YERKIR UNION
EUrope
Mail: contact@yerkir.eu
Web:

ARMENIA
Contact: Robert Tatoyan
Mobile: +374 94 36 17 93
Email: rob@yerkir.org
Web:

Stop this policy of repression carried out by the Georgian authorities
against its Armenian citizens

Appeal the Members of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly

Stop à la politique de répression menée par les autorités géorgiennes
contre les arméniens de Géorgie

APPEL AUX PARLEMENTAIRES DE L’ASSEMBLéE PARLEMENTAIRE DU CONSEIL DE L’EUROPE

27 April 2009

Distinguished Members,

During the 2nd part of the 2009 Ordinary Session on Wednesday, April
29 you will examine the «Follow-up given by Georgia and Russia to
Resolution 1647 (2009)» and «The humanitarian consequences of the war
between Georgia and Russia: Follow-up given to Resolution 1648 (2009)
».

Our NGO Yerkir Union has been working since 2005 to establish a
dialogue between Georgia and the Armenian minority in order to avoid a
new conflict which would worsen the situation in Georgia. Georgia
refuses this outstretched hand and prefers to lead a policy of
repression against Armenians in Samtskhe-Djavakheti region.

Through this letter we are willing to draw the attention of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council on the fact that,
Georgia is engaged in a real concerted plan against the Armenians in
Samtskhe-Djavakheti region.

This policy reached its climax on July 17, 2008 with several Armenian
civil activists arrests in this region who were merely demanding there
language, cultural, religious and social-economic rights to be
respected.

For 8 months, the Armenian population of Samtskhe-Djavakheti region
has been suffering offenses to their rights from the police and
officials. Some NGO leaders and civil rights activists are
systematically intimidated, and even arrested under various fallacious
pretexts.

Vahagn Chakhalyan leader of the `Democratic Alliance `United Djavakhk’
movement was arrested on July 28, 2008, two weeks before the
Russian-Georgian conflict. On Tuesday 07 April 2009 he was condemned
to a 10 year prison sentence after an 8 month trial for `arms
detention’ and `organization and active participation in group actions
which grossly disrupts public order’.

This verdict is the culmination of a travesty of justice where the
rights of defense have continuously been violated. The Ministry of
Justice forbids a French lawyer to defend Vahagn Chakhalyan. Mr. Sozar
Subari, the Ombudsman of Georgia has even challenged the decisions of
the Ministry of Justice declaring them unconstitutional. April 16, the
Armenian activist was taken out from his cell and subjected to
sustained and brutal beating by prison officers.

Georgia presents herself before the international community as a
democratic state committed to the European values, respecting Human
and Minorities’ Rights and putting forward its multi-ethnicity.

Unfortunately, in fact Georgia implements a segregationist policy, by
forcing non-alternative use of the Georgian language, supporting
exclusively the Georgian Orthodox creed and pursuing a policy of
assimilation and eradication of its minorities.

Distinguished Members, you are to consider the consequences of the
Russian Georgian war. The origin of this conflict lies in the way
Georgia treated the rights of its Ossetian and Abkhazian
minorities. In order to avoid a new crisis, this time with the
Armenian minority in the Samtskhe-Djavakheti region, we ask the
Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council to take urgent and
necessary measures to stop this policy of exclusion and repression
carried out by the Georgian authorities against its Armenian citizens.