YEREVAN WANTS TBILISI TO DECLARE ARMENIAN AS REGIONAL LANGUAGE

EurasiaNet
Sept 2 2009
NY

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is calling on the Georgian government
to expand the cultural rights enjoyed by ethnic Armenians in Georgia.

"I believe that recognition of Armenian as a regional [i.e. official]
language, registering a diocese of the Armenian apostolic church
[and] the preservation of Armenian [historical] monuments will only
serve to deepen the Armenian-Georgian friendship," the Interfax news
agency quoted Sargsyan as saying on September 2.

Separatist tensions have long simmered under the surface in Georgian
areas with high concentrations of ethnic Armenians, Georgia’s second
largest ethnic minority. Given that Georgia’s post-Soviet experience
has been dominated by separatist-related issues, the government in
Tbilisi is wary of doing anything that might enable a new movement for
autonomy to develop. Some experts in Tbilisi say that making Armenian
an official language could touch off similar efforts by other ethnic
minorities in Georgia, according to a report distributed September
2 by the Kavkazsky Uzel news service.