Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan, in Armenian
27 Sep 05 p 3
Public forum urges Georgia to grant autonomy to Armenian minority
by Arman Karapetyan headlined “The situation is getting worse in Javakhk”
The forum of public and political organizations of Javakhk, which was
recently held in Akhalkalaki, has suggested that the Georgian
authorities grant autonomy to Javakhk and adopted a statement in this
regard. The statement calls on the Georgian authorities to examine
the issue of setting up a state federal entity and grant autonomy to
Armenian-populated Javakhk. In an interview with the Georgian
newspaper Rezonansi last week, the chairman of the Virk organization,
David Rstakyan, said that during the forum some people may have
raised the problem of Javakhk’s autonomy, and in fact, this happened.
Rstakyan added that in Javakhk people understand that in Georgia the
word “autonomy” is associated with “separatism” as is the case with
Abkhazia and South Ossetia. At the same time, he said that as a rule,
multi-ethnic states are based on the principle of federalism.
The Armenian deputy of the Georgian parliament, Van Bayburd, said in
an interview with the Russian newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta that
people closely connected with Armenian extremist forces demanded that
the issue of autonomy be included in the document of the forum.
Bayburd added that in this case, we are dealing with the artificial
exacerbation of the situation. On the whole, the socioeconomic
situation in Javakhk is not worse than in other regions of Georgia,
and the Georgian president’s decision to buy agricultural produce for
the Georgian army from Javakhk will ease the current social and
economic situation.
In any case, Russian TV and press paid quite a lot of attention to
the forum. Javakhk continues to be a risk zone for the Georgian
authorities and will remain such until 2008 when the last Russian
soldier leaves the region. In the future, the Georgian authorities
are going to invest 100m dollars in Javakhk, i.e. one third of the
money that Georgia will receive under the Millennium Challenge
Account. Moreover, according to the Russian press, serious
investments are also expected in the sphere of creating jobs. We hope
that the Georgian and Armenian authorities will be clever enough not
to allow the situation in Javakhk to destabilize.
P. S. There are rumours that the public and political organizations
of Javakhk were angered by the fact that Georgian authorities are
trying to take control of them with the help of Javakhk’s Armenian
criminal authorities.