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GEORGIAN COURT SENTENCES ARMENIAN ACTIVIST TO 10 YEARS IN PRISON
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
April 8 2009
Czech Rep
The 2006 closure of the Russian military base in Akhalkalaki deprived
many in the region of their livelihoods.
On April 7, a court in the Akhaltsikhe district of southern Georgia
sentenced Vahagn Chakhalian, a local activist who for several years has
campaigned on behalf of the region's predominantly Armenian population,
to 10 years' imprisonment on charges of illegal possession of weapons,
participating in mass disorders, resisting arrest, and "hooliganism."
Chakhalian's father Ruben and his younger brother Armen were fined
5,000 laris ($3,000) and 2,000 laris ($1,200) respectively. Armenian
civil rights organizations consider the charges to be unsubstantiated.
The three men were taken into custody in July 2008, days after
an explosion near the home of the police chief in the neighboring
district of Akhalkalaki, in an operation carried out by Georgian
special-service personnel, in the course of which an Armenian police
officer reportedly died in circumstances that remain unclear.
Chakhalian's father and brother were later released, but Chakhalian
went on trial in Akhaltsikhe in November, initially only on charges of
illegal possession of weapons, according to noravank.am on December
18. Concerned at reports of flagrant human rights violations in the
course of the trial, Armenian human rights ombudsman Armen Harutiunian
appealed to his Georgian counterpart Sozar Subari to monitor the
court proceedings, Noyan Tapan reported on December 25.
The Armenians of the south Georgian region of Javakheti (Armenian
Javakhk) are regarded with suspicion and mistrust both by the
Georgian authorities, which routinely downplay or dismiss claims
of discrimination or neglect expressed by ethnic minorities, and
by successive Armenian governments anxious not to offend Tbilisi by
intervening too aggressively in defense of their co-ethnics. Isolated
from the rest of Georgia by mountainous terrain and appallingly
inadequate highways, their social mobility circumscribed by the
Georgian government's failure over many decades to provide adequate
Georgian-language teaching in local schools, that Armenian community
has dwindled in size from almost 249,000 at the time of the 2002
Georgian census to an estimated 160,000 today.
Following the Rose Revolution of November 2003, the new Georgian
leadership under President Mikheil Saakashvili instigated token
gestures, such as the introduction of radio and television broadcasting
in Armenian and Azeri, intended to bridge the gulf between the central
government and those minorities.
The prime ministers of Armenia and Georgia, Andranik Markarian and
Zurab Noghaideli, toured Javakhk in July 2005 and promised investment
in repairs to schools and roads, but the new Georgian government
did not undertake any serious efforts either to alleviate widespread
poverty and isolation, or to create new jobs for the estimated 1,600
local Armenians employed at the Russian military base in Akhalkalaki
(the region's largest single employer) following the signing in May
2005 of an agreement between Tbilisi and Moscow to close the base by
the fall of 2007. Armenian parliamentary deputy Shirak Torosian (Hzor
Hayrenik, Mighty Fatherland) told a conference in Yerevan in March
2006 -- even before the closure of the military base -- that up to
30,000 young Armenians in Javakhk were unemployed, and some 9,000 local
Armenians travelled every year to Russia in search of seasonal work.
During the 1990s, two political organizations were established to
protect and promote the interests of the Armenian population of
Samtskhe-Javakheti: Javakhk, described as "a movement of village
intellectuals intermixed with disaffected townsfolk," and Virk,
which campaigned for the separation of Javakheti from Samtskhe and
for autonomy for Javakheti within the unitary Georgian state. The
two regions, Javakheti and Samtskhe, which borders it to the west,
were combined into a single province in 1995.
In March 2005, Vahagn Chakhalian established a new forum, the
Democratic Alliance United Javakhk, that over the next few months
convened several mass meetings in Akhalkalaki attended by thousands
of local Armenians protesting perceived discrimination.
In late September 2005, United Javakhk and Virk, together with
other local NGOs, convened a national forum at which participants
demanded that the Georgian authorities grant the region formal
autonomy. Georgia's "Messenger" suggested on September 29, 2005 that
the Armenians were inspired to do so at least in part by Saakashvili's
successive offers in January and July 2005 of broad autonomy to the
breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In an interview with the Russian news agency Regnum on December 26,
2005, Chakhalian stressed that the Armenians of Javakhk seek above
all to promote universal democratic values and political stability,
and wish to acknowledged and treated as law-abiding citizens entitled
to the same rights as the rest of the Georgian population.
Whether or not in a direct response to the Armenian demand for
autonomy, the Georgian authorities in 2006 set about splitting the
Armenian community and succeeded in co-opting Virk, which agreed to
team up with Saakashvili's United National Movement in the elections to
local councils that took place on October 5. The Armenian opposition
daily "Haykakan zhamanak" on October 19 claimed that the Armenian
government played a key role in subverting Virk and was prepared
to cooperate with its Georgian counterpart in neutralizing other
organizations campaigning on behalf of Javakhk's Armenian population.
United Javakhk for its part formed an election alliance with the
opposition party Industry Will Save Georgia, and staged a protest in
Akhalkalaki on October 9 against the perceived falsification of the
vote. Police intervened and used force to disperse the protesters.
Chakhalian was arrested on October 10, 2005, on his arrival in Yerevan
by car with his parents, brother, and a second United Javakhk activist,
Gurgen Shirinian, and charged with entering the Republic of Armenia
illegally. His arrest triggered protests in both Akhalkalaki and
Yerevan, and 16 Armenian opposition lawmakers signed a statement
accusing the Armenian authorities of targeting Chakhalian in a
"shameful" attempt to appease Tbilisi.
Chakhalian was subsequently tried, given a one-year suspended sentence,
and deported to Georgia.
Despite his arrest in July 2008, the Council of Armenian NGOs of
Samtskhe-Javakheti issued a renewed appeal to the Georgian authorities
on August 19, in the immediate aftermath of the Russian-Georgian
conflict over South Ossetia. They argued that the only way to restore
Georgia's territorial integrity and to allay ethnic tensions is to
transform Georgia into a federal state. Doing so would, however,
necessitate amending the Georgian Constitution, which designates
Georgia a unitary state.
The NGOs proposed that Samtskhe-Javakheti be granted "broad
self-government" within that federal framework, including the right
to free elections for all local government bodies and jurisdiction
over culture, education, crime prevention, and environmental and
socioeconomic issues. The region would also be represented within
the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government at
the national level. And, crucially, Armenian would be designated
a regional official language, alongside Georgian. Such measures to
protect the rights of national minorities are, the NGOs pointed out,
one of the necessary preconditions for Georgia's successful integration
into Euro-Atlantic structures.
There was no formal Georgian response to that appeal. But the problems
of the Javakheti Armenians figured on the agenda of Armenian President
Serzh Sarkisian's visit to Tbilisi on September 30. Saakashvili
was quoted as saying at a joint press conference with his Armenian
counterpart that "ethnic Armenians represent a very important segment
of the Georgian society. We do not distinguish our citizens according
to their ethnic descent. But, of course, we do respect their culture
and origins. These [elements] are part of their identity and part
of Georgia's identity. We are closely cooperating, also, in these
matters, making sure the dialogue between peoples and cultures is
made very easy."
Chakhalian addressed an open letter to Saakashvili in late March,
criticizing his failure to create equal conditions for all Georgian
citizens regardless of their ethnicity and the ongoing reprisals
against those local Armenians who seek to defend their rights. He
challenged Saakashvili to "take practical steps to restore" the
rapidly dwindling trust the Armenians of Javakhk have in the Georgian
leadership, affirming that "the Javakheti Armenians are ready for
dialogue. We still want to hope that we shall not be forced to invoke
European and international bodies in our search for a solution to
the problems that exist" between the Armenian and Georgian peoples.
RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
April 8 2009
Czech Rep
The 2006 closure of the Russian military base in Akhalkalaki deprived
many in the region of their livelihoods.
On April 7, a court in the Akhaltsikhe district of southern Georgia
sentenced Vahagn Chakhalian, a local activist who for several years has
campaigned on behalf of the region's predominantly Armenian population,
to 10 years' imprisonment on charges of illegal possession of weapons,
participating in mass disorders, resisting arrest, and "hooliganism."
Chakhalian's father Ruben and his younger brother Armen were fined
5,000 laris ($3,000) and 2,000 laris ($1,200) respectively. Armenian
civil rights organizations consider the charges to be unsubstantiated.
The three men were taken into custody in July 2008, days after
an explosion near the home of the police chief in the neighboring
district of Akhalkalaki, in an operation carried out by Georgian
special-service personnel, in the course of which an Armenian police
officer reportedly died in circumstances that remain unclear.
Chakhalian's father and brother were later released, but Chakhalian
went on trial in Akhaltsikhe in November, initially only on charges of
illegal possession of weapons, according to noravank.am on December
18. Concerned at reports of flagrant human rights violations in the
course of the trial, Armenian human rights ombudsman Armen Harutiunian
appealed to his Georgian counterpart Sozar Subari to monitor the
court proceedings, Noyan Tapan reported on December 25.
The Armenians of the south Georgian region of Javakheti (Armenian
Javakhk) are regarded with suspicion and mistrust both by the
Georgian authorities, which routinely downplay or dismiss claims
of discrimination or neglect expressed by ethnic minorities, and
by successive Armenian governments anxious not to offend Tbilisi by
intervening too aggressively in defense of their co-ethnics. Isolated
from the rest of Georgia by mountainous terrain and appallingly
inadequate highways, their social mobility circumscribed by the
Georgian government's failure over many decades to provide adequate
Georgian-language teaching in local schools, that Armenian community
has dwindled in size from almost 249,000 at the time of the 2002
Georgian census to an estimated 160,000 today.
Following the Rose Revolution of November 2003, the new Georgian
leadership under President Mikheil Saakashvili instigated token
gestures, such as the introduction of radio and television broadcasting
in Armenian and Azeri, intended to bridge the gulf between the central
government and those minorities.
The prime ministers of Armenia and Georgia, Andranik Markarian and
Zurab Noghaideli, toured Javakhk in July 2005 and promised investment
in repairs to schools and roads, but the new Georgian government
did not undertake any serious efforts either to alleviate widespread
poverty and isolation, or to create new jobs for the estimated 1,600
local Armenians employed at the Russian military base in Akhalkalaki
(the region's largest single employer) following the signing in May
2005 of an agreement between Tbilisi and Moscow to close the base by
the fall of 2007. Armenian parliamentary deputy Shirak Torosian (Hzor
Hayrenik, Mighty Fatherland) told a conference in Yerevan in March
2006 -- even before the closure of the military base -- that up to
30,000 young Armenians in Javakhk were unemployed, and some 9,000 local
Armenians travelled every year to Russia in search of seasonal work.
During the 1990s, two political organizations were established to
protect and promote the interests of the Armenian population of
Samtskhe-Javakheti: Javakhk, described as "a movement of village
intellectuals intermixed with disaffected townsfolk," and Virk,
which campaigned for the separation of Javakheti from Samtskhe and
for autonomy for Javakheti within the unitary Georgian state. The
two regions, Javakheti and Samtskhe, which borders it to the west,
were combined into a single province in 1995.
In March 2005, Vahagn Chakhalian established a new forum, the
Democratic Alliance United Javakhk, that over the next few months
convened several mass meetings in Akhalkalaki attended by thousands
of local Armenians protesting perceived discrimination.
In late September 2005, United Javakhk and Virk, together with
other local NGOs, convened a national forum at which participants
demanded that the Georgian authorities grant the region formal
autonomy. Georgia's "Messenger" suggested on September 29, 2005 that
the Armenians were inspired to do so at least in part by Saakashvili's
successive offers in January and July 2005 of broad autonomy to the
breakaway Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In an interview with the Russian news agency Regnum on December 26,
2005, Chakhalian stressed that the Armenians of Javakhk seek above
all to promote universal democratic values and political stability,
and wish to acknowledged and treated as law-abiding citizens entitled
to the same rights as the rest of the Georgian population.
Whether or not in a direct response to the Armenian demand for
autonomy, the Georgian authorities in 2006 set about splitting the
Armenian community and succeeded in co-opting Virk, which agreed to
team up with Saakashvili's United National Movement in the elections to
local councils that took place on October 5. The Armenian opposition
daily "Haykakan zhamanak" on October 19 claimed that the Armenian
government played a key role in subverting Virk and was prepared
to cooperate with its Georgian counterpart in neutralizing other
organizations campaigning on behalf of Javakhk's Armenian population.
United Javakhk for its part formed an election alliance with the
opposition party Industry Will Save Georgia, and staged a protest in
Akhalkalaki on October 9 against the perceived falsification of the
vote. Police intervened and used force to disperse the protesters.
Chakhalian was arrested on October 10, 2005, on his arrival in Yerevan
by car with his parents, brother, and a second United Javakhk activist,
Gurgen Shirinian, and charged with entering the Republic of Armenia
illegally. His arrest triggered protests in both Akhalkalaki and
Yerevan, and 16 Armenian opposition lawmakers signed a statement
accusing the Armenian authorities of targeting Chakhalian in a
"shameful" attempt to appease Tbilisi.
Chakhalian was subsequently tried, given a one-year suspended sentence,
and deported to Georgia.
Despite his arrest in July 2008, the Council of Armenian NGOs of
Samtskhe-Javakheti issued a renewed appeal to the Georgian authorities
on August 19, in the immediate aftermath of the Russian-Georgian
conflict over South Ossetia. They argued that the only way to restore
Georgia's territorial integrity and to allay ethnic tensions is to
transform Georgia into a federal state. Doing so would, however,
necessitate amending the Georgian Constitution, which designates
Georgia a unitary state.
The NGOs proposed that Samtskhe-Javakheti be granted "broad
self-government" within that federal framework, including the right
to free elections for all local government bodies and jurisdiction
over culture, education, crime prevention, and environmental and
socioeconomic issues. The region would also be represented within
the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government at
the national level. And, crucially, Armenian would be designated
a regional official language, alongside Georgian. Such measures to
protect the rights of national minorities are, the NGOs pointed out,
one of the necessary preconditions for Georgia's successful integration
into Euro-Atlantic structures.
There was no formal Georgian response to that appeal. But the problems
of the Javakheti Armenians figured on the agenda of Armenian President
Serzh Sarkisian's visit to Tbilisi on September 30. Saakashvili
was quoted as saying at a joint press conference with his Armenian
counterpart that "ethnic Armenians represent a very important segment
of the Georgian society. We do not distinguish our citizens according
to their ethnic descent. But, of course, we do respect their culture
and origins. These [elements] are part of their identity and part
of Georgia's identity. We are closely cooperating, also, in these
matters, making sure the dialogue between peoples and cultures is
made very easy."
Chakhalian addressed an open letter to Saakashvili in late March,
criticizing his failure to create equal conditions for all Georgian
citizens regardless of their ethnicity and the ongoing reprisals
against those local Armenians who seek to defend their rights. He
challenged Saakashvili to "take practical steps to restore" the
rapidly dwindling trust the Armenians of Javakhk have in the Georgian
leadership, affirming that "the Javakheti Armenians are ready for
dialogue. We still want to hope that we shall not be forced to invoke
European and international bodies in our search for a solution to
the problems that exist" between the Armenian and Georgian peoples.