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Tension runs high in Georgia's Armenian-populated district

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  • Tension runs high in Georgia's Armenian-populated district

    Tension runs high in Georgia's Armenian-populated district

    Imedi TV, Tbilisi
    11 Mar 06


    [Presenter] A rally organized by ethnic Armenian action groups in
    Akhalkalaki [southern Georgia] continued for about an hour. After the
    rally, protesters tried to storm and loot several buildings. First,
    the protesters stormed the Akhalkalaki court building. They are angry
    because ethnic Armenian judges failed to pass attestation and were
    suspended. The action group is demanding that an ethnic Armenian judge
    be appointed along with the Georgian judge and that court proceedings
    be carried out in the Armenian language.

    >From the court building the protesters moved to the Akhalkalaki
    branch of the [Tbilisi State] University. Crime Police officers tried
    to stop them, but the protesters managed to break into the building
    and loot some rooms.

    However, they left the building when told so by the organizers. The
    Armenian action groups are demanding that the Georgian university
    should be closed unless Armenian-language classes are
    introduced. [Video shows a crowd breaking into a building and smashing
    a door]

    [Nodar Gvaramadze, Georgian judge] I had no idea that this rally was
    planned. When these people came here, they entered the building and
    told me to leave. When I asked why, they told me that they wanted to
    board up the door. I told them that I was there to perform my duties
    and they could only make me leave by force. They said I had better
    leave. In the end, in order to avoid escalation and damage to the
    building, I decided that it was better to leave.

    [Young man, no caption, in Russian] Recently, [ethnic] Armenian judges
    from Akhalkalaki, Kalbatono [Georgian polite form of addressing a
    woman] Susana and judge Ararat Chobanyan, were sacked because they do
    not speak Georgian.

    That's what the problem is. The people rebelled. They [judges] should
    speak an understandable language.

    [Albert Maranjyan, in Russian] This [university branch] should be
    either closed or a joint facility should be opened, so that our people
    could also study here. Our people cannot study here because they do
    not speak Georgian, they are educated in Armenian. How can they study
    in this institute? Only one or two students from the entire
    Akhalkalaki study here, and even they were admitted in exchange for
    money. All others [students] are not locals.

    [Reporter] What are your plans?

    [Maranjyan] Plans? These studies here should be shut down. If they
    want to open something, it should have an Armenian component, so that
    Armenians could study here too.

    [Presenter] A short while ago, the situation in Akhalkalaki
    escalated. After sacking the court and university buildings, the
    protesters moved to the building of the Kumurdo-Akhalkalaki eparchy
    [of the Georgian Orthodox Church].

    They tried to break into the building too. The protesters were
    claiming that arms were hidden in the eparchy, so they wanted to check
    the premises. After the negotiations with the police and a telephone
    conversation with Father Nikoloz, several protesters were allowed to
    enter the building and check the premises. After finding no arms, they
    left the eparchy. At the moment, the rally is slowly coming to an end.

    [Albert Maranjyan, in Russian] No, nothing of the sort. We simply met
    and talked with employees [of the eparchy]. We saw how they live, and
    we left, nothing else.

    [Sister Mariam] They came here and I was among those who met them. I
    asked them what they wanted. They said that the building was a
    kindergarten and that we should vacate it. They wanted to break into
    the building. Another sister managed to shut the door, and we stood
    there. Then all these people were pushing the door and telling us
    that unless we left this building - stressing that it was a
    kindergarten - they would storm it.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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