YERKIR UNION: STRUGGLE FOR JAVAKHK ARMENIANS’ LEGAL RIGHTS IS ALL-ARMENIAN

Noyan Tapan
June 24, 2009

YEREVAN, JUNE 24, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. On June 23, the Yerkir
Union spread a statement on new manifestations of policy of violation
of Javakhk Armenians’ rights. Below is the statement completely:

"The consistent policy of violation of Javakhk Armenians’ rights
carried out by the Georgian authorities has got new, more rude and
evident manifestations. Thus,

Javakhk Armenian teachers, who were leaving for Armenia within the
framework of the retraining program, were called to the Georgian
Security Service and interrogated,

the rights of Javakhk Armenian activist Vahagn Chakhalian continue
to be rudely violated. He was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by
the Georgian court with the charge of organizing rallies and meetings
on April 7 2009,

on June 19 of the current year RA National Assembly deputy Shirak
Torosian, who is known for his public speeches on problems of Javakhk
Armenians, was prohibited to enter Georgia without any explanation.

The Georgian authorities being concerned that protest to their policy
of violation of Javakhk Armenians’ rights gradually increases in
Armenia, Diaspora, and among the international community, on the eve
of Georgian President M. Saakashvili’s visit to Armenia, by increasing
anti-Armenian persecutions try to achieve the following main purposes:

to once more show their unyielding position in the issue of Javakhk
Armenians’ rights,

to move the Javakhk problem to the sphere of Armenian-Georgian
interstate relations and by exerting economic pressure upon the
Armenian authorities to force them to make new concessions.

The Yerkir Union calls the Georgian authorities for understanding that
persecutions only deepen the current discontent by further increasing
the realization in Armenia and Diaspora that the struggle for Javakhk
Armenians’ legal rights is an all-Armenian struggle. Therefore,
Georgian authorities’ efforts to move the problem of Javakhk Armenians
to the sphere of interstate relations and to give a "solution" to it by
using economic levers of pressure on that plane are doomed to failure.

There is no alternative to stopping the persecutions, dialogue with
public-political circles representing the Armenians of Javakhk and
giving a real solution to language, educational, religious, and
cultural problems faced by the Armenians of Javakhk.

The Armenian authorities, Armenian and Diasporan structures,
international organizations are obliged to undertake active steps to
stop the crisis gradually deepening in Javakhk and to give a solution
to Javakhk Armenians’ problems in correspondence with international
norms of human rights and minorities rights.