Member of the Republican Party of Armenia, Chairman of Javakhk compatriots’ union Shirak Torosyan said that the coordinating council for protection of the rights of Javakheti Armenians joins the online petition of Armenian bloggers to Secretary General of the UN Ban Ki-moon, President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso and Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland.

“Praising the initiative of Armenian bloggers, we officially join this process and will do our utmost to increase the number of signatures under the petition,” said Torosyan.

He added that they plan to submit the online petition to Yerevan offices of these organizations in future, as well as apply to Armenian communities in Europe so that they raise the matter of Javakheti Armenians’ rights protection before their parliament members in various European structures.

Chairman of Yerkir union Sevak Artsruni said for his part that the collection of signatures will show Georgia that there is a pan-Armenian approach to protection of Javakheti Armenians’ rights.

The Georgian authorities are urged to stop the discriminative policy towards Javakheti Armenians, stop persecution of Armenian public activists, release Vahagn Chakhalyan, provide the Armenian language with a regional status in Javakhk, as well as provide a legal status to the Armenian Apostolic Church and return the churches confiscated during the Soviet times.