ONE MORE CHANCE FOR ARMENIANS OF GEORGIA

Will the new authorities be more pleasant toward Armenians?

The new realities appeared in Georgia after the resignation of the President Eduard Shevardnadze gave the Armenian community a chance to strengthen its weakened positions. We shall remind that if the Parliamentary elections held on November 2 were not considered illegal, the representation of Armenians in the legislative body should reduce twice. Now there are serious bases to believe besides the three Armenians that have won, other two our compatriots will pass to the Parliament through the lists of opposition. But the main thing is that it will be possible to maintain the atmosphere of the mutual understanding in the Armenian community which was being split to those who were for Shevardnadze and those who were against.

November 24, 2003

PanARMENIAN.Net - Up to now the Georgia Armenians were voting for the governing party in order to avoid pressures. This time Armenians were more pluralistic. They didn't manage to have a unique position and their votes were divided. As it is known the head of the Union of Armenians of Georgia is an active participant of the movement headed by Zourab Zhvania and Nino Burjanadze. According to the observers, some active oppositional members could cause problems for all the community. The victory of the blocks of Sahakashvili and Burjanadze removed this danger. At the same time, the rumors that the opposition as if was instructed by the Armenian lobby stopped to be spread. In order to discredit the opponents of Eduard Shevardnadze, the PR managers of the authorities accused them of acting under the orders of Yerevan which as if was doing so in order to fail the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. This opinion was authored by the leader of the pro-governmental national-democratic party Irina Sarishvili-Chanturia who fortunately did not have a successful political career. We hope that from now on this kind of political figures will stop finding Armenians origins among the oppositional leaders.

It should be noted however that among those who has won now there are lot of anti-Armenian figures. Besides, the winner "triumvirate" (Burjanadze, Sahakashvili, Zhvania) will have to continue the indifferent attitude towards the Armenians and Armenia in order to prove that the accusations for Armenian origins are groundless.