VIDEO: Die Doukhobors in Gorelovka - einem georgischen Dorf in Javakheti (newscafe.ge)

(newscafe.ge) Doukhobors kamen 1841 in das Dorf Gorelovka. Heute ist dort die größte Gemeinschaft von Doukhobors. Die leben zusammen in dem Dorf mit Armeniern und Öko-Migranten aus Adscharien.

Transkript des Videos: Doukhobors sind nicht getauft. Sie tragen kein Kreuz und gehen nur in ihren eigenen Kapellen beten. Sie sind gegen jede Art von Gewalt. Doukhobors glauben, dass Gott in jedem Geschöpf ist. Die Doukhobors kamen nach Javakheti 1841. Die Familie Kalmikov führten die Gemeinde damals. Die Kalmikovs wurden als die Nachkommen von Gott betrachtet. Luschka war der letzte Spross der Familie, dessen Grab ist jetzt ein heiliger Platz bei den Doukhobors. Zu Beginn der 80er Jahre wanderten einige Doukhobors aus nach Tula. Die zweite Stufe der Emigration fand in den späten 90er Jahren statt, als ein großer Teil der Gemeinde nach Brjansk zog. Im Jahr 2008, kurz vor dem georgisch-russischen Krieg, emigriert der dritte Strom nach Tambow. Heute gibt es noch etwa 200 Doukhobors , die in Georgien leben. Gorelovka ist das Dorf, wo sie die größte Gemeinde haben. Armenier und Öko-Migranten aus Adscharien leben gemeinsam in dem Dorf mit den Doukhobors.


Gute Website: doukhobor.org

PHOTOREPORTAGE: Post-Crimea, Phantom of Armenian Separatism Haunts Georgia. By Paul Rimple and Photography by Justyna Mielnikiewicz (eurasianet.org)

Amarcum Arakyan, an ethnic Armenian, cuts the hair of Josif Petriashvili, a Georgian, in the city of Akhaltsikhe.

Slideshow with Photos are here >>>

(eurasianet.org) For many in Georgia, Russia’s annexation Crimea is reigniting fears about separatism rooted in ethnic conflict and Kremlin meddling. But now Georgians aren’t just worrying about the breakaway entities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, they also are concerned about the loyalty of the predominantly ethnic-Armenian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti.

  While locals dismiss separatism concerns as nonsense, some say the speculation on the issue is indicative of a failure on the Georgian central government’s part to address complaints of the country’s Armenian-speaking minority in Samtskhe-Javakheti, which is roughly a three-hour drive south of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. Officials contend progress has been made, but concede more can be done on the inclusivity issue.

A mountainous, ragtag region bordering both Turkey and Armenia, Samtskhe‐Javakheti contains roughly 250,000 ethnic Armenians; 55 percent of the region’s total population, according to Georgia’s latest census, compiled in 2002. Knowledge of the Georgian language here can run thin. At the same time, in the view of some outsiders, sympathy for Russia, which, until 2007, operated a 15,000-man base in the regional town of Akhalkalaki, can run strong.

Over the past few weeks, suspicions among Georgians about the country’s Armenian minority have risen, fueled by memories of Tbilisi’s 2008 conflict with Russia, as well as the Kremlin’s recent land-grab in Crimea. Underscoring those suspicions was the appearance of unconfirmed media reports about ethnic Armenians from Samtskhe-Javakheti allegedly applying, en masse, to receive Russian passports.

Senior Georgian government officials have denied categorically these reports, but, as Russia-Ukraine tension threatens to boil over, such media coverage, condemned as sensationalism by three local watchdog groups, could well continue. “Somebody is interested in stirring up the water,” commented Seda Melkumian, the Samtskhe‐Javakheti representative for the Ombudsman’s Office. “So far, I haven’t met one person with a Russian passport.”

Interethnic suspicion stems from a long-time tug-of-war over greater language rights for the region’s Armenian speakers; for some Georgians, it’s a campaign reminiscent of ethnic Russians’ complaints in Crimea.

But residents adamantly deny that such a struggle could encourage them to break with Tbilisi. “We aren’t separatists,” asserted Melik Raisian, a former member of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition from Akhalkalaki. “We are Georgian citizens. Why do we always have to prove we’re not separatists for wanting our rights?”

The separatist perception is generally connected to the United Javakh Democratic Alliance (“Javakh”), a nationalist movement that has called for political autonomy in the past. Many of the movements’ key members, including leader Vahag Chakhalian, were arrested in 2008 following a fatal bombing near the home of a police chief in the town of Akhalkalaki. Chakhalian was released in 2013 as part of Georgia’s mass amnesty of prisoners.

Javakh has little influence today, although many can identify with its grievances. The 2007 closure of Akhalkalaki’s Russian army base left many locals unemployed; as of 2012, the official unemployment rate stood at 7.5 percent. Many had hoped to find work on the Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway, which goes through Javakheti, yet few have been employed.

The lack of economic opportunities drives many residents to Russia for work. Melkumian estimates that about half of Javakheti’s families have some family member in Russia. “In the villages, every family has somebody there,” she said.

That situation, though, is no different from elsewhere in Georgia, noted Ewa Chylinski, director of the European Center for Minority Issues in Tbilisi. As of this January, the Russian Federation ranked as the largest source of Georgia’s remittances, roughly $46.6 million in 2013, according to the National Bank of Georgia.

Nonetheless, the money trail does not mean a desire for independence. Chylinski rejected the notion of a separatist threat in Javakheti as “groundless.” The main problem is not autonomy, but language, she said. People cannot participate in Georgian society if they do not speak Georgian.

But for many in Samtskhe-Javakheti, that does not affect their identification with Georgia. “I’m Armenian, but I was born in Georgia. My father was born in Georgia. His father was born in Georgia and I will live in Georgia,” declared octogenarian Artush Artkopian, speaking via a teenage translator in Armenian since his knowledge of Georgian and Russian is limited.

Last year, Akhalkalaki's local council announced plans to petition the Georgian parliament to ratify the European Charter for Regional of Minority Languages, a Council of Europe convention that would make Armenian an official local language for Samtskhe-Javakheti. Getting no support in Tbilisi, where opposition from the Georgian Orthodox Church and politicians runs strong, the matter was soon dropped.

The central government, though, has taken some concrete steps to increase knowledge of Georgian. In 2010, the Ministry of Education established a program, called the “4 + 1” system,” which established a 5-percent quota for ethnic minorities in Georgian universities. Minority applicants to four-year higher educational facilities take an entrance exam in their own language, as well as an intensive one-year Georgian-language course.

Shorena Tetvadze, director of the Akhalkalaki branch of the Zurab Zhvania School of Public Administration, deems the program a success. After six years of 4 + 1, 130 ethnic Armenians graduated from Georgian universities in 2013, compared with only two in 2006, she said.

Akhalkalaki’s five grammar schools all teach Georgian, a policy the State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality calls a relative success. Three are Armenian-language schools, one is Russian and the other a Georgian school, with an enrollment of 120. Tetvadze, who is half ethnic Armenian, thinks more parents would enroll their children in the Georgian school if they did not fear assimilation. But 45 kilometers north of Akhalkalaki, in the ethnically mixed regional seat of Akhaltsikhe, 68-year-old barber Ambarcum Arakian dismissed that concern.

“Here, we’re all natives. The Georgians know Armenian and the Armenians know Georgian,” Arakian emphasized. He added that his grandson is attending university via the 4+1 program, and his granddaughter is going to a Georgian-language kindergarten “so she will know Georgian better.”

“I’m not afraid of assimilation,” he said. “We won’t lose our culture.” 

Editor's Note: Paul Rimple is a freelance reporter based in Tbilisi. Justyna Mielnikiewicz is a freelance photojournalist also based in Tbilisi.

CONFLICT: JAVAKHK ARMENIANS WILL POSSIBLY DEFEND THEIR RIGHTS VIA CONSTITUTIONAL REFERENDUM (groong.usc.edu)

PanARMENIAN.Net
23.02.2009 16:09 GMT+04:00

Georgian authorities should acknowledge that neglecting the problems of Samtkhe Javakheti is not the best solution, Javakhk Expatriates'
Community head, RA NA member Shirak Torosyan told a news conference in Yerevan today.

more >>>

CONFLICT: Georgian Policy Of Ostrich (groong.usc.edu)

Panorama.am

The National Assembly deputy Shirak Torosyan, the President of "Djavakhq" Union labeled the Georgian policy towards the Georgian Armenians as "an ostrich policy" and the evidence to that, according to the deputy, is the statement made by the Foreign Minister of Georgia Grigol Vashadze, during his working visit to Armenia, that "there
is no conflict of Djavakhq. There is a social-economic problem of Samtskhe-Djavakhq, as a region of Georgia where the social situation has become worse after the Russian aggression."

"By hiding, slurring over and veiling the problem they will not find any solution to it, quite the opposite, they will feed the problem," said the NA Deputy and added that there are political, cultural-education and national problems in Djavakhq either. According to him, it is quite natural that Djavakhq suffers a social-economic problem, because Georgia also suffers it.

"It is important to express a political will and to give solutions to those problems that Georgian Armenians face. Then Armenian-Georgian relations will be more improved," he said.

source >>>

NATIONALISM: Armenia: Nationalists agitate for Samtskhe-Javakheti (blog.oneworld.am)

Following the arrest of two ethnic Armenians in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of the Republic of Georgia, nationalist groups in Armenia plan to hold a demonstration outside the Georgian Embassy in Yerevan on Wednesday. While it is unlikely to be well attended, the activity of such nationalist groups has sharply increased since the short war between Georgia and Russia last August. Chances are that this is no coincidence.

Having openly considered the possibility to use the short conflict over South Ossetia to push for separation from Georgia, nationalist think tanks and analytical centers make no secret of their desire to frustrate good relations with Armenia’s neighbor and are more noticeable than ever before. The secretively funded Mitq Youth Analytical Center, for example, has a map of a “Greater Armenia” on its office wall with the silhouette of a soldier holding a rifle into the air.

full text >>>

NEWS: Georgia News Digest 03-26-08

A service of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies

Attached PDF file easily navigable with Bookmarks pane
Archives and associated files at groups.google.com/group/genewsfiles (from February 2008) and groups.google.com/group/genews (before February 2008)

1. Opposition ends hunger strike
2. Patriarch again urges opposition to end hunger strike
3. Opposition listens to Catholicos-Patriarch, stops hunger strike
4. Burjanadze welcomes end of hunger strike
5. Opposition vows to continue protests
6. Opposition goes hungry while government stands firm
7. Health condition of Zviad Dzidziguri is satisfactory
8. Two MPs from New Rights end hunger strike
9. video: Georgian opposition wants TV station put back on air
10. video: Opposition protests in Georgia over TV station
11. Rustavi 2 TV journalist in the center of live brawl
12. Imedi new owner delays TV reopening
13. Hope lost as Imedi saga continues
14. Restoration of Imedi depending on Ina Gudavadze and News Corp
15. Interview with Badri Patarkatsishvili’s widow
16. Brawl envelops pro-government TV crew live on air
17. Rustavi-2 call on politicians to "stop assaulting media"
18. Opposition denies attempt to hamper elections
19. Opposition activists block main thoroughfare at parliament
20. Saakashvili’s statement on opposition, elections
21. People would follow Okruashvili
22. Russia-Georgia air links to resume, but storm clouds grow
23. Georgian flight marks end of Russian air embargo
24. With flights to Moscow, Georgia hopes trade ties will again take off
25. video: Russia & Georgia restore direct flights
26. Georgia-Russia flights resume
27. Georgian singer to board first flight from Tbilisi to Moscow
28. Georgia to repay debt to Russian airlines this year
29. 12 arrested in raid on purse snatchers
30. Russia not to hinder Georgia's receiving NATO membership plan
31. Moscow eases sanctions on Georgia, but rattles sabers over NATO
32. Realpolitik resurgent?
33. Cold War II? As Russia revives, so does the battle between NATO and Russia
34. ‘Open and clear’ US support for Georgia’s MAP ambitions
35. Brzezinski: ‘US will not recognize fraudulent independence’
36. Russia’s new image and its imperialistic foreign policy regime
37. IPAP assessment document to be discussed in Brussels
38. Tone of anti-Russian remarks at Brussels forum less 'strident' than usual [excerpt]
39. Why we should fear a McCain presidency [excerpt]
40. Interview: Dmitry Medvedev [excerpt]
41. Russia has lost neutrality on Abkhazia, S. Ossetia issues
42. Terrorists' explosive device brought from Georgian territory
43. Georgian police take civilians hostages
44. JPKF, OSCE observers end probe into S Ossetia terror act
45. Georgia frees "hostages" after "decisive measures" threatened
46. Georgia-Abkhazia: Home-care for patients suffering from multiple drug-resistant tuberculosis
47. Eurosport apologises to The Georgian Times
48. Naval communication to be resumed with Russia
49. MCG: Farm service center in Marneuli
50. An MDR-TB patient in Georgia ...
51. PACE monitors to visit Georgia
52. Candidates require live transmission of vote
53. MPs to discuss article of Criminal Code
54. UNFPA sums up two-year activities in the Caucasus region
55. Ethnic groups in Georgia #7 – Azeris (part 1)
56. Akhmed Zakayev: The sole prospect of the Chechen resistance is to gain victory [excerpt]
57. Ambassador of Armenia and head of Georgian Diocese of Armenian Apostolic Church visit Samtskhe-Javakheti

Jonathan Kulick, Ph.D., Director of Studies, Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, 3a Chitadze, Tbilisi 0108, Georgia (Republic), jonathan.kulick@gfsis.org, office: +995 32 47 35 55, mobile: +995 95 33 33 40, USA voicemail: 310.928.6814

NEWS:

10 Sep 07 until 01 Nov 07

Caucasus Reporting Service 411 until 417

Agonising Scenes at Razed Baku Cemetery
Relatives distraught as bodies exhumed to make way for new highway.
By Leila Amirova in Baku (CRS No. 411, 20-Sept-07)

Armenia: Sad Fate of Azeri Graves
Government won’t fund restoration of Azerbaijani cemeteries, saying they do not have any intrinsic cultural value. By Naira Bulghadarian in Saral (CRS No. 411, 20-Sept-07)

Karabakh Mosques Restored
Officials want to refute Baku’s claims that Muslim monuments are being systematically destroyed. By Karine Ohanian in Nagorny Karabakh (CRS No. 411, 20-Sept-07)

Kabardino-Balkaria Leader Offers Way Out in Land Dispute
President proposes a major rethink on laws that ethnic Balkars say will deprive them of their lands. By Aishat Osmanova in Nalchik (CRS No. 411, 20-Sept-07)


Georgian Ex-Minister Arrested After Denouncing President
Police swoop following former minister Irakli Okruashvili’s lurid allegations about the Georgian president. By David Paichadze in Tbilisi (CRS No. 412, 28-Sept-07)

Ingushetia: Fears of “Second Chechnya”
Murders, shoot-outs in the streets and “mop-up operations” shatter island of stability. By Umalt Dudayev in Karabulak (CRS No. 412, 27-Sept-07)

Azerbaijan: Crackdown on Foreign Workers
Proposed legislative amendments impose large penalties on companies that lie about the number of foreigners they employ. By Rashad Suleimanov in Baku (CRS No. 412, 27-Sept-07)


Georgian Opposition Raises the Heat
New coalition calls for release of jailed ex-defence minister, and answers from president. By Veriko Tevzadze in Tbilisi (CRS No. 413, 04-Oct-07)

Circassians Voice Olympian Anger
North Caucasian activists say the Sochi Olympics will write them out of history. By Azamat Bram in Maikop (CRS No. 413, 05-Oct-07)

Outrage at “Fake” Circassian Anniversary
Events of hundreds of years ago become a live political issue as Moscow-sponsored festivities are dismissed as an attempt to rewite history. By Marina Marshenkulova in Nalchik and Azamat Bram in Maikop (CRS No. 413, 05-Oct-07)


Georgian Ex-Minister in Public Climbdown
Former defence minister retracts his allegations against President Saakashvili and is released on bail. By Mikhail Vignansky in Tbilisi (CRS No. 414 11-Oct-07)

Azeri Government Launches NGO Programme
Observers debate whether a new programme funnelling government money into non-governmental organisations will help or harm the NGO sector. By Sevinj Telmanqizi in Baku (CRS No. 414 11-Oct-07)

Dagestan Militant’s Death “No Breakthrough”
Analysts caution that death of Dagestan’s most wanted man will not change the situation in the republic. By Diana Aliev in Kizilyurt (CRS No. 414 11-Oct-07)

Project Highlights
Caucasus: Sept ‘07
IWPR event examines heated debate provoked by celebrations of anniversary of the Circassian people’s unification with Russia. By Alan Tskhurbayev, IWPR North Caucasus editor and Salla Nazarenko, CCJN project leader

Reporting Impact
Caucasus: Sept ‘07
IWPR visit to Samtskhe-Javakheti challenges biased reporting on this neglected region. By Salla Nazarenko, CCJN project leader


Armenia Hails Genocide Vote
As Armenians celebrate following a US Congressional vote, their kinsmen in Turkey brace themselves for a rise in nationalist sentiment. By Tatul Hakobian in Yerevan (CRS No. 415 18-Oct-07)

Cancer Epidemic in Chechnya
War-torn republic struggles to cope with a sharp rise in cancer sufferers. By Asya Umarova in Grozny (CRS No. 415 18-Oct-07)

Georgian Vineyards in Ferment
Vine-growers’ anger at depressed market conditions spills over into political row. By Zviad Ruadze in Gurjaani (CRS No. 415 19-Oct-07)


Dagestan’s Pre-Scripted Phone Chat With Putin
The Russian president gets only a censored view of a North Caucasian village’s problems. By Diana Alieva in Botlikh (CRS No. 416 26-Oct-07)

Azerbaijani Refugees Angered by Resettlement Plan
The government is offering Karabakh refugees new homes, but many say they would be losing far more than they gained. By Shahla Abusattar in Baku (CRS No. 416 26-Oct-07)

Armenia: Yezidis Endure Years of Living Dangerously
Ethnic minority blames official discrimination for failure to remove potentially lethal electricity pylons from their village. By Gayane Mkrtchian in Zovuni (CRS No. 416 26-Oct-07)


Georgia Demands Russian Exit from Abkhazia
Abkhaz talk of war as Tbilisi calls for end to Russian peacekeeping mission. By Irakly Lagvilava in Ganmukhuri, Dmitry Avaliani in Tbilisi and Inal Khashig in Sukhum (CRS No. 417 01-Nov-07)

Abkhazia Welcomes Mountain Minority
Ethnic kin encouraged by promise of land and jobs to move to Abkhazia. By Bella Ksalova in Karachai-Cherkessia and Anahit Gogorian in Abkhazia (CRS No. 417 01-Nov-07)

Armenian Government Moves against Ex-President
Official media campaign waged against former president as he launches new leadership bid. By Diana Markosian in Yerevan (CRS No. 417 01-Nov-07)

Azerbaijanis Flock to Turkish Town
Turkish border city’s population booms as Azerbaijanis come in search of work. By Sabuhi Mammadli in Igdir (CRS No. 417 01-Nov-07)