Javakhk: Pace Monitoring Committee

[Siamanto]

Memorandum to the PACE Monitoring Committee on the Situation in Samtskhe-Javakheti

 

Akhalkalak, A-INFO, 25 October 2004.- The members of the Council of

Europe Parliamentary Assembly Committee on the honouring of obligations

and commitments by member states of the Council of Europe (Monitoring

Committee) is visiting Georgia on 25-26 October 2004.

 

During their meetings the monitoring committee members will exchange

views with the representatives of Georgian Government and Parliament,

international organizations present in Georgia, international and local

NGOs and media.

 

On this occasion, the Council of Armenian Non-Governmental Organizations

of the Samtskhe-Javakheti Region in Georgia, on 21 October 2004, have

sent the following memorandum to the Monitoring Committee.

 

 

M E M O R A N D U M

 

THE SITUATION IN THE SAMTSKHE-JAVAKHETI REGION IN GEORGIA

AND GEORGIA'S OBLIGATIONS AND COMMITMENTS BEFORE THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

 

Submitted to the

Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments

by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee)

 

Submitted by the

Council of Armenian Non-Governmental Organizations

of the Samtskhe-Javakheti Region in Georgia

 

21 October 2004

 

 

As you prepare to hold your next meeting in Georgia, we, the leaders

of the Armenian nongovernmental organizations of the Samtskhe-Javakheti

territory in Georgia, attaching great importance to the sovereignty and

territorial integrity of our country, wish to bring to your attention

the critical situation in Samtskhe-Javakheti, which if left unresolved,

could have dire consequences for the population of the territory and

for Georgia as a whole.

 

When joining the Council of Europe in 1999, the following were among

the obligations and commitments Georgia undertook:

 

a) to sign and ratify, within a year after its accession, the Framework

Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European

Charter for Regional or Minority Languages;

 

to sign and ratify, within three years after its accession, the

European Charter of Local Self-Government, [...] and in the meantime

to apply the fundamental principles of [this] instrument;

 

c) to enact, within two years after its accession, a legal framework

determining the status of the autonomous territories and guaranteeing

them broad autonomy, the exact terms of which are to be negotiated

with the representatives of the territories concerned;

 

d) to amend, within three years after its accession, the law on

autonomy and local government to enable all the heads of councils to

be elected instead of being appointed;

 

e) to adopt, within two years after its accession, a law on minorities

based on the principles of Assembly Recommendation 1201 (1993).

 

Five years after accession, Georgia has yet to take steps towards

fulfilling the above-mentioned commitments and obligations. In fact,

the process of fulfilling these commitments before the Council of

Europe has failed, and, inter alia, has made the situation in the

Samtskhe-Javakheti region critical.

 

The 1995 Georgian constitution does not define the administrative

structure of the country and in practice the district-level

self-government does not match democratic standards. In the

Samtskhe-Javakheti region, discriminatory laws and practices have

left the Armenian population far less represented in the district

administration. There are no elective bodies on the regional level and

there is no legislative base for the institution of state commissioners

appointed by presidential decrees. The present administrative structure

and the method of governance do not take into account the specifics of

the region and do not correspond to the needs of the population. The

system has long demonstrated that it is bankrupt and unfruitful. The

Samtskhe-Javakheti region has actually been pushed out of the governing

processes of the country.

 

The administrative governance of the region has been frustrated. At

the local level, flagrant discrimination is practiced against the

local Armenian population; in contrast to the rest of the country,

in the Armenian populated areas of Samtskhe-Javakheti most sakrebulos

(locally elected bodies) incorporate several villages, whereas each

Georgian populated village has a separate sakrebulo, thus artificially

increasing the Georgian presence in the rayon (district) level.

 

These measures, policies and practices are in direct contradiction

to the European Charter of Local Self-Government, which Georgia had

undertaken to sign and ratify within three years after its accession

and in the meantime to apply the fundamental principles of this

instrument.

 

No short- or long-term socio-economic programs to serve the interests

of the population are implemented. The poverty and desperation have

reached threatening levels. Educational and cultural conditions are

unsatisfactory.

 

In the last ten months, we have conveyed our concerns and

recommendations to the highest authorities in Georgia and to the

(now former) Secretary General of the Council of Europe, but to no

avail. All of them have failed to even acknowledge receipt of our

written communications.

 

It is crucial to have the Samtskhe-Javakheti region fully integrated in

the state, political, socioeconomic and cultural lives of the country.

But integration is not synonymous to assimilation, neither is autonomy

to secession. In a democratic society, integration can only be achieved

through participation. Policies and practices pursuing assimilation

or artificial and forceful change of demographic realities can only

result in the opposite. Integration requires that both the majority

and the minority have the desire for it and the willingness to take

mutual steps towards each other.

 

Under the guise of integration, the Georgian authorities have

enacted laws which are contrary to the spirit and letter of the

Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,

which Georgia had undertaken to sign and ratify within a year

after its accession, but has failed to do so after over five years

following its accession. Furthermore, and in direct contradiction

of the above-mentioned Framework Convention and European Charter,

the Georgian authorities have recently introduced a draft law on

education, which, if enacted, would effectively prevent Georgia's

national minorities, including the Armenians, from education at all

levels in their relevant regional or minority languages.

 

There is no broad social-political consensus in the country on

political issues connected with ethnic diversity of Georgia and

its internal political and administrative systems. The reported

Armenian ancestry of politicians and public figures is often

regarded to be derogatory. Whereas the existence of a large number

of Armenian cultural and religious monuments, as well as historical

records speak of the fact that in Southern Georgia, including in

the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, the Armenians are natives, Georgian

society regards the Armenians in those regions as newcomers. There is

recorded evidence of attempts to "Georgianize" these monuments. The

Georgian authorities are sending contradictory messages on how

national minorities can protect and promote their linguistic and

cultural rights: whereas, on the one hand, the Georgian authorities

are undermining the linguistic and cultural rights of the law-abiding

national minorities, on the other hand, in order to appease those who

have declared their independence from Georgia, the same authorities

promise them to protect and promote their language and culture in

return for restoring Georgian sovereignty on those territories.

 

We are convinced that if Georgia completely and sincerely honours

its accession obligations and commitments, especially those mentioned

at the beginning of this Memorandum, it would greatly help alleviate

the serious situation in Samtskhe-Javakheti.

 

Hence we appeal to you, the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations

and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe, to ensure

that Georgia honours its commitments entered into on its accession

to the Council of Europe. We are at the disposal of your Committee

for further elaboration and discussion.

 

 

Council of Armenian Non-Governmental Organizations

of the Samtskhe-Javakheti Region in Georgia

Akhalkalaki, 21 October 2004

 

 

http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg95843.html

[MiB]

What Javakhk needs very much these days is the support and understandingof armenians in Hajq and in Spyurq...

[Javakhk]

Russian: Резолюция Совета Европы по Грузии 13 Апреля

 

Парламентская Ассамблея Совета Европы 13 Апреля с.г. приняла резолюцию по Грузии, подробно затрагивающую проблемы национальных меньшинств. В частноси она призывает Грузию:

 

1) Увеличить участие национальных меньшинств в общественой жизни.

2) Улучшить систему образования на языках национальных меньшинств, включающую обучение и на грузинском как на втором языке.

3) Исключить все формы нетерпимости и языка ненависти по этническому и конфессиональному признаку.

4) Принять всестороннюю правовую базу, состоящую из специальных законов, для защиты национальных меньшинств.

5) Принять специальный закон o религии для предоставления равного юридического статуса всем религиозных общинам, и для решения вопроса по возврашению им имущества, конфискованного в советские годы.

6) Незамедлительно подписать Европейскую хартию по языкам национальных и региональных меньшинств.

 

http://javakhk.livejournal.com/288889.html

 

***

 

English: Resolution of the Council of Europe on Geoprgia of April 13th

 

On April 13th the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe issued a resolution on Georgia, also concerning the probems with national minorities. It in particular calls Georgia:

 

1) To improve the participation of national minorities in public life.

2) To improve the system of language education for national minorities, including the teaching of minority languages and Georgian as a second language.

3) To fight any forms of intolerance and hate speech on the basis of ethnicity, faith.

4) To provide a comprehensive legal framework for the protection of national minorities contained in a number of specialised laws.

5) To adopt a specific law on religion that would offer proper and equal legal status, and to resolve the issues regarding the return to their respective religious properties confiscated during the Soviet era.

6) To calls upon the Georgian authorities to sign and ratify the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages without further delay.

 

http://javakhk.livejournal.com/289225.html