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PARLIAMENT TO RECOGNIZE 'CIRCASSIAN GENOCIDE'
Civil Georgia
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=23466
Georgian parliamentary committees endorsed on May 19 a draft resolution
recognizing 19th century massacre and deportations of Circassians by
the Tsarist Russia in the northwest Caucasus as "genocide".
The move means that the one-page draft resolution is formally prepared
for a voting in the Parliament.
A ruling party lawmaker, Nugzar Tsiklauri, who chairs the parliamentary
committee for diaspora and Caucasus issues, said he would request the
parliamentary speaker Davit Bakradze to include the draft resolution
in the agenda of the May 20 parliamentary session.
On May 19 the draft was discussed at a joint hearing of four
parliamentary committees - on diaspora issues; legal affairs; cultural
issues and human rights.
The draft resolution reads that "pre-planned" mass killings of
the Circassians, the Tsarist Russia in second half of 19th century,
accompanied by "deliberate famine and epidemics", should be recognized
as "genocide" and those deported during those events from thier
homeland, should be recognized as "refugees."
During the May 19 hearings lawmakers from the ruling party said
that the resolution would be of significant importance in terms of
"restoration of historic justice."
"Georgia, which tries to get away - and does it successfully in
recent years - from the Soviet and Russian propagandistic space,
wants to promote the history as it actually was and not the falsified
history, which was imposed on us," ruling party MP Giorgi Gabashvili,
who chairs parliamentary committee on culture and education, said.
He also said that Georgia would not have hurried with adoption of this
resolution if Russia itself had acknowledged its crimes of the past.
MP Gia Tortladze said that the Georgian Parliament should even go
further and recognize "Chechen genocide."
A ruling party lawmaker, Nugzar Tsiklauri, told Civil.ge last week that
"the Chechen issue is also on the agenda."
"I can not say now a timeframe, but this issue will not be removed
from our agenda," he said.
There were only few dissent opinions voiced during the hearings on May
29. MP Jondi Bagaturia, leader of a small opposition party Georgian
Troupe, said passing of "Circassian genocide" resolution would be
"a right decision from the moral point of view"
"But I think we should be more pragmatic and think what the
consequences of such decision might by. It will be difficult for me
to support it," he said.
MP Bagaturia also recalled multiple appeals made to the Georgian
Parliament by Georgia's Armenian community requesting recognition
of the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Empire as genocide. Such
appeals, made by the Armenian community almost every year in April,
remain unheeded by the Georgian lawmakers.
Civil Georgia
http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=23466
Georgian parliamentary committees endorsed on May 19 a draft resolution
recognizing 19th century massacre and deportations of Circassians by
the Tsarist Russia in the northwest Caucasus as "genocide".
The move means that the one-page draft resolution is formally prepared
for a voting in the Parliament.
A ruling party lawmaker, Nugzar Tsiklauri, who chairs the parliamentary
committee for diaspora and Caucasus issues, said he would request the
parliamentary speaker Davit Bakradze to include the draft resolution
in the agenda of the May 20 parliamentary session.
On May 19 the draft was discussed at a joint hearing of four
parliamentary committees - on diaspora issues; legal affairs; cultural
issues and human rights.
The draft resolution reads that "pre-planned" mass killings of
the Circassians, the Tsarist Russia in second half of 19th century,
accompanied by "deliberate famine and epidemics", should be recognized
as "genocide" and those deported during those events from thier
homeland, should be recognized as "refugees."
During the May 19 hearings lawmakers from the ruling party said
that the resolution would be of significant importance in terms of
"restoration of historic justice."
"Georgia, which tries to get away - and does it successfully in
recent years - from the Soviet and Russian propagandistic space,
wants to promote the history as it actually was and not the falsified
history, which was imposed on us," ruling party MP Giorgi Gabashvili,
who chairs parliamentary committee on culture and education, said.
He also said that Georgia would not have hurried with adoption of this
resolution if Russia itself had acknowledged its crimes of the past.
MP Gia Tortladze said that the Georgian Parliament should even go
further and recognize "Chechen genocide."
A ruling party lawmaker, Nugzar Tsiklauri, told Civil.ge last week that
"the Chechen issue is also on the agenda."
"I can not say now a timeframe, but this issue will not be removed
from our agenda," he said.
There were only few dissent opinions voiced during the hearings on May
29. MP Jondi Bagaturia, leader of a small opposition party Georgian
Troupe, said passing of "Circassian genocide" resolution would be
"a right decision from the moral point of view"
"But I think we should be more pragmatic and think what the
consequences of such decision might by. It will be difficult for me
to support it," he said.
MP Bagaturia also recalled multiple appeals made to the Georgian
Parliament by Georgia's Armenian community requesting recognition
of the massacre of Armenians in Ottoman Empire as genocide. Such
appeals, made by the Armenian community almost every year in April,
remain unheeded by the Georgian lawmakers.