Vahagn Chakhalyan: “Two standards of justice in Georgia is unacceptable”
10:55, January 26, 2013
In his first official statement after being released from Georgian
prison, Javakhk activist Vahagn Chakhalyan said that the only reason
he wound up in jail in the first place was that he demanded that
Georgian authorities respect the rights of Javakhk residents and that
he criticized the persecution of Javakhk Armenians by the Saakashvili
regime.
Chakhalyan said he only employed legal means to fight against these measures.
In addition, the activist lamented the fact that the Georgian Dream
party had buckled under the torrent of slander directed against him by
the former servants of the Saakashvili regime and had removed his name
from the final list of political prisoners in Georgia.
Chakhalyan stressed that he had been a victim of political persecution
and pointed to the clamour raised by members of Saakashvili party
members during discussions, both within and without parliament,
regarding his name.
The Javakhk activist argued that all attempts to integrate the
Armenian populace of Javakhk into the socio-political life of Georgia
would be fruitless if Javakhk Armenians didn’t feel they were being
treated as fully fledged and equal citizens of Georgia.
`In this context, there cannot be two types of justice, one for ethnic
Georgian activists taken hostage by the Saakashvili regime and another
for a Javakhk Armenian activist. It is unacceptable to recognize the
first as a political prisoner and to refuse giving that status to the
latter.’