WILL JAVAKHQ BE GRANTED AUTONOMY?
Support A1+!Sabina Freizer, the Project Director of the International Crisis Group (ICG) on Caucasus, presented the ICG report on Javakhq at the Second Convention of European Armenians.
The referendum due in Javakhq on October 16 was postponed till November. The Javakhqi Armenians are concerned over four issues- language, local self-government bodies, prison and the Armenian Genocide.
According to Sabina Freizer, the issues have aroused controversial feedback in Georgia. President Saakashvili states minorities should be granted equal rights and backs decentralization. The recent laws came to prove the reverse: power lies with the Georgians.
Georgians reject discrimination while Armenians complaint of the language barrier, they cannot use the Armenian language in social and political life. At the same time they accept that corruption has significantly decreased in the country after the “Revolution of Roses.”
Poverty and emigration are comparatively high in Javakhq. Georgians fear that one day national minorities might demand sovereignty or independence. Freizer says Georgians are mistaken while equating autonomy with separatism. Armenians of Georgia merely want cultural and religious sovereignty.
Under the recent “Law on Education”, Literature, History and Language should be taught in the Georgian language. The Javakhqi Armenians are really concerned over the law as they don't master the language.
The ICG has requested the Georgian Government to allow Armenians using Mother Tongue in communities where their number surpasses 20 per cent of the population. (90% of the Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda population are Armenians. There are 250 thousand Armenians in Georgia. 120 thousand of them live in Samtskhe-Javakhq.)
Samtskhe-Javakhq has never had an Armenian governor though most of the population are Armenians.
Georgians get irritated each time someone speaks of federation or confederation. They struggle for their identification via contradictory methods. Georgia should realise that their stance is inadmissible for Europe, Sabina Freizer said.
Ruzan Amirjanyan
Brussels
