Epress.am News from Armenia
Representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan are expressing their discontent almost simultaneously with Mikhail Saakashvili’s policy — countries “whose peoples can debate the issue of which side the sun rises from,” writes the GeorgiaTimes.
According to the publication, first Caucasus Research Center NGO Director Kamran Ramazanli accused Tbilisi of discrimination against the Azerbaijani population, then RA MP Shirak Torosyan said the Georgian authorities are pursuing a policy of eviction and alienation with regards to Armenian immigrants in the country.
Saakashvili has repeatedly declared that Georgia is a multi-ethnic state, where all nations have equal rights and opportunities. However, once again, his words don’t correspond with his actions. Now the country’s ethnic minorities have joined together on one issue: that the Georgian authorities treat them with the same contempt.
Javakhq and Marneuli residents of Armenian and Azerbaijani origin, writes GeorgiaTimes, have experienced all the charm of the “provincial fascism” policy, which became “the foundation of Sakartvelo’s political life since Zviad Gamsakhurdia.”
The next stage of Tbilisi’s war against the consciousness of ethnic minorities living in Georgia, according to the publication, became the mass layoffs of Armenian and Azerbaijani teachers. Now, even in many of the schools for ethnic minorities, the directors are members of the country’s indigenous population (Georgian), who don’t have the slightest idea about the uniqueness of education geared toward ethnic communities.
Even the Georgian education ministry’s initiative to publish multilingual textbooks doesn’t save the situation. Yes, 65% of the content in these textbooks will be in the language of the country’s ethnic minorities; however, there’s no assurance that Georgian teachers will secure the same amount of time teaching Russian, Armenian and Azerbaijani, especially given the fact that many of them only speak Geogian, writes the GeorgiaTimes.