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MP: 'Significant Number of MPs in Favor of Recognizing Circassian Genocide'
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 11 May.'11 / 18:47
There is `a significant lobby' within the Georgian Parliament pushing
for recognizing 19th century massacre and deportations of Circassians
by the Tsarist Russia in the northwest Caucasus as `genocide,' a
ruling party lawmaker told Civil.ge on May 11.
The Parliament may take decision on the issue during the current
spring session, said MP Nugzar Tsiklauri, who chairs the parliamentary
committee on diaspora and Caucasus issues.
He said that the committee would hold a hearing tentatively on Friday
to listen `to final conclusion of academic circles' on this issue and
after that the matter would move on the phase of "political decision.'
`I will not hide, that there is a serious and a significant lobby
within the Parliament. There are a significant number of lawmakers who
are in favor to positively decide this issue,' MP Tsiklauri said.
A group of Georgian lawmakers first announced about the readiness to
launch "broad discussions on cases of the massacres and deportations
of Circassians" in April, 2010. The announcement was made a month
after a month after Tbilisi hosted a conference, Hidden Nations,
Enduring Crimes: The Circassians & the Peoples of the North Caucasus
Between Past and Future. The conference was organized by
Washington-based Jamestown Foundation and Tbilisi-based Ilia State
University's International School for Caucasus Studies with the
participants including, among others, representatives of Circassian
diaspora.
At the end of the conference, on March 21, 2010 participants made an
appeal to the Georgian Parliament requesting to recognize deportations
and massacre of Circassians more than a century ago as genocide.
`The Georgian Parliament should take such a decision, which would have
a very strong academic foundation,' MP Tsiklauri told Civil.ge on May
11 and added that because of the issue's `complexity' discussions had
been ongoing within the Parliament for over a year already.
`At this stage I can not speak about timeframe; but it won't be too
long process,' he said. `I do not rule out that the decision may be
taken during the current [spring] session of the Parliament.'
He said that the Georgian Parliament had received appeals from
Circassian diasporas from over dozen of countries, including from
Turkey, Israel, Jordan, the United States and Canada.
MP Tsiklauri said that the Georgian Parliament's decision to consider
the issue was motivated by `solidarity' towards the Caucasus people
and `is in no way retaliation against Russia for occupying Georgian
territories.'
`Of course [recognition of Circassian genocide] will irritate Russia,
but it gets irritated on everything,' he said.
No nation has recognized the deaths of Circassians in the 19th century
as genocide.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=23431
Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 11 May.'11 / 18:47
There is `a significant lobby' within the Georgian Parliament pushing
for recognizing 19th century massacre and deportations of Circassians
by the Tsarist Russia in the northwest Caucasus as `genocide,' a
ruling party lawmaker told Civil.ge on May 11.
The Parliament may take decision on the issue during the current
spring session, said MP Nugzar Tsiklauri, who chairs the parliamentary
committee on diaspora and Caucasus issues.
He said that the committee would hold a hearing tentatively on Friday
to listen `to final conclusion of academic circles' on this issue and
after that the matter would move on the phase of "political decision.'
`I will not hide, that there is a serious and a significant lobby
within the Parliament. There are a significant number of lawmakers who
are in favor to positively decide this issue,' MP Tsiklauri said.
A group of Georgian lawmakers first announced about the readiness to
launch "broad discussions on cases of the massacres and deportations
of Circassians" in April, 2010. The announcement was made a month
after a month after Tbilisi hosted a conference, Hidden Nations,
Enduring Crimes: The Circassians & the Peoples of the North Caucasus
Between Past and Future. The conference was organized by
Washington-based Jamestown Foundation and Tbilisi-based Ilia State
University's International School for Caucasus Studies with the
participants including, among others, representatives of Circassian
diaspora.
At the end of the conference, on March 21, 2010 participants made an
appeal to the Georgian Parliament requesting to recognize deportations
and massacre of Circassians more than a century ago as genocide.
`The Georgian Parliament should take such a decision, which would have
a very strong academic foundation,' MP Tsiklauri told Civil.ge on May
11 and added that because of the issue's `complexity' discussions had
been ongoing within the Parliament for over a year already.
`At this stage I can not speak about timeframe; but it won't be too
long process,' he said. `I do not rule out that the decision may be
taken during the current [spring] session of the Parliament.'
He said that the Georgian Parliament had received appeals from
Circassian diasporas from over dozen of countries, including from
Turkey, Israel, Jordan, the United States and Canada.
MP Tsiklauri said that the Georgian Parliament's decision to consider
the issue was motivated by `solidarity' towards the Caucasus people
and `is in no way retaliation against Russia for occupying Georgian
territories.'
`Of course [recognition of Circassian genocide] will irritate Russia,
but it gets irritated on everything,' he said.
No nation has recognized the deaths of Circassians in the 19th century
as genocide.
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=23431