ON NATIONAL POLICY OF GEORGIA
The theme of the latest discussion arranged by “Arantsq” analytical centre was the national policy pursued by the authorities of Georgia. The expert of “Noravank” Foundation, Candidate of Historical Sciences Tamara Vardanyan, the representative of “Mitq” analytical centre Vahe Sargsyan, and the deputy director of the Institute of Caucasus Sergey Minasyan took part in that discussion.
The participants of the discussion expressed their concern that the struggle of the authorities of Georgia with the Armeniancy of Georgia is not restricted by the known frontiers, i.e. spiritual and cultural, educational and language, social, judicial directions. The split of unity between two parts of Armeniancy of Georgia, i.e. between Armenians of Javakhq and Tbilisi, is one of the manifestations of anti-Armenian policy and it is implemented with the help of special measures in the information field. For years Georgian authorities have done everything to sow controversy between these two groups.
The expert of “Noravank” Foundation Tamara Vardanyan, while speaking about the situation in Armenian community of Tbilisi, noticed that the Armenians of Tbilisi have no potential for self-organization as it is rather apolitical community and the most tolerant and cosmopolitan one. The main wish of the Armenians of Tbilisi is to live peacefully in their favourite city of Tbilisi. “There is no consistency in the national problems to be seen, or any wish to resist Georgian authorities as there is no necessary potential”, - said the expert. Due to these realities the Armenians of Tbilisi do not react or support the just complaints of the Armenians of Javakhq. Even more, “the Armenians of Tbilisi scare and are very concerned when the situation in Javakhq has worsened”, - concluded the expert.
Tamara Vardanyan also touched upon the unfounded rumours spread in Tbilisi lately that allegedly Armenia wanted to initiate war against Georgia and she did not exclude the possibility of Azerbaijani-Turkish trace. T. Vardanyan noticed: “The dissemination of such a misinformation in Georgia should bother us and this is another evidence that we are not active in the information field. Who if not Armenian side should refute such lies?” T. Vardanyan is of the opinion that the accumulated problems can de solved only by the activation of horizontal ties, on all the levels: from social to the state and official. The spokesperson underlined the following thesis: “both sides should clearly understand that the Armenian-Georgian friendship is beneficial only for Armenia and Georgia and this should be the base for the quality and level of their relations”.
The representative of “Mitq” analytical centre Vahe Sargsyan tried to illustrate with the help of the specific examples the similarity of the manifestations of anti-Armenian policy in Azerbaijan and Georgia. If during the Soviet period Azerbaijan could finally arrange mass exodus of the Armenians from Nakhijevan and change the demographic picture in Nagorno-Karabakh in their favour, then in the same way Georgia divided Samtskhe-Javakhq-Tsalka region in the favour of Georgian and Adjarian elements and changed the demographic picture. In the opinion of V. Sargsyan the only difference between the policies of Azerbaijan and Georgia is that “if Azerbaijan simply destroyed Armenians then Georgian implies the same policy by estranging them”. Saying that Georgia has always carried out chauvinistic policy towards national minorities V. Sargsyan concluded: “Today that policy has become even more obvious and impudent. Meanwhile, the authorities of Armenian are extremely prudent. We must change out tactics. The Armenians of Javakhq and Georgia should become a political factor, we should use our “wealth”, i.e. the potential of Armenians of Tbilisi and Javakhq and make Georgia stay abstain from anti-Armenian manifestations as this can also be dangerous for Georgia”.
Sergey Minasyan, the deputy director of the Institute of Caucasus, noticed that the society of Georgia regards the problem of national minorities, including the problem of the Armenians of Jvakhq, not as a judicial but mainly as a political problem. According to S. Minasyan the Georgian society is afraid of taking liberal steps towards national minorities and this is the reason why they do not implement their commitment to the European institutions. He mentioned that this kind of policy on behalf of Georgian authorities concludes to the quite opposite result. For example, Armenians of Javakhq have no confidence in Georgian authorities, the contradictions between them aggravated. How a Javakhian can trust Georgian authorities if “he is compelled to forget his mother tongue, or he is not regarded as a full citizen”? The political analyst is sure that if there are no changes in Georgian position on that issue then the commitments to the European Union regarding national minorities will stay on the paper.
