WASHINGTON—Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-CA), lead sponsor of the Armenian Genocide resolution, and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, met with Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, Thursday to discuss the bilateral relationship between the United States and Georgia and to ask the president to focus more attention on the Armenian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti, which borders the Republic of Armenia.
Economic opportunity, education, and development in Samtskhe-Javakheti have lagged behind that of predominantly Georgian areas of the country.
During the meeting in the U.S. Capitol, President Saakashvili expressed a willingness to work with Schiff and Berman to direct more resources to Samtskhe-Javakheti and said that he would fully support additional American assistance to the region.
“I was very pleased with the discussion we had with President Saakashvili,” Schiff said. “He was unhesitating in expressing support when we asked for additional efforts to aid Armenian-Georgians.”
“I will continue to fight for the fair treatment and equal rights for the ethnic Armenian community in Georgia,” said Howard Berman, the Ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a longtime champion of Armenian causes.
President Saakashvili has been in Washington for several days meeting with a variety of senior American officials, including President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and congressional leaders.
An ongoing dialogue between the Armenian National Committee of America and the Georgian government—both in Tbilisi and via Georgia’s Ambassador in Washington—is exploring ways to expand the Georgian-Armenian partnership to include broader direct Georgian and Armenian investments and also increased U.S. assistance to promote job-creation in the Armenian-populated Samtskhe-Javakheti (Javakhk) region of Georgia.
“The Embassy of Georgia, in support of our government’s material commitment to economic development for our citizens in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region and throughout all of our Republic, looks forward to working with our friends in the U.S. Congress and the Administration and with all American civil society stakeholders – including, of course, with the Armenian American community – in encouraging the targeting of U.S. assistance to meet Samtskhe-Javakheti’s urgent job-creation, infrastructure, technical, and humanitarian needs,” stated Georgia Ambassador to the U.S. Temuri Yakobashvili.
“We look forward, in cooperation with Ambassador Yakobashvili and Georgian government officials, to broadening the longstanding ties that have existed between the Georgian and Armenian peoples through greater Georgian government investment in the economic development of Samtskhe-Javakheti and by collectively supporting a robust U.S. aid package for Georgia that includes targeted assistance to this heavily Armenian populated region,” stated ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian.
ANCA has worked closely with members of Congress, USAID and others in the administration to explore U.S. assistance opportunities in Javakhk, including public-private partnerships, which would offer material incentives for broader international investment in the region.
LIES LIES LIES Georgian envy Armenians for centuries.
Show them the pictures of a padlocked Armenin church in Javakhk. Geaorgians are a very chauvinistic and vulgar people, like all people of the Caucasus region, including Azeris and Eastern Armenians.
“are a very chauvinistic and vulgar people, like all people of the Caucasus region, including Eastern Armenians.”
Really ? How did you arrive at that conclusion ?
This stupid website filtered my earlier post. I think he is a turkish provocateur, trying to throw the tired old line that Native Armenians and Diasporan Armenians are separate poeples who have no common loyalty to eachother.
Asbarez usually always allows turkish posters to directly attacking Armenia, Artsakh, the Diaspora and the Armenian Genocide, yet for some the filtered out my post calling out this pseudo-Armenian throwing around the turkish “divide and conquer/destroy” line
How did I arrive at that conclusion? …..How can I NOT arrive at that conclusion!?!
that’s NO answer.
Clearly you cannot back up your false and illogical assertion about Eastern Armenians with provable, verifiable facts.
Maybe Sako is right about you.
you said it right.Alexander
Never trust a Georgian,you do so at your own peril.
The plan is to settle as many Meskhetian Turks as possible in Javakh and push out as many Armenians as possible out of Gurjistan. The “most developed democracy” in South Caucasus happens to be a nationalistic dictatorship that doesn’t allow freedom of religion, takes away Armenian churches and puts in prison Armenians who dare to resist assimilation. Saakashvillyan may be a son of a bitch, but he’s the US son of a bitch!
Why do Georgian border police confiscate ALL textbooks and newspapers carried by Armenians through Armenia-Georgia border? Why do they keep sending Georgian language teachers to Javakh schools to teach Armenian children Georgian language and prohibit them speaking their mother tongue?
Is it an action of a true democracy?
Take a look at the recent Turkey-Georgia agreement on “historical monuments”:
Turkey agreed to give Georgia Armenian church sites in exchange for Georgia giving Turkey Armenian churches on its territory to turn into mosques for Meskhetian Turks being settled in Armenian Javakh!!
This is all to serve the interests of British Petroleum (advertised in the US as “BP” aka “the person”=corporation when it fits the interests of the corporation like donating $$$ to candidates or “not-a-person” when it comes to paying for the damages in the Gulf) and other Big Oil and Gas crooks.
I’m amazed but not surprised by the information you mention, about the things Georgian authorities are doing to suppress Armenian identity. Georgians are dirty bastards.
why does vrastan hate us so much anyway? what we ever do to them?
we are better stronger smarter and better lookin…its only natural that they are jealous and hate us..because they cant keep up.