Tweet
Eurasia Review
Oct 26 2013
Georgia: Saakashvili, Chakhalyan Face Off In Akhalkalaki
By Civil.Ge
October 26, 2013
(Civil.Ge) - `Where are you running you coward separatists?' President
Saakashvili was shouting and following back a small group of men, who
were responding by shouting insults back on him.
The scene played out in Akhalkalaki, a predominantly ethnic Armenian
populated town in Samtskhe-Javakheti region, which outgoing President
Saakashvili visited on October 25.
As Saakashvili was visiting Armenian church in Akhalkalaki, a local
activist Vahagn Chakhalyan was waiting outside the church together
with a small group of his allies.
Chakhalyan, who was with one of the Akhalkalaki-based groups which
staged several protest rallies in 2005 against withdrawal of the
Russian military base from the town and which was calling for autonomy
for the Javakheti region, was arrested in July 2008. Chakhalyan was
imprisoned on what he claimed were trumped up charges related to
weapons, armed hooliganism and acts against public order.
In January 2013 he was released as a result of broad amnesty issued by
the current government. Chakhalyan's release was condemned by
President Saakashvili and his UNM party, describing him as `the enemy
of the Georgian state' and `inspirer of separatism in Javakheti'.
After visiting the church, President Saakashvili himself approached
Chakhalyan, who was protesting against presence of Saakashvili there.
`Hello, I listen,' Saakashvili told Chakhalyan while shaking hands.
`What shall I say, you took four years and a half of my life,'
Chakhalyan told Saakashvili referring to his imprisonment and then
started complaining about what he called absence of Armenian
literature from curriculum of local schools and also raised the issue
of those churches, which remain disputed between the Georgian Orthodox
Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
`What was happening here on your behalf it should be a matter of
accountability in line with the law; whether it was done on your
behalf or you gave an order, I do not know; the law, the court has to
decide it,' Chakhalyan said, but the context what he was meaning was
unclear from the available video footage of the conversation.
Saakashvili interrupted Chakhalyan and responded angrily: `Are you the
one who should put me on the trial?.. You criminal should put me on
the trial?'
`I came here and I am ready to listen to every citizen, but I am not
going to let people like you lecture me on morality. Now let me tell
you what I have done in Akhalkalaki. What I have done was that I cut
the ground from under feet of separatists like you,' Saakashvili said
and added that his government built roads and secured gas and
electricity supplies and developed infrastructure in the region.
`Separatists like you who are going to separate Georgia into pieces
and puppies of GRU [Russian military intelligence] will not lecture me
in morality; you were sitting in jail on six [criminal] charges,'
Saakashvili said shouting at Chakhalyan.
`No, no, don't insult me,' Chakhalyan was telling the President, who
continued hitting out at Chakhalyan, saying: `I am not going to let
criminals like to lecture me in morality.'
`Misha go away; go Misha... Do you want me to tell it to you in
Turkish?' Chakhalyan told Saakashvili and started chanting together
with his small group of supportersa swear word in Turkish.
Evoking a Turkish theme by Chakhalyan was apparently in reference to
Saakashvili's recent trips to Sakarya and Samsun provinces of Turkey
in September and October, meeting there Turkish citizens of Georgian
descent and granting to some of them Georgian citizenship.
As Chakhalyan was moving away from Saakashvili, he and his supporters
were also chanting in Georgian: `Misha go to Turkey, Misha go to
Turkey.'
Saakashvili followed them, shouting: `Come here, where are you running
you cowards? Come here; are you running you coward separatists?'
`Look, only five separatists are now left and that's what we did;
there were much more of them; run away you coward separatists; your
patron GRU base is no longer here,' the outgoing president said.
While visiting Akhalkalaki municipality, Saakashvili also met local
Armenian communities in number of villages telling them in Russian: `I
love Akhalkalaki residents very much.'
Later on the same day he made a live televised statement from the
presidential palace in Tbilisi, saying that the Samtskhe-Javakheti
region was actually out of central government's control before he came
into power almost ten years ago; he also said that he is proud that it
was made possible to enhance Georgian language programs for locals in
the region and to develop various infrastructure projects there to
help integrate it to the rest of Georgia. He again criticized GD for
releasing Chakhalyan from prison (he was released together with
thousands of others under the broad amnesty) and suggested that
Chakhalyan was now acting with the support of the authorities.
`I know that there are people in the Georgian government who have
suspicious links with the interests of our invader [referring to
Russia],' he said. `But I do not believe that the incumbent government
wants to undermine interests of Georgia.'
`I want today's incident to be the last one,' he said. `And let's not
spoil what has been achieved in previous years just out of spite.'
`Presidents will change - and I will not be the president in several
days or weeks, the governments will change too, including the
incumbent one, but we should not do anything that can harm Georgia,'
he said.
http://www.eurasiareview.com/26102013-georgia-saakashvili-chakhalyan-face-akhalkalaki/
Oct 26 2013
Georgia: Saakashvili, Chakhalyan Face Off In Akhalkalaki
By Civil.Ge
October 26, 2013
(Civil.Ge) - `Where are you running you coward separatists?' President
Saakashvili was shouting and following back a small group of men, who
were responding by shouting insults back on him.
The scene played out in Akhalkalaki, a predominantly ethnic Armenian
populated town in Samtskhe-Javakheti region, which outgoing President
Saakashvili visited on October 25.
As Saakashvili was visiting Armenian church in Akhalkalaki, a local
activist Vahagn Chakhalyan was waiting outside the church together
with a small group of his allies.
Chakhalyan, who was with one of the Akhalkalaki-based groups which
staged several protest rallies in 2005 against withdrawal of the
Russian military base from the town and which was calling for autonomy
for the Javakheti region, was arrested in July 2008. Chakhalyan was
imprisoned on what he claimed were trumped up charges related to
weapons, armed hooliganism and acts against public order.
In January 2013 he was released as a result of broad amnesty issued by
the current government. Chakhalyan's release was condemned by
President Saakashvili and his UNM party, describing him as `the enemy
of the Georgian state' and `inspirer of separatism in Javakheti'.
After visiting the church, President Saakashvili himself approached
Chakhalyan, who was protesting against presence of Saakashvili there.
`Hello, I listen,' Saakashvili told Chakhalyan while shaking hands.
`What shall I say, you took four years and a half of my life,'
Chakhalyan told Saakashvili referring to his imprisonment and then
started complaining about what he called absence of Armenian
literature from curriculum of local schools and also raised the issue
of those churches, which remain disputed between the Georgian Orthodox
Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
`What was happening here on your behalf it should be a matter of
accountability in line with the law; whether it was done on your
behalf or you gave an order, I do not know; the law, the court has to
decide it,' Chakhalyan said, but the context what he was meaning was
unclear from the available video footage of the conversation.
Saakashvili interrupted Chakhalyan and responded angrily: `Are you the
one who should put me on the trial?.. You criminal should put me on
the trial?'
`I came here and I am ready to listen to every citizen, but I am not
going to let people like you lecture me on morality. Now let me tell
you what I have done in Akhalkalaki. What I have done was that I cut
the ground from under feet of separatists like you,' Saakashvili said
and added that his government built roads and secured gas and
electricity supplies and developed infrastructure in the region.
`Separatists like you who are going to separate Georgia into pieces
and puppies of GRU [Russian military intelligence] will not lecture me
in morality; you were sitting in jail on six [criminal] charges,'
Saakashvili said shouting at Chakhalyan.
`No, no, don't insult me,' Chakhalyan was telling the President, who
continued hitting out at Chakhalyan, saying: `I am not going to let
criminals like to lecture me in morality.'
`Misha go away; go Misha... Do you want me to tell it to you in
Turkish?' Chakhalyan told Saakashvili and started chanting together
with his small group of supportersa swear word in Turkish.
Evoking a Turkish theme by Chakhalyan was apparently in reference to
Saakashvili's recent trips to Sakarya and Samsun provinces of Turkey
in September and October, meeting there Turkish citizens of Georgian
descent and granting to some of them Georgian citizenship.
As Chakhalyan was moving away from Saakashvili, he and his supporters
were also chanting in Georgian: `Misha go to Turkey, Misha go to
Turkey.'
Saakashvili followed them, shouting: `Come here, where are you running
you cowards? Come here; are you running you coward separatists?'
`Look, only five separatists are now left and that's what we did;
there were much more of them; run away you coward separatists; your
patron GRU base is no longer here,' the outgoing president said.
While visiting Akhalkalaki municipality, Saakashvili also met local
Armenian communities in number of villages telling them in Russian: `I
love Akhalkalaki residents very much.'
Later on the same day he made a live televised statement from the
presidential palace in Tbilisi, saying that the Samtskhe-Javakheti
region was actually out of central government's control before he came
into power almost ten years ago; he also said that he is proud that it
was made possible to enhance Georgian language programs for locals in
the region and to develop various infrastructure projects there to
help integrate it to the rest of Georgia. He again criticized GD for
releasing Chakhalyan from prison (he was released together with
thousands of others under the broad amnesty) and suggested that
Chakhalyan was now acting with the support of the authorities.
`I know that there are people in the Georgian government who have
suspicious links with the interests of our invader [referring to
Russia],' he said. `But I do not believe that the incumbent government
wants to undermine interests of Georgia.'
`I want today's incident to be the last one,' he said. `And let's not
spoil what has been achieved in previous years just out of spite.'
`Presidents will change - and I will not be the president in several
days or weeks, the governments will change too, including the
incumbent one, but we should not do anything that can harm Georgia,'
he said.
http://www.eurasiareview.com/26102013-georgia-saakashvili-chakhalyan-face-akhalkalaki/