TBILISI (Civil Georgia)–A group of non-governmental organizations based in Georgia’s southern region of Javakhk–predominately populated by ethnic Armenia’s–held a conference on September 23-24 to discuss current problems in the region.
In a resolution adopted at the conference–the Council of Armenian non-governmental organizations in Javakhk called on the Georgian leadership to consider granting autonomy to the region with "broad authority for self-governance–including the right to hold elections for all bodies of governance."
The resolution also says that by offering the broadest form of autonomy to South Ossetia and Abkhazia–the Georgian authorities are "discriminating against other ethnicities living in Georgia–the rights of [other ethnicities] who have demonstrated civil loyalty are being ignored," it reads.
Participants of the conference stated that a federal arrangement of Georgia could be the best solution to the problem and called on the Georgian leadership to consider creating a "Samtskhe-Javakheti Parliament through free and direct elections–which would be authorized to carry out cultural–education social and economic policies–as well as [will be authorized] to protect public order."
