, in order to make this possible, it is necessary
to undertake practical steps to guarantee equality, the rule of law
and freedom of all the peoples living in Georgia. That is the point.
Whereas you proved unable to offer Javakheti Armenians the democratic
conditions, with the exception of constructing new buildings of prison,
prosecutor’s office, police and court, doubling the number of military
and regional police employees, strengthening the regional structures
of special services, as well as persecuting and expulsing the people
fighting for the rights of Javakheti Armenians, i.e. for real, not
formal and temporal stability.
Furthermore, your gravest mistake was the appointment of a person
mastered in small and big provocations to the position of Chief of
Police of Akhalkalaki district, which is a crucial post in terms
of suppression of Javakheti, and giving him the unlimited power to
hold Javakheti Armenians in leash. Wasn’t it clear to you that only
short-term "stability" could be achieved through repression, whereas
in the long run it would only increase the alienation and distrust
among Javakheti Armenians towards the Georgian authorities?
Or, maybe, that was exactly Your goal?
Mr. President, how long do you intend to continue this policy inherited
from your predecessors? Is it not the time to undertake the important
mission of solving the political, linguistic, cultural, educational
and socio-economic problems facing the Javakheti Armenians, at least,
solving them gradually, step by step…
Is it not enough, that the representatives of the central authorities
in their private conversations shift the main "blame" for their
inaction in dealing with the problems of national minorities
on the resistance of the "majority" – the titular nation? Yes,
"the majority" has its fears based on the distressing 20-year
experience. Nevertheless, the same majority realizes very well,
perhaps even much better, than the authorities themselves, that if
the teaching in the Ossetian language had not been banned in the
schools in Tskhinvali, many of the losses would not have happened…
Is it not the time to put an end to the approach of the authorities,
who make economic concessions to the clans blossoming in Javakheti
(which are actually installed and nursed from the center), rather
than address serious problems? Such short-sighted policy not only
fails to unleash the Javakheti knot, but, on the contrary, makes it
more and more tangled and uncontrolled day by day…
Is it not the time to take practical steps to restore the gradually
declining confidence of the Javakheti Armenian population in
the central authorities of Georgia? You have that power, which,
unfortunately, you have never tried to use up to this day.
The Javakheti Armenians are ready to dialogue. We still want to hope
that we will not be forced to seek the solutions to the problems
existing between our two friendly peoples in the European and
International structures. There is only one thing that remains –
for you to accept the invitation to dialogue.
Try to do it today.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
