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Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #681
March 22 2013
Armenians Seek Language Rights in Georgia
For some politicians, allowing official use of minority languages is
first step towards separatism.
By Sopho Bukia - Caucasus
Local officials in an Armenian-majority area of Georgia have sparked
heated discussion by calling on the state to ratify an international
treaty that protects minority languages.
Members of the municipal assembly in the southern town of Akhalkalaki
said they would write to parliament about the issue. The councillors
are members of the Georgian Dream coalition which formed a government
after winning elections in October.
Georgia is home to about 250,000 ethnic Armenians, around five per
cent of its total population. Most live in the mountainous
Samtskhe-Javakheti region, bordering on Armenia and Turkey.
In the southeast, another substantial minority, 280,000 Azeris, live
along the border with Azerbaijan.
The European Charter for Minority or Regional Languages, ECRML,
commits member states in the Council of Europe to make education,
court proceedings and state services available in minority languages
in areas where they are traditionally spoken. Georgia pledged to
ratify the charter when it joined the Council of Europe in 1999, but
it has not yet done so.
`We believe the protection of national minorities in Georgia's regions
is an important element of building Georgia,' said a draft statement
from the councillors in Akhalkalaki, who belong to the Republican
faction within Georgian Dream. `We also note that protecting and
developing regional languages and the languages of national minorities
must not take place at the expense of the state language.'
Council chairman Hamlet Movsesyan said the deputies had not yet agreed
the final text.
`This statement is still being worked on, and a final version will be
sent to parliament. It does not emphasise the Armenian language. This
statement is about ratification of the European charter,' he said.
The Akhalkalaki assembly members said they did not consult their
Georgian Dream allies in Tbilisi before raising the issue.
The move has revived concerns about the implications of people from
ethnic minorities failing to learn Georgian, the sole state language.
Although the statement does not mention Armenian, the Georgian media
interpreted it as a clear demand for official status for that
language.
`Georgian Dream Republicans demand status for Armenian language,' the
ExpressNews Agency reported on March 15.
Van Baiburt, an adviser to President Mikhail Saakashvili, told
reporters that although he did not think ECRML would encourage
separatism, it was still too soon to ratify it.
`At a time when less than ten per cent of people from ethnic
minorities speak the Georgian language, naturally it is not desirable
to ratify the charter. It would turn out we were passing laws to
totally stop instruction in Georgian,' he said.
Tina Khidasheli, a member of parliament from the ruling Georgian Dream
coalition, denied that ratifying ECRML would mean that state
institutions no longer had to operate in Georgian.
Vano Merabishvili, a former prime minister and now general secretary
of Saakashvili's United National Movement, UNM, warned that giving
official status to regional languages could encourage separatism. He
said the UNM government had spent nine years trying to stop separatism
gaining a foothold.
David Darchiashvili, a legislator from the UNM, now the minority
faction in parliament, pointed out that many other Council of Europe
members had not ratified the treaty.
He said Georgia should wait until it was secure from external threats
before exposing itself to domestic risks.
Referring to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have claimed
independence since conflicts in the 1990s, Darchiashvili said, `When
20 per cent of your territory is occupied, and then you hear
statements from Moscow that Georgia should be `Tbilisi Province' [ie
part of Russia], then it is not in our interest to raise these
matters.'
Paata Zakareishvili, State Minister for Reintegration, pointed out
that it was Saakashvili himself who committed Georgia to ratifying
ECRML 15 years ago, when he was head of parliament's legal committee.
`Sooner or later, Georgia will have to join the charter, otherwise we
will not achieve any of the European integration that Mr Saakashvili
talks about so often. Also, the plan for a more liberal visa regime
with the European Union cannot be signed until we accede to the
charter,' he said.
`So this is a difficult issue which must be considered by the public,
the government and parliament. When we talk about moving closer to the
European Union and European institutions, we need to discuss the
difficulties that are preventing us from taking steps in that
direction.'
Sopho Bukia is an IWPR-trained journalist who works for the Rustavi-2
broadcasting company.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenians-seek-language-rights-georgia
IWPR Caucasus Reporting #681
March 22 2013
Armenians Seek Language Rights in Georgia
For some politicians, allowing official use of minority languages is
first step towards separatism.
By Sopho Bukia - Caucasus
Local officials in an Armenian-majority area of Georgia have sparked
heated discussion by calling on the state to ratify an international
treaty that protects minority languages.
Members of the municipal assembly in the southern town of Akhalkalaki
said they would write to parliament about the issue. The councillors
are members of the Georgian Dream coalition which formed a government
after winning elections in October.
Georgia is home to about 250,000 ethnic Armenians, around five per
cent of its total population. Most live in the mountainous
Samtskhe-Javakheti region, bordering on Armenia and Turkey.
In the southeast, another substantial minority, 280,000 Azeris, live
along the border with Azerbaijan.
The European Charter for Minority or Regional Languages, ECRML,
commits member states in the Council of Europe to make education,
court proceedings and state services available in minority languages
in areas where they are traditionally spoken. Georgia pledged to
ratify the charter when it joined the Council of Europe in 1999, but
it has not yet done so.
`We believe the protection of national minorities in Georgia's regions
is an important element of building Georgia,' said a draft statement
from the councillors in Akhalkalaki, who belong to the Republican
faction within Georgian Dream. `We also note that protecting and
developing regional languages and the languages of national minorities
must not take place at the expense of the state language.'
Council chairman Hamlet Movsesyan said the deputies had not yet agreed
the final text.
`This statement is still being worked on, and a final version will be
sent to parliament. It does not emphasise the Armenian language. This
statement is about ratification of the European charter,' he said.
The Akhalkalaki assembly members said they did not consult their
Georgian Dream allies in Tbilisi before raising the issue.
The move has revived concerns about the implications of people from
ethnic minorities failing to learn Georgian, the sole state language.
Although the statement does not mention Armenian, the Georgian media
interpreted it as a clear demand for official status for that
language.
`Georgian Dream Republicans demand status for Armenian language,' the
ExpressNews Agency reported on March 15.
Van Baiburt, an adviser to President Mikhail Saakashvili, told
reporters that although he did not think ECRML would encourage
separatism, it was still too soon to ratify it.
`At a time when less than ten per cent of people from ethnic
minorities speak the Georgian language, naturally it is not desirable
to ratify the charter. It would turn out we were passing laws to
totally stop instruction in Georgian,' he said.
Tina Khidasheli, a member of parliament from the ruling Georgian Dream
coalition, denied that ratifying ECRML would mean that state
institutions no longer had to operate in Georgian.
Vano Merabishvili, a former prime minister and now general secretary
of Saakashvili's United National Movement, UNM, warned that giving
official status to regional languages could encourage separatism. He
said the UNM government had spent nine years trying to stop separatism
gaining a foothold.
David Darchiashvili, a legislator from the UNM, now the minority
faction in parliament, pointed out that many other Council of Europe
members had not ratified the treaty.
He said Georgia should wait until it was secure from external threats
before exposing itself to domestic risks.
Referring to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have claimed
independence since conflicts in the 1990s, Darchiashvili said, `When
20 per cent of your territory is occupied, and then you hear
statements from Moscow that Georgia should be `Tbilisi Province' [ie
part of Russia], then it is not in our interest to raise these
matters.'
Paata Zakareishvili, State Minister for Reintegration, pointed out
that it was Saakashvili himself who committed Georgia to ratifying
ECRML 15 years ago, when he was head of parliament's legal committee.
`Sooner or later, Georgia will have to join the charter, otherwise we
will not achieve any of the European integration that Mr Saakashvili
talks about so often. Also, the plan for a more liberal visa regime
with the European Union cannot be signed until we accede to the
charter,' he said.
`So this is a difficult issue which must be considered by the public,
the government and parliament. When we talk about moving closer to the
European Union and European institutions, we need to discuss the
difficulties that are preventing us from taking steps in that
direction.'
Sopho Bukia is an IWPR-trained journalist who works for the Rustavi-2
broadcasting company.
http://iwpr.net/report-news/armenians-seek-language-rights-georgia