INCIDENT IN TSALKA: ONE DEAD AS OMBUDSMAN RULES OUT ETHNIC MOTIVE
The Messenger, Georgia
March 13 2006
A brawl which broke out in the multiethnic settlement of Tsalka on
March 9 left one person dead and two wounded. Gevorg Gevorkyan, 23,
died at the scene. The brawl participants and those suspected of
Gevorkyan’s murder have been detained, and the reason for the fight
has yet to be officially determined.
Rumor spread that the fight was the result of an ethnically motivated
confrontation between groups of Georgian and Armenian youths and
Gevorkyan’s death led to the formation of a mob outside the regional
police department on Friday, with participants demanding that one of
the murder suspects be lynched.
Meanwhile the Public Defender’s office issued a statement promising
to investigate the incident as a possible hate crime. On Saturday,
the Ombudsman ruled that the incident was the result of an act of
“ordinary hooliganism.” “Our representatives traveled there and looked
into the case. We can say that this dispute had nothing to do with
ethnic confrontation,” Ombudsman Sozar Subari announced on March 11.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced that the
situation has calmed down and that order has been restored.