ARMENIAN NGOs OF JAVAKHK CONSIDER FORMATION OF FEDERAL STATE AS ONLY WAY TO SOLVE ETHNIC PROBLEMS IN GEORGIA
Noyan Tapan
Au g 20, 2008
AKHALKALAKI, AUGUST 20, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. The Council
of Armenian Non-Governmental Organizations of Samtskhe-Javakheti
and Kvemo Kartli made a declaration on August 19, stating that in
order to resolve the ethnic conflicts in an objective, just and legal
manner, Georgia should have a federal state structure, composed of
territorial units and a central government. Below is the full text
of the declaration submitted by A-Info agency:
"Now that the military operations have stopped and the repositioning
of military forces in the country is slowly retuning to the status
quo ante of August 6;
When the conflicting parties and the international community are
searching for ways out of the current situation and in order to
re-establish the country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty;
It is clear, that the main victim of attempts to resolve inter-ethnic
issues through military operations is the peaceful population, without
any positive movements on the political front, on the contrary,
with complicated political consequences;
We, the public representatives of the Armenian population of
Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli, concerned with re-establishing
peace and stability in our country, assert that:
a) In order to re-establish Georgia’s territorial integrity and
sovereignty and, as a guarantee to the country’s stability and
democratic development to resolve the ethnic conflicts in an objective,
just and legal manner, Georgia should have a federal state structure,
composed of territorial units and a central government;
b) Under the federal system of state structure, the central authorities
of Georgia will retain all the powers provided by the subsections of
the first section of Article 3 of the Constitution of Georgia;
c) The basis for the creation of the territorial units should be
the needs for preserving and advancing the ethnic identity of the
nationalities comprising Georgia’s population; d) Samtskhe-Javakheti
— with its current boundaries and with the neighboring mainly
Armenian-populated areas of the Kvemo Kartli region — should have
the status of a territorial unit comprising the Georgian federal
state, with broad self-governing rights, including the right to free
elections by the population for all local self-governing bodies and
jurisdiction over cultural, educational and socio-economic policies,
as well as the spheres of public order, local self-government and
environmental protection in Samtskhe-Javakheti;
e) Guarantees should be provided through the constitution, that
the Armenian language will be a regional official language in
Samtskhe-Javakheti, in addition to the official state language;
f) The representation of Samtskhe-Javakheti in the legislative,
executive and judicial branches of government of Georgia should be
constitutionally guaranteed.
It is about time, that the political elite of Georgia acknowledge,
once and for all, that:
The way to the development and strengthening of the state is through
its formation on the basis prescribed above;
In order to re-establish the integrity of the country the law-abiding
citizens should be sufficiently appreciated, their concerns and
reasonable demands should be heard, and they should be provided with
at least as much jurisdiction as is being promised to those who have
raised arms against the state;
The country’s integration into Euro-Atlantic structures first of all
requires complete adoption and application of European values and the
complete and immediate realization of obligations — including those
regarding the full protection of national minorities — undertaken
vis a vis European institutions.
We are aware that this declaration will not be received
unequivocally. There will be efforts to misconstrue or misuse
it. But we, as citizens concerned with Georgia’s destiny, could not
refrain from repeating the truth, which we have been proclaiming
for years. We are guided solely by the the interests of Georgia and
Samtskhe-Javakheti, which is a component unit of the country.
This is what the memory of those who fell during the last clashes
requires; this is what the right of return of those hundreds of
thousands of the recently displaced people requires; this is what
the future of Georgia requires."
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