The Struggle in Javakhk

[Javakhk]

Re: The Struggle in Javakhk

Президнет Серж Саргсян: Армения должна быть последовательна и принципиальна в вопросе Джавахка

Армения должна вкладывать серьезные усилия, чтобы оказать содействие армянам Грузии. Логика политики Армении в отношении армян региона Самцхе-Джавахети должна исходить из принципа «интеграция без ассимиляции». Об этом, открывая ежегодное собрание Центрального аппарата МИД и руководителей дипломатических миссий и представительств Армении за рубежом, заявил президент Армении Серж Саргсян.

«Я считаю, что шаги, направленные на признание армянского языка в Грузии в качестве областного, обеспечение регистрации Армянской Апостольской церкви и сохранение армянских памятников на территории Грузии, будут только способствовать укреплению армяно-грузинской дружбы и углублению атмосферы взаимодоверия»,- подчеркнул глава армянского государства, добавив, что Армения должна подходить к этим вопросам тонко, но в то же время быть последовательна и принципиальна.

http://panarmenian.net/news/rus/?nid=35780&folder=1

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Նախագահ Սերժ Սարգսյան: Հայաստանը պետք է հետեւողական եւ սկզբունքային լինի Ջավախքի հարցում

Հայաստանը պետք է լուրջ ջանքեր գործադրի վիրահայությանը հնարավոր աջակցություն ցույց տալու համար: Ջավախքի նկատմամբ մեր վարած քաղաքականության տրամաբանությունը բովանդակային առումով պետք է բխի ՙինտեգրում առանց ձուլման՚ սկզբունքից: Այդ մասին, ելույթ ունենալով ԱԳՆ կենտրոնական աշխատակազմի եւ արտասահմանում Հայաստանի դիվանագիտական առաքելությունների ու ներկայացուցչությունների ղեկավարների ամենամյա հավաքի բացմանը, հայտնել է Հայաստանի նախագահ Սերժ Սարգսյանը:

ՙԵս համարում ե, որ այս դեպքում ինտեգրումը պետք է ենթադրի վիրահայերի` Վրաստանի արժանապատիվ, կարող, հարգված քաղաքացիների համբավի ամրապնդումը: Կարծում եմ, որ հայերենը Վրաստանում մարզային լեզու ճանաչելու, Հայկական առաքելական սուրբ եկեղեցու գրանցումն ապահովելու, Վրաստանի հայկական հուշարձանների պահպանմանն ուղղված քայլերը Վրաստանում միայն նպաստելու են հայ-վրացական բարեկամության ամրապնդմանը, փոխվստահության մթնոլորտի խորացմանը՚,- ընդգծել է ՀՀ ղեկավարը եւ ավելացրել, որ այս բոլոր հարցերում Հայաստանը պետք է լինի նրբանկատ, բայց հետեւողական եւ սկզբունքային:


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President Serzh Sargsyan: Armenia to hold consistent and firm stance on Javakhk issue

Armenia should invest serious efforts in assisting Georgian-Armenians, President Serzh Sargsyan said today in his opening speech delivered at the annual meeting between MFA central staff and Heads of Armenian diplomatic missions abroad.

“I find that the steps directed at recognizing Armenian as regional language in Georgia, registering Armenian Apostolic Church and maintaining Armenian monuments will contribute to the strengthening of Armenian-Georgian mutual ties,” Armenian leader stressed, adding that Armenia should adopt delicate approach to those issues, holding at the same time consistent and firm stance.

http://panarmenian.net/news/eng/?nid=35780&folder=1

http://javakhk.livejournal.com/74392.html

[Haykakan]

Re: The Struggle in Javakhk

The more time goes by the more i wonder if we shouldn't help ourselves to javakh and do the russians a favor in the meantime. I wonder if this is what the plan is anyways. This would cut off the two turckish states and their precious oil but unfortunately it still wont get us a border with russia. I wonder what russias plan is for georgia and how it includes us.

[Javakhk]

Re: The Struggle in Javakhk

The more time goes by the more i wonder if we shouldn't help ourselves to javakh and do the russians a favor in the meantime. I wonder if this is what the plan is anyways. This would cut off the two turckish states and their precious oil but unfortunately it still wont get us a border with russia. I wonder what russias plan is for georgia and how it includes us.

Well, that would be a too dangeruos measure for Armeia, too. So our plans are much more ресtricted and concern help to Javakhk Armenians only, without any agressive actions against Georgia.

[Mukuch]

Re: The Struggle in Javakhk

The more time goes by the more i wonder if we shouldn't help ourselves to javakh and do the russians a favor in the meantime. I wonder if this is what the plan is anyways. This would cut off the two turckish states and their precious oil but unfortunately it still wont get us a border with russia. I wonder what russias plan is for georgia and how it includes us.

I will tell you what is plan of Russia for Georgia and how it includes us:
When the Russian Generals one day will get drunk enough they will resume bombing Georgia, and they very much accidentally can drop couple of megaton bombs on Armenian territory and hit some of our infrastructure connecting to Batumi port(not because they are mean but just because some one was to drunk).

[Yedtarts]

Re: The Struggle in Javakhk

And I was always wondering where all these bombs were coming from and why.

[Federate]

Re: The Struggle in Javakhk

Georgia ‘Open’ To Armenian Language Proposal


Georgia is ready to consider President Serzh Sarkisian’s calls for the official use of the Armenian language in its areas predominantly populated by ethnic Armenians, Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze said on Friday.
Meeting with senior Armenian diplomats on Tuesday, Sarkisian listed measures which he said would help to integrate the sizable Armenian minority into Georgian society “without assimilation.”

“I think that steps aimed at declaring Armenian a regional language in Georgia, ensuring the registration of [the Georgian diocese of] the Holy Armenian Apostolic Church and preserving Armenian monuments in Georgia would only contribute to the strengthening of Armenian-Georgian friendship and deepening of the atmosphere of mutual trust,” Sarkisian said. Yerevan should be “tactful but consistent and principled” in raising these issues with Tbilisi, he added.

Sarkisian’s remarks reportedly drew a scathing response from Georgia’s Deputy Prime Minister Temur Yakobashvili. “Let Armenia deal with the development of the Armenian language on its soil, and we are very happy that Armenian is the only official language in Armenia,” Yakobashvili said, according to the Russian daily “Nezavisimaya Gazeta.”

Vashadze took a more conciliatory line during a working visit to Yerevan on Friday. “The parties treat with respect and attention all ideas floated in Armenia and Georgia,” he told journalists after talks with his Armenian counterpart, Eduard Nalbandian. “The president of Armenia did not say that the Armenian language must be made a regional one. What he said was that it would be useful to discuss that idea.”

“We are ready to discuss any ideas with our Armenian colleagues,” said Vashadze. “I want to emphasize that no matter what status the Armenian language will have in Georgia, Georgian citizens of Armenian descent … have all of their rights protected as well as those of other peoples living in Georgia. For us, they are an integral part of our history and culture.”

The two ministers refused to answer more questions from journalists. An ensuing statement by the Armenian Foreign Ministry said that “at the initiative of the Armenian side” they discussed “a number of issues relating to the Georgia’s Armenian community.” It gave no details.

According to the statement, Vashadze and Nalbandian also spoke “in detail” about bilateral economic matters such as the ongoing reconstruction of a highway in southern Georgian that will substantially shorten travel between Armenia and Georgian Black Sea ports.

Political and other non-governmental organizations in Georgia’s largely Armenian-populated Javakheti have for years pressed the authorities in Tbilisi to allow the regional administration and public institutions to use Armenian alongside the country’s official language. Earlier this year, they appealed to Sarkisian to raise the issue with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

Neither president mentioned it in public statements made during Saakashvili’s late-June visit to Armenia. Sarkisian instead praised the Georgian government’s efforts to ease socioeconomic hardship in Javakheti and bestowed a top Armenian state award on Saakashvili.

It was also not clear whether Vashadze and Nalbandian discussed an intensifying border dispute between the two neighboring states. Farmers in an Armenian border village have complained in recent weeks that Georgian border guards are denying them access to more than 100 hectares of agricultural land located in a disputed section of the frontier. Armenia’s Shant television reported on Thursday the villagers are now doing agricultural work there under the armed protection of Armenian border troops stationed in the area close to Turkey.

The Georgian-Armenian border has still not been fully demarcated nearly 18 years after the break-up of the Soviet Union. According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry, the border demarcation was also on the agenda of Vashadze’s talks with Nalbandian.

Meanwhile, Georgia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Nalbandov met on Thursday with Marie Yovanovitch, the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, in Tbilisi to discuss the current state of the Georgian-Armenian relationship.

“In this context, the Georgian side emphasized the important positive dynamics outlined recently in the relations between Georgia and Armenia that serves the interests of both countries,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued after the meeting. “The sides agreed to keep in active contact on the issues of Georgian-Armenian relations.”

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/1815106.html

[Javakhk]

Re: The Struggle in Javakhk

Georgia ‘Open’ To Armenian Language Proposal
...
http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/1815106.html

That is a very good sign!

As the Armenians unite and get more informed and active in Javakhk problems, Georgians demonstrte readiness to give some rights to Javakhk.

[Javakhk]

Re: The Struggle in Javakhk

Հայ բլոգգերների ֆլաշմոբ ակցիան ի պաշտպանություն Ջավախքի հայ քաղբանտարկյալ Վահագն Չախալյանի: Բլոգգերները դեսպանատանը նվիրեցին Լ.Պ. Բերիայի դիմանկարը, որպես «վրացական արդարադատության դեմքը»: Երեւանում Վրաստանի դեսպանատուն: 2009թ. սեպտեմբերի 17:

The Armenian blogger flash mob action to support the Armenian political prisoner of Javakhk Vahagn Chakhalyan. The bloggers presented a portrait of L.P. Beria as “the face of Georgian justice”. The Georgian Embassy in Yerevan. September 17th, 2009

Акция армянскиx блоггеров в защиту армянского политзаключенного из Джавахка Ваагна Чахаляна. Блоггеры подарили посольству портрет Л.П. Берии как «лица грузинского правосудия». У посольства Грузии в Ереване. 17го сентября 2009г.

[Javakhk]

Re: The Struggle in Javakhk

Here is a discussion about the action above:

http://javakhk.livejournal.com/78189.html

***

And some videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64omZ39si3I&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uX-ujzk4R30&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvdTbjWl1AU&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o27Fp0Q1njU&feature=channel_page

[Javakhk]

Re: The Struggle in Javakhk

Mensoian: Javakhk Activist Vahagn Chakhalyan: Justice Denied By Georgia
By Michael Mensoian • on September 18, 2009 • Email This Post

Samckhe-Javakheti (Javakhk) is an Armenian-populated region situated in southwestern Georgia bordering Armenia and Turkey to the south and southwest, respectively, and the Georgian province of Adchara (Ajaria) to the west. It occupies a strategic position athwart the Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railroad currently under construction that purposely bypasses Armenia and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Of the three principal countries that lie south of the Caucasus Mountains—Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia—only Armenia qualifies as a nation-state based on the homogeneity of its population, which is over 95 percent ethnic Armenian. All of this is significant when considering the plight of activist Vahagn Chakhalyan and the Javakhk Armenians’ desire for an improved economic, political, and cultural environment within the framework of the Georgian state. Although one may make the case that the economic plight of the Armenians may be no worse that many others within Georgia, the lack of equitable political representation and the Georgian government’s determination to acculturate the Javakhk Armenians cannot be ignored. In a democracy, which Georgia claims to be and the United States repeatedly asserts, political representation and cultural preservation should not be denied to any of its citizens.

For obvious reasons, the Georgian government views any activism on the part of its minority populations as a prelude to more serious challenges to the spatial integrity of the state especially with respect to the Armenians of Javakhk. The loss of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Russia is fresh in the minds of the Tbilisi leadership whenever they are confronted with any level of activism within Armenian Javakhk, Ajaria with its important port of Batumi on the Black Sea or its Azeri-occupied eastern border region. How realistic this concern may be is unimportant. The xenophobic nature of the Georgian leadership only fuels its paranoia especially with respect to the Javakhk Armenians.

This brief introduction is offered as background to understand the dire situation faced by Vahagn Chakhalyan, a Javakheti activist and leader of the United Javakhk Democratic Alliance. The Armenian Bar Association, presided over by Sonya Nersessian, has taken up the cause of Chakhalyan through its Armenian Rights Watch Committee.

That Chakhalyan is a political activist is not being denied. The fact that he has been denied the opportunity to defend his innocence is at issue. The incident which precipitated his arrest was the detonation of a bomb near the home of the chief of police in Akhalkalaki on July 17, 2008. The chief of police, Samvel Petrosyan, was appointed to his position by the Georgian authorities. As a result of this event, members of the United Javakhk Democratic Alliance were arrested including its leader, Chakhalyan .

From the moment the incident occurred, flagrant police and judicial misconduct has permeated every facet of his case from the improper gathering of evidence, to linking Chakhalyan to the incident without demonstrable proof, to changing the venue from Akhalkalaki (where the incident occurred) to Ahaltsikhe making it difficult for defense witnesses to appear, to poorly prepared transcripts of court proceedings, and the absence of a capable interpreter to enable Chakhalyan to effectively follow court proceedings which are in the Georgian language. In every respect, the court has denied him the opportunity to effectively refute the government charges to establish his innocence.

The district court’s irregularities were so egregious as to be reminiscent of England’s infamous Court of Star Chamber that was abolished in 1641. The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) in a press release dated May 7, 2009, stated that their “… organizations express…concern on the case of Mr. Vahagn Chakhalyan, sentenced to a 10-year prison term at the conclusion of a trial marred by irregularities, and who was subsequently brutally beaten in prison in Tbilisi [and that the additional charge against him ]…for violating public order…relate to protests that followed the October 2006 elections in Akhalkalaki…” two years earlier. The FIDH concludes “… that the procedure against Mr. Chakhalyan was carried out with blatant violations of national, regional and international legal standards on the right to a fair trial.”

Chakhalyan was arrested on July 21, 2008, four days after the incident occurred. His trial began on Nov. 10 and after a number of unexplained postponements were concluded on April 6, when he was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Yerkir Union, which has been monitoring the case from the outset, reported that Chakhalyan was found guilty on the basis of Paragraph 1 of Article 236 (acquisition and possession of firearms and ammunition), Article 2 (organizing a group action which grossly disrupts public order), and Paragraph 2( of Article 239 (hooliganism committed against a government representative…) of the Criminal Code of Georgia.

On July 27, 2009, over three months after being found guilty in the lower court (district court), the Court of Appeals of Georgia held its first hearing on Chakhalyan’s appeal. Observers from Yerkir Union who were present noted numerous violations of appellant Chakhalyan’s rights. The court, after a brief session during which Chakhalyan was not allowed to read a statement on his behalf, adjourned for the day and indicated a postponement of the hearing to Sept. 18, 2009, ostensibly for summer vacation—a further delay of two months.

Chakhalyan steadfastly maintains his innocence. He has categorically denied all charges brought against him and has enumerated the “flagrant violations” perpetrated by the court and police officials with respect to his case.

On July 31, according to Yerkir Union, Chakhalyan was moved from the Gidani Prison Number 8 in Tbilisi to the General Regime Colony Number 2 in Rustavi, some 20 miles southwest of the capital in a region heavily populated by ethnic Azeris. The Union further indicated that they believe “…that the Georgian authorities are planning a provocation against…Vahagn Chakhalyan.” On Aug. 17, Stepan Voskanyan, Chakhalyan’s attorney, was denied permission to meet with his client. On Aug. 21, Chakhalyan was transferred to the Strict Regime Colony Number 6, also located in Rustavi. This is a prison populated by the most hardened criminals in the Georgian penal system. Yerkir Union believes that by transferring him to this facility the Georgian authorities are deliberating subjecting Chakhalyan to greater personal danger.

Any attempt by the Georgian government to “chill” legitimate dissent or to deny the Javakhk Armenians the right to peacefully demonstrate or to petition the authorities for economic and political equality with their Georgian countrymen cannot be accepted. Neither can their right to maintain their religious, cultural, and educational institutions be denied.

Activists, by the very nature of what it is they do, tend to be idealistic and selfless. The Georgian government has resorted to Draconian methods to silence Chakhalyan . The Armenian government cannot ignore the situation. It must protest directly to Georgian President Mikheil Saaskivili—recently awarded Armenia’s “Order of Honor” by President Serge Sarkisian—concerning the police and judicial misconduct that has affected every facet of this case. Armenian advocacy groups in the diaspora should consider their role in protesting the gross injustice that is being visited upon Chakhalyan not as an option, but as a duty.

At the present moment, Chakhalyan’s case symbolizes the unfavorable conditions under which Armenians in Javakhk are required to live. If the Georgian government is successful in its attempt to silence Vahagn Chakhalyan, what kind of future can our brothers and sisters look forward to in their native Javakhk?

http://www.hairenik.com/weekly/2009/09/18/mensoian-javakhk-activist-vahagn-chakhalyan-justice-denied-by-georgia/