YEREVAN (A.W.)—Georgian President Mikhail Saakhasvhili has done nothing to mitigate the socio-economic crisis plaguing his country’s Armenian population in the region of Javakhk and does not deserve to be honored by Yerevan, said a leading member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) on Tuesday.
Saakashvili’s government has deliberately neglected the socioeconomic woes of Georgia’s Javakhk region and violated the rights of its predominantly Armenian population, explained Giro Manoyan, the ARF’s political affairs director.
From June 24-25, Georgian President Mikheil Saakhashvili visited Armenia for talks on where he was praised by President Serzh Sarkisian for ostensibly working to ease the socioeconomic hardships in Javakhk.
While Saakhashvili recently announced that there has been an increase in investments in Javakhk over the past few years, Manoyan noted that a large number of employees have come from other regions, despite the fact that population of Javakhk is in need of employment.
“Our main concern should be to convince the Georgian authorities that Javakhk should be the strongest bond of maintaining good neighboring relations between Armenia and Georgia,” said Manoyan. “However, today, this is the loosest bond.”
Sarkisian failed to stress this point and instead indicated his satisfaction with the current Georgian leadership by giving Saakashvili an Honor Medal, the highest Armenian state award set for foreign dignitaries.
The move troubled human rights activists in Armenia and the Diaspora, leading dozens of protesters to gather near the Armenia Marriott Hotel on June 25 to demonstrate against Saakhashvili’s policies towards Javakhk.
Yerevan police, however, pushed the protesters out of Republic Square and onto North Avenue. Many eyewitnesses reported seeing the protesters dragged away by police, who wanted to clear the entrance to the hotel where Saakhashvili was staying.
Manoyan, who was at the demonstration, said that the Georgian president had been careful not to meet with any of the protesters during his visit.
Abris Giro . Of course he doesnt deserve it. Don’t worry the Russians will teach them and us another hard learned lesson.
I wonder how wise is to say while we are not in a position to impose our wills on Misha , wile we don’t have alternative plan to impliment normalization in Javakhq .
Thinking twice , I am puzzled how this time consultants of Serzhik suggested him this clever act !!!
I think Armenian leaders have been employing not only balance policy but necessarily politics that guides by the principal that the best way to eliminate your enemy is to be his or her friend because doing so you have reached two objectives taking care of your enemy and gaining a new friend.
Armenia needs Georgia more than Georgia needs Armenia. The problem of Javakh cannot be solved by dismaying Goergian leaders by Armenian leaders. In order to protect rights of any armenain we must have strong homeland. Without a viable and strong homeland no armenian is safe anywhere. We must understand this axiom and to do whatever we can to improve our fatherland. Then and only then we will be respected by other nations and goverments.
Javakhg will prevail, but let us look at the bright side. If it was Azerbeijan (or turks), they would have solved the problem with a massacre or genocide. Georgians are a little more amiable they just remove the Armenian characters from all churches and viola it becomes genuine Georgian. It’s funny, they don’t even remember that the Georgian characters were also invented by Mesrop Mashdotz, so whether they like it or not, they are replacing them with another Armenian character system, which are all over the churches in Georgia. And now that Serge gave him a medal, he will take yet another Armenian symbol with him to Georgia. It has been over a year with Serge being the president. It is clear how his political style is. It is based on goodwill, even to ruthless dictators. When wolves come over for dinner, here comes Serge the hero, a medal for you for being a nice wolve. Never mind our house wolves that have been hungry for a decade now.
I for one, think that this political style is quite effective, but there is a big piece missing in the picture. There must be a strong grass-root ZARTONG from inside Armenia. This atmosphere is ripe for such a ZARTONG, and we are already witnessing its beginning.