Author: Hambardsumian Paul

VARNA CITY COUNCIL DECLARES APRIL 24 AS COMMEMORATION DAY OF GENOCIDE VICTIMS

Noyan Tapan

Ma y 23, 2008

VARNA, MAY 23, ARMENIANS TODAY – NOYAN TAPAN. The Bulgarian Varna city
council has adopted a declaration, which condemns the 1915 Armenian
genocide. As Azatutiun (Liberty) reports, citing The Sofia Echo
periodical, the council has also declared April 24 as Commemoration
Day of Armenian Genocide victims.

The city council members expressed hope that their decision will
contribute to the recognition of the Armenian Genocide both by the
other cities of the country and the state of Bulgaria.

The opposition has raised the issue on the recognition of the Armenian
Genocide in the Bulgarian parliament for several times, the latest
of which on January 17 of this year. However, the parliamentarian
majority refuses to include the presented dratfs on the agenda,
avoiding spoiling relations with Turkey.

TURKEY REPORT: EP REJECTS ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AMENDMENTS

PanARMENIAN.Net
22.05.2008 12:39 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European Parliament (EP) adopted on Wednesday
a report on Turkey urging the government to accelerate reforms.

In a plenary session the EP debated and voted on the report, prepared
by Dutch parliamentarian Ria Oomen-Ruijten. The report is a non-binding
and recommendatory one.

The parliament rejected amendments to the report regarding the
incidents of 1915 submitted by a group of French MEPs regarding the
1915 events.

However, the amendment on EP’s concerns about news reports regarding
Turkish riot police’s disproportional use of force during May Day
celebrations was accepted. The amendment also said that the changes
made in article 301 of Turkish Penal Code were not enough and urged
Turkish parliament to revise the article and completely remove other
restrictive stipulations.

The report, adopted last month by the European Parliamentary Committee
on Foreign Affairs, expressed concern about the potential consequences
of the recent dissolution case filed against Turkey’s ruling Justice &
Development (AK) Party.

Another amendment to the report said the EP expected Turkish
Constitutional Court to act in accordance with the Venice Commission
guidelines and European standards on the prohibition of political
parties.

It also called on the Turkish government to respect pluralism,
secularism and democracy while carrying out reforms and to reach a
compromise with political parties and urged the political parties to
distance themselves from violence and terrorist organizations.

The report says the parliament takes note of the process underway to
prepare a new, civilian constitution; regards it as a key opportunity
to place the protection of human rights and freedoms at the core of
the constitution and underlines the need for a broad involvement of
civil society in this process.

The report also says the parliament "welcomes the commitment of
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that 2008 is going to be the year
of reforms; urges the Turkish government to make use of its strong
parliamentary majority to resolutely pursue reforms that are crucial
for Turkey’s transformation into a modern democratic and prosperous
society."

It says "(the parliament) encourages the Turkish government to make
further systematic efforts to ensure that the democratically elected
political leadership bears full responsibility for formulation of
domestic, foreign and security policy and that the armed forces
respect this civilian responsibility; points out, in particular,
the need to establish full parliamentary oversight of military and
defense policy and all related expenditure."

The report also urges the Turkish government and the parliament
to abolish immediately article 301 of the Penal Code as a symbolic
and substantive step towards full respect of freedom of expression
in the country and underlines that, once the urgently needed
abolition of article 301 has been carried out, further legislative
and implementation steps will be required in order to ensure that
Turkey fully guarantees freedom of expression and press freedom in
line with ECHR and European democratic standards.

It says the parliament encourages the Turkish authorities to resolutely
pursue investigations into the Ergenekon affair, "to fully uncover
its networks reaching into the state structures and to bring those
involved to justice."

The report welcomes the recent adoption by the Turkish Parliament
of the Law on Foundations and says "the European Commission should
analyze whether the Law addresses all shortcomings faced by non-Muslim
religious communities with regard to property management and
acquisition, including expropriated property sold to third parties."

The report also calls upon the Democratic Society Party (DTP), its
members at the parliament and mayors "to engage constructively in
the quest for a political solution to the Kurdish issue within the
democratic Turkish state."

It strongly condemns the violence perpetrated by the terrorist
organization PKK and reiterates European Parliament’s solidarity with
Turkey in its fight against terrorism. The report urges the Iraqi
government and the regional Kurdish administration not to allow Iraqi
territory to be used as a base for terrorist acts against Turkey.

The report stresses the need to arrive at a comprehensive settlement
of the Cyprus question within the UN framework, claiming that "the
withdrawal of Turkish forces would facilitate the negotiation of
a settlement."

Mrs. Oomen-Ruijten’s report also calls on the European Commission and
the Turkish government to start negotiations on an agreement to ease
granting of visas to Turkish nationals.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS AND PROSPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE NON-GOVERNMENTAL SECTOR

KarabakhOpen
20-05-2008 13:04:05

The main topic of the first forum of NGOs of Karabakh on Saturday was
the relations between the government and NGOs, as well as cooperation
with international organizations. The Forum was initiated by the NKR
Center for International Cooperation, the Resource Center, Stepanakert
Press Club, the Union of Journalists of Artsakh, Pedagogue, Young
Democrats and Haik’s Generation NGOs.

The representatives of 80 organizations were invited, about 60 of
them and the representatives of the government participated. The
forum was funded by the government and several organizations.

It could be concluded from the reports that the relation between
the NGOs and the government is rather weak. Some even said their
activities sometimes turn out meaningless because of the lack of
corresponding institutions.

For instance, the president of Artsakh Association of Human Rights
Georgy Safaryan said recently nobody has turned to them because he
says their "hands are short". "Nobody will see a doctor who cannot
help them," he says. Georgy Safaryan says the activities of his
organization have no effect on the general atmosphere.

The president of Stepanakert Press Club Gegham Baghdasaryan says the
weakness of the non-governmental sector is because the government has
one pole, meanwhile the non-governmental sector cannot be government
or opposition, it must be "the third power". "The non-governmental
organizations cannot be an annex of the government, they must be
partners but for this reason the sector must be independent, first
of all, financially," Gegham Baghdasaryan said. He also underlined
that the NGOs should be beside the society, beside ordinary citizens
because if they stand by the government, they reinforce the pole of
the government.

Most participants of the forum noted in their speeches that independent
from the recognition of independence of NKR Karabakh must be a
democratic country in which every person should be able to defend
their rights.

The fact that NKR is not recognized leaves its trace. For instance,
the citizens of NKR have no possibility to defend their rights at
international rostrums, which has a negative effect on the general
atmosphere.

In the meantime, the non-governmental sector could have had
a deciding role in recognition. The participants of the forum
noted that in this situation the NGOs have more possibilities to
represent Karabakh to the world than political organizations. However,
cooperation with international organizations often gets controversial
interpretations. In addition, it is done on the government’s
suggestion.

Nevertheless, the forum underlined the importance of cooperation with
foreign organizations, including Azerbaijani NGOs.

UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY PASSES RESOLUTION ON RETURN OF REFUGEES TO ABKHAZIA

armradio.am
16.05.2008 17:00

During its plenary session of May 15 the UN General Assembly passed a
resolution, in which it recognizes the right of return of all refugees
and internally displaced persons and their descendants, regardless
of ethnicity, to Abkhazia, and underlines the urgent need for rapid
development of a timetable to ensure the prompt voluntary return of all
refugees and internally displaced persons to their homes in Abkhazia.

Representatives of 105 countries preferred to abstain. Another 62
delegations did not participate in the voting. Fourteen countries
voted for the resolution, another 11 voted against.

The Resolution was supported by Albania, Azerbaijan, Chzechia,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia,
Sweden, the US and Ukraine.

Russia voted against the Resolution, considering that it will result in
new tension in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. Russia’s position was
supported by Armenia, Belarus, Venezuela, India, Iran, the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea, Myanmar, Serbia, Syria and Sudan.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry criticized as counterproductive on Friday a
move by the UN General Assembly to adopt a Tbilisi-sponsored resolution
on the return of refugees to Georgia’s breakaway republic of Abkhazia.

"The vote results clearly demonstrate that the international
community has actually failed to support Georgia’s maneuvers on
the problem. Russia voted against the project and gave a statement
explaining its position," the ministry said, describing the resolution
as a counterproductive move that could complicate further the conflict
between Georgia and Abkhazia.

Russian representative at the United Nations Ilya Rogachev criticized
the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly on refugees and
displaced persons in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict
calling it counterproductive, distorting the situation in the breakaway
province, and destabilizing UN efforts to promote a comprehensive
settlement of the conflict.

"The document imposes a distorted image of the Georgian-Abkhazian
conflict, conceals its history, and considers only certain
consequences, but forgets about the reasons of the existing
situation," he told the General Assembly on Thursday commenting on
the Georgia-drafted resolution.

"It is clear that the given initiative has been designed by the
authors to pressure the Abkhazian side in order to resolve political,
but not humanitarian tasks," Rogachev said.

Tbilisi hailed the resolution as a victory on the international arena,
said Giorgi Baramidze, Georgian minister for Euro-Atlantic integration.

"This is a significant victory on the international arena regarding
the protection of our interests," Baramidze said.

ANCA EASTERN REGION DIRECTOR CONTINUES TO "EDUCATE, MOTIVATE, AND ACTIVATE" STUDENTS

DeFacto Agency
May 15 2008
Armenia

YEREVAN, 15.05.08. DE FACTO. In continuation with the New Jersey State
mandate on genocide education, Armenian National Committee of America,
Eastern Region (ANCA-ER) Executive Director Karine Birazian presented
a series of lectures to The Academy of the Holy Angels in Demarest,
New Jersey and Chatham High School in Chatham, New Jersey on the
topic of genocide.

"It is always a true honor to be invited to speak at local high
schools. The impact we can make by educating students on this important
human rights issue is vital to the prevention of the crime genocide,"
commented Birazian.

In mid April, the Academy of Holy Angels invited Birazian to be a
part of their annual Awareness Day, where this year, the title of
the one-day workshop for students was called "Think Globally, Act
Locally." Students were able to select from a variety of workshops
pertaining to global issues and problems our society faces and ways
to take action. Birazian’s topic entitled "Never Again?" touched
upon genocides that have occurred throughout the 20th century and
the ongoing genocide today in Darfur. Students also gained insight
on how they can get involved and take action.

Jennifer Cucchisi, a social studies teacher at the school commented:
"It is important that every generation learns about genocide in order
to achieve the goal of "never again." Some students may not want to
hear about it, they may turn their heads at the pictures, but the only
way to stop genocides from happening is to make sure that everyone is
educated on the horrors of them. The pictures and stories, however
graphic they may be, are necessary and they help us to ensure that
what happened during these senseless slaughters is never forgotten."

On May 7, 2008, Birazian also spoke to the students at Chatham
High School at their annual Holocaust Remembrance Program where she
presented on the history of the Armenian Genocide and the current
battle in Congress on trying to pass legislation recognizing this
atrocity.

CASCADE CAPITAL HOLDING LENDS $15 MILLION TO ARMENIA FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVELOPMENT

ARKA
May 14, 2008

YEREVAN, May 14. /ARKA/. Cascade Capital Holdings has lent $15 million
to Armenia over last two years for renewable energy development.

Jonathan Stark, the general executive director of the holdings, told
journalists on Wednesday that the money targeted mainly small hydro
power plants. He said, some 15 credits have been provided over last
two years and the same number is being considered now.

Robert Dira, the executive director of Cascade Credit Universal Credit
Organization, said that three or four organizations will receive the
money for constructing small hydro power plants.

He said the terms of redemption range from one to seven years with
24-month grace period and annual interest rate from eight to 12%.

Dira said that investments in the small hydro power plant averaged
$750, 000 to $1.3million for 1 megawatt.

He said that the amount depends on conditions of the construction
of the power plant in the certain areas and on the scale of the
construction.

He also said that the share of the investors is 15 to 20% of total
amount, and the remaining money will come from the World Bank and
Gafeschian Fund.

Armenia has 61 small 75-megawatt hydro power plants.

Their annual output is 224 million kilowatt/hour. Other 60 small
hydro power plants of 145 megawatt generating 517 million are being
constructed now mainly in provinces of Lori and Syunik.

Cascade Capital Holdings CJSC was established in 2004 by Gefeschian
Family Fund. Cascade Bank, Cascade Investments, Cascade Credit
Universal Credit Organization, Cascade Insurance CJSC, Cascade
Consultants CJSC are included in Cascade Capital Holdings. -0-

Zeitgeist doing MOMA retrospective
Company to showcase films at L.A. Museum

Variety
May 14, 2008
By Winter Miller

Zeitgeist Films marks two decades with a retrospective at the Museum of
Modern Art from June 26-July 23. Pics in the series, "Zeitgeist: The Films
of Our Times" include "Nowhere in Africa," "Irma Vep," "Lumumba," "Aimee and
Jaguar," "The Corporation," "Ballets Russes" and "Into Great Silence."

Opening-night films, Guy Maddin’s "Careful" and Jacques Demy’s "The
Umbrellas of Cherbourg," will be introduced by Maddin. Additoinal directors
introducing their films include Todd Haynes with "Poison" and "Dottie Gets
Spanked"; Bruce Weber with "Let’s Get Lost"; Yvonne Rainer with"Privilege";
and Atom Egoyan with "Calendar."

Emily Russo and Nancy Gerstman co-founded the shingle in Greenwich Village
with a budget of $2,000. Indie distrib released the early films of Haynes,
Deepa Mehta, Egoyan, Framcois Ozon, Olivier Assayas, Christopher Nolan, and
Maddin.

"Over the past 20 years our industry has undergone enormous change, and many
companies involved in distribution have come and gone, but Zeitgeist has
remained, and thrived," said co-toppers Gerstman and Russo.

EIGHT CHILDREN ARE HOMELESS
Anahit Danielyan

Hetq.am
KarabakhOpen
14-05-2008 10:48:53

The eight children of Mikhail Arushanyan, disabled of war in Artsakh,
are homeless. The family has appeared in a difficult situation from
which they have been looking for a way out for many years on but
in vain.

Before 1990 the Arushanyan family used to live in Stepanakert. Mikhail
and his wife Rita moved from Stavropol to Karabakh in 1979 and worked
at the silk factory of Karabakh and lived at the dormitory of the
factory on 42 Tigran Mets Street. The room of the dormitory where
they lived was 36 sq m.

Mikhail Arushanyan says in 1990, as part of some government program,
he signed a contract with the City Hall of Stepanakert, and his family
moved to live in the village of Khachen, Askeran for five years. "At
that time they said it is necessary to preserve and develop villages,
therefore they sent us there. But on the condition that we would return
to Stepanakert five years later and our room at the dormitory would
remain, as well as the queue for apartments since 1984. As a result
we lost the room where we are still registered," said the veteran of
the war in Artsakh. To support his words, he showed us his work card,
yellow from humidity, with corresponding records.

The family of eight children lives in a house without basic conditions
for life. It is one of the oldest houses of the village which looks
like an earth-house rather. The traces of humidity are everywhere.

They sleep in two small rooms with four bunks. It is dangerous to
sleep on the floor because it is too humid, besides the floor is the
ground. The children, shivering with cold, pale and thin, blush every
time I ask them a question.

Their little daughter Gohar, 7 does not go to school. The other
children do not go to school either. Their mother Rita Danielyan says
one of them has no shoes, the other has no clothes, besides in the
conditions they live the children have no time to have a rest or do
homework, says Rita. Children often fall ill, and there is no money
for treatment.

They cannot afford to take their son who also has disability of second
degree (got meningitis in the army and was demobilized) to Yerevan
to see the doctor.

Rita Danielyan says in 2005 his husband and in 2007 his son got
disabilities but still get no pension because they cannot change their
passports. They are not given new passports because the housing board
of Stepanakert does not give them certificate of registration. For
the same reason the children do not get benefits toll recently,
and before that a kind person had helped them get a certificate of
registration at their room in the dormitory.

The situation is more complicated because Rita, her husband and their
adult children are still registered at the dormitory. "In 1995 when
we had to return to Stepanakert, our room at the dormitory which
was damaged by a shell during the war, it was impossible to live
there. We have turned to different agencies for help. They assured
that the room is theirs but now there is no possibility to repair
it. In 1999 when I arrived in Stepanakert I saw there was no lock on
the door. I asked what the matter was and I was told that the room
had been provided to Camilla Gasparyan, a woman with three children,"
says the wife of Mikhail who does not know what else to do.

Rita says the woman did not live in the room until the roof was
repaired in 2003. Over these years she has turned to different agencies
but in vain. She has also gone to court but the district court decided
to provide the room to Camilla Gasparyan.

The Arushanyans have turned to the mayor of Stepanakert and President
Arkady Ghukasyan for a number of times but in vain. They hope that
the government will provide them with an apartment in the building
where the residents of the dormitory will move to live. They hope
the question of pensions and benefits will also be solved.

"We already owe so much money to the shop of the village that we are
ashamed of going there. They hardly give us flour on credit not to
let our children starve. We would somehow live on the pension and
benefit. Why do they refuse to give us a certificate? Is this what
we fought for?" asks the veteran of war. They have already run out
of flour and he does not know what to do.

We asked the minister of social security Narine Azatyan, who also
coordinates the problem of housing, to comment on this case. She said
she is not aware of the details but promised to study and answer.

‘BRIGHT SHINY MORNING’ BY JAMES FREY
David L., [email protected]

Los Angeles Times
May 13 2008
CA

Shallow characters populate this is a poorly written, superficial
novel set in Los Angeles.

"Bright Shiny Morning" is a terrible book. One of the worst I’ve
ever read. But you have to give James Frey credit for one thing: He’s
got chutzpah. Two and a half years after he was eviscerated by Oprah
Winfrey for exaggerating many of the incidents in his now-discredited
memoir "A Million Little Pieces," he’s back with this book, which
aims to be the big novel about Los Angeles, a panoramic look at the
city that seeks to tell us who we are and how we live.

Clearly, HarperCollins, Frey’s publisher, expects a lot from this
book; it reportedly paid a million and a half dollars for it. You can
interpret that in a few ways: as a shrewd business decision (as of
this writing, the novel is No. 52 at Amazon.com) or as yet another
symbol of a book industry in crisis, with publishers grasping at
whatever straws they can to manufacture buzz.

Ultimately, though, it is still what’s on the page that matters, and
"Bright Shiny Morning" is an execrable novel, a literary train wreck
without even the good grace to be entertaining.

Written as an Altman-esque collage, it follows several parallel story
lines that never coalesce. The idea is to trace a collective vision of
the city, high and low, from Hollywood to the Valley to East L.A. —
an attempt to get at the fluidity of Los Angeles.

There’s Old Man Joe, a drunk who inhabits a bathroom on the Venice
boardwalk and seeks mystical affirmation in a daily ritual. Or
Amberton Parker, a St. Paul’s and Harvard-educated Oscar-winning
actor, who lives a perfect life with his wife and children and has
a secret. (Bet you can’t guess what it is.)

As a connective device, Frey interweaves a series of short passages
outlining the history of L.A., beginning with the founding of the
Pueblo and extending to the present day. Yet this strategy ends up as
a metaphor for all that’s wrong with the book. These bits read like
encyclopedia entries, devoid of soul or personality, so generic as
to be inconsequential, as if Frey has no interest or engagement in
what he has chosen to write about.

That’s the issue with "Bright Shiny Morning" — or one of them,
anyway. Frey seems to know little about Los Angeles and to have
no interest in it as a real place where people wrestle with actual
life. There are obligatory riffs on freeways and natural disasters
and a chapter on visual artists that lists "the highest price ever
paid for a piece of their work in a public auction." There are also
occasional installments of "Fun Facts" about the city, as if to give
the illusion of a certain depth. Did you know that it is "illegal
to lick a toad within the city limits of Los Angeles"? Neither did
I. But I also don’t know what this has to do with the larger story
of the novel, except as another example of L.A. as odd and quirky,
a territory in which we all "live with Angels and chase their dreams."

Frey, of course, intends this to be amusing, lighthearted and witty
in tone. ("Learning fun facts is really an enjoyable, and sometimes
enlightening process," he writes. "And, of course, it’s fun too!!!") It
comes off as two-dimensional, however, not to mention poorly written
and conceived — much like the book’s narrative elements.

Esperanza, a Chicana from East L.A., forgoes a college scholarship
after being embarrassed at a high school graduation party over the size
of her thighs. Eventually she takes a job as a maid for a tyrannical
white woman in Pasadena, only to fall in love with the woman’s son.

That’s nothing compared to the story of Dylan and Maddie, two crazy
kids from Ohio who come to L.A. with only their faith in each other
to sustain them.

After nearly 300 pages, living on $20,000 they’ve stolen from a vicious
drug-dealing motorcycle gang, Maddie turns to Dylan and says: "You know
how I read all the gossip magazines while I’m at the pool? . . . And
they’re all about these famous people, actresses and singers and
models and stuff. . . . Well, I think that I want to be an actress."

"An actress?" he asks.

"Yeah, I want to be a movie star."

How do we reckon with a novel in which the desire to become an actress
is treated as original and organic, in which the only Mexican American
character is a maid?

How do we reckon with a book in which the city is flat
and lifeless as a stage set, in which Frey uses broad
generalizations ("Thirty-thousand Persians fleeing the rule of
the ayatollahs. One-hundred and twenty-five thousand Armenians
escaping Turkish genocide. Forty-thousand Laotians avoiding
minefields. Seventy-five thousand Thais none in Bangkok sex shows.") to
try to animate what his imagination cannot?

Yes, this is Los Angeles, in the way a cheap Hollywood movie is Los
Angeles: superficial, a collection of loose impressions that don’t
add up.

Whatever else his failings as a writer, Frey was once able to move
his readers; how else do we explain the success of "A Million Little
Pieces"? It’s just one of the ironies of this new book that his
fictionalized memoir is a better novel than "Bright Shiny Morning"
could ever hope to be.

OPPOSITION, GOVT RUNNING LOW-KEY CAMPAIGN IN MARNEULI AND JAVAKHETI

Daily Georgian Times
May 12 2008
Georgia

"An opposition that intends to cooperate with ethnic minorities
always faces a dilemma. It may endanger the votes gained from the
Georgian electorate."

Nearly 60% of ethnic minorities living in Georgia claim not to be
involved whatsoever in the Georgian political process. Although many
(particularly in Khakheti) expressed an interest in local and national
politics, for the Armenian, Greek, Azeri, Russian, Ukrainian, Kurdish
and other ethnic groups residing in Georgia its difficult to know
how to get involved.

With financial support from the EU, the Horizon Foundation conducted
a survey in Kakheti, Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti regions of
Georgia and found that many minority groups feel they are prevented
from expressing their political will due to various reasons:
age, lack of time, information, lack of trust in the authorities,
etc. Additionally, they do not know Georgian language and only a small
portion are involved in election campaigns as observers, coordinators,
or election commission members. This is mainly due to the lack of
Georgian language knowledge and the low education levels.

The project "integration of ethnic minorities and freedom
of expression" carried out the survey and published it in the
#9-information ballot in 2007. Representatives of ethnic minorities
like S. Khubaev, M. Mamedov underlined the fact that activists of
political parties remember them only in the run-up to the elections
and they give promises to gain votes. It is better to be acquainted
with their programs and action plans than listen to recriminations
and offensive statements.

M. Balabanov, 28, is Greek by origin. He does not participate in
elections because he is apolitical, as he says. He told The Georgian
Times that several years ago, he took part in voting but he was
disappointed. According to him, participation in elections is just
"a bad habit." When asked whether a passive position in election
process is a bad habit or not, he answered "no." He says it does not
really matter whether he will go to the polls or not, because the
authorities will receive they results they like anyway.

The results of elections conducted over the past 10 years show a
stunningly high turnout of voters from the primarily ethnic minority
regions. These regions tend to vote in favor of the candidates of the
ruling party- regardless of who is in power at the time. This trend
continued in the presidential elections on January 5, 2008.

In 2008, during the snap presidential elections, Mikheil Saakashvili
gained the highest percentage of votes in Kvemo Kartli and
Samtskhe-Javakheti. In Gardabani district M.Saakashvili got 70.72%
of votes, in Marneuli 88.36%, in Bolnisi 93.79%, in Dmanisi 81.04%; in
Tsalka 70.14%, in Akhaltsikhe 81.39%, in Adigeni 79.04%, in Aspindza
71.9%, in Akhalkalaki 83.04%. The highest percentage of ruling party
votes came from Ninotsminda (90.18%), while the number of Saakashvili’s
supporters ranged between 27.07% and 66.97% in other regions (except
Samegrelo, Shuakhevi, Tsageri and territories surrounding Liakhvi
and Upper Abkhazia).

The Georgian Times focused on Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti,
regions settled by national minorities. The turnover in these regions
is always high. Why did the majority of local population vote for
Saakashvili?

"Generally it happens this way throughout the whole world. Ethnic
minorities and small groups always support those who are already in
power. It does not matter whether this government will solve all their
problems or not," Marina Elbakidze, psychologist, expert in conflict
issues, and a representative of Institute for Peace, Democracy and
Development told The Georgian Times. She works on election issues
for national minorities.

The expert notes that the majority of people in Samtskhe-Javakheti
and Kvemo Kartli region do not think that either the authorities or
opposition can solve their problems but given the choice, they prefer
to vote for those who they already know. "There is the factor of fear
as well. Some of them think that they may be punished if the ruling
party candidate does not win," states Marina Elbakidze.

Agit Mirzoev, executive director of the civil movement Multi-Ethnic
Georgia, believes that votes gathered from such regions are used to
manipulate election results. That is, data from those regions goes
to the CEC only after the Commission collects results from all the
other provinces.

"Nowadays Adjara is back undre Tbilisi’s control, but the tactics
remained the same. The government changes but the catalyst remains,"
Agit Mirzoev said.

Marina Elbakidze declares that another reason concerns the passive
pre-election campaigning by the opposition in Kvemo Kartli and
Samtskhe-Javakheti. She says that especially in Javakheti, the
opposition had no representative to work with local population
and present their program. Unlike them, Mikheil Saakashvili’s
representatives worked hard in this region. "It is another issue
whether the methods were acceptable or not. It is necessary to have
more contact with the population and more influence respectively,"
Elbakidze says.

According to Agit Mirzoev another reason for the voting track of ethnic
minorities in Georgia is their clannish policy. "Clannish policy always
played a significant role especially in Javakheti region. It is enough
to only negotiate with several leading members of the clan and you
will gain many votes," says Mirzoev, who adds that the opposition did
not hold such negotiations or offer anything interesting to this group.

"The authorities as well as opposition know the psychology of voters
quite well. The opposition that intends to cooperate with ethnic
minorities always faces dilemma. It may endanger the votes gained from
the Georgian electorate. It is an unpleasant reality of our society,"
Mirzoev noted.

According to him, Multi-Ethnic Georgia placed nearly 200 observers
in Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti during the presidential
elections. They covered 80% of election precincts in these two
regions. The observers identified that the government as well as
opposition representatives fully ignored the interests of ethnic
minorities. They did not try to find a common ground with minorities
at all.

"As you know the language barrier still exists. Despite that, neither
information segments was represented in a language understandable
for ethnic minorities," says Mirzoev.

Experts say that the attitude towards ethnic minorities will not change
without relevant political will and approach, because politicians
only care about these two regions when it is time for elections.