Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

The Issues Of The Javakheti Armenians Are Again Presented In An Inco

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • The Issues Of The Javakheti Armenians Are Again Presented In An Inco

    THE ISSUES OF THE JAVAKHETI ARMENIANS ARE AGAIN PRESENTED IN AN INCOMPLETE AND DISTORTED FORM IN THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT'S 2010 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON GEORGIA

    yerkir.am
    20.04.2011

    On April 8, 2011 the U.S. State Department released its 2010 Country
    Reports on Human Rights Practices. In the country report on Georgia
    similarly to the last year's report, the facts of violation of
    the rights of the Armenians of Javakheti have been presented in an
    incomplete and distorted manner.

    In particular, the report fails to reflect the following violations
    of the rights of the Armenians of Javakheti:

    The social and political life of the Javakheti Armenians is under the
    direct, systematic and total control of the Georgian law enforcement
    agencies. Even the slightest manifestations of social protest of
    the Javakheti Armenians are uprooted through illegal police actions
    (illegal detention, pressure, threats, fabricated criminal charges,
    etc.).

    The results of the Georgian municipal elections, run in May 2010, were
    rigged in the Armenian-populated regions in favor of Saakashvili's
    "National Movement" ruling party.

    The Georgian legislation bans the establishment of political
    organizations on a regional basis. Consequently, in order to
    take part in the elections, the Javakheti political structures are
    obliged to seek ways to include their candidates in the lists of any
    nationwide Georgian party. This greatly hinders the participation of
    forces representing the interests of the Armenian population in the
    socio-political life.

    The Georgian authorities continue to impose mandatory legislative
    and administrative measures to compel the minorities in the regions
    of their compact residence to use exclusively the Georgian language
    in all spheres of public life, ignoring the demands of the Javakheti
    Armenians to grant the Armenian language the status of a regional
    language. This is a flagrant violation of the international commitments
    undertaken by Georgia , including the European Framework Convention
    for the Protection of National Minorities.

    According to the official statistical data, the Armenians constitute
    about 55% of the population of Samtskhe-Javakheti province, but
    they are almost non-represented in the governing bodies of this
    administrative unit.

    The Georgian custom officials on the Armenian-Georgian border continue
    to pose artificial obstacles to transportation of Armenian books and
    press to Javakheti.

    The report rightly notes that the Javakheti Armenians complain "about
    government unwillingness to give provincial-language status to the
    Armenian language", but immediately afterwards it adds that "many NGOs
    in the region stated that they saw an improvement during the year in
    the number of opportunities for Georgian-language instruction". The
    impression is that by this way the U.S. State Department encourages
    the Georgian authorities to continue the policy of accelerated and
    forcible imposition of the Georgian language, which is one of the
    main sources of irritation of the Javakheti Armenians.

    In the report of 2010 the inaccuracies on the case of Vahagn Chakhalyan
    (the Javakheti Armenian political activist convicted to 10 years'
    imprisonment based on trumped-up charges) have not been corrected. On
    the positive side, in the new report the U.S. State Department
    considered it appropriate to make a reference to the arguments of the
    Armenian side, indicating that "Vahagn Chakhalian and his relatives
    had been targeted for prosecution because of his political activity
    in the country's ethnic Armenian community".

    Comparing the report on Georgia with the reports on the other countries
    of the region, we can see, that noting the phenomena, such as lack
    of fair trial, judicial control by the authorities, prosecution
    for politically motivated reasons in Georgia, the phenomena that
    also affect the Javakheti Armenians, the U.S. Department of State
    nevertheless avoids giving these cases an equivalent assessment,
    thus applying double standards for Georgia.

    The United States , as one of the main partners of Georgia , by
    not covering in its report the basic facts of the violation of the
    rights and freedoms of the national minorities in this country,
    actually, delegate to Saakashvili's regime the right to continue
    its discriminatory policy. The U.S. government, in fact, renders
    Georgia disservice, as this mode of action by the Georgian authorities
    increases day by day the resentment of Georgian citizens, including
    Javakheti Armenians.

    The Coordinating Council for Protection of the Rights of the Javakhk
    Armenians urges the U.S. authorities to cover the issues of the
    Armenian population of Georgia in their reports more objectively
    and fairly, as well as to strengthen the efforts to ensure full
    implementation of the international commitments undertaken by Georgia
    in the field of protection of human rights and the rights of the
    national minorities.




    From: A. Papazian
Working...
X