MINELRES: RFE/RL on minority problems in Georgias

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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL (Un)Civil Societies
Vol. 3, No. 46, 13 November 2002

"We must...create a life worthy of ourselves and of the goals we only
dimly perceive." (Andrei Sakharov, 1975 Nobel Peace Prize Lecture)

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GEORGIA

AZERBAIJANI MINORITY PROTESTS REPEATED VIOLENT ATTACKS...
Representatives of the overwhelmingly Azerbaijani population of
Georgia's Gardabani Raion southeast of Tbilisi staged a protest on 11
November outside the local government building to protest recent armed
assaults, Caucasus Press and zerkalo.az reported on 12 November. On 11
November, a group of armed masked men, some of them wearing paramilitary
uniforms, halted a car carrying three Azerbaijanis and opened fire on
them when they tried to resist. Alibaly Askerov, who heads the
Georgia-Azerbaijan Friendship Society, said he does not believe that and
earlier violent attacks on Azerbaijanis were ethnically motivated. He
attributed them to numerous illegal groups engaged in extortion and
racketeering.
("RFE/RL Newsline," 12 November)

...WHILE GEORGIAN KURDS SAY THEY WERE BETTER OFF IN THE USSR.
Speaking in Tbilisi on 8 November, Kerim Ankhos, who represents
Georgia's Yezidi minority, complained that Georgia's Kurds have lost the
cultural autonomy they enjoyed under the USSR, Caucasus Press reported.
He noted that Kurds used to have a theater in Tbilisi and radio
broadcasts in their own language, and they were represented in local
government. Having been deprived of those opportunities, he said, the
Kurdish minority in Georgia has abandoned any hope of preserving its
language and customs. Ankhos pointed out that the Kurds are worse off
than many other national minorities as they do not have a historic
motherland that could defend their rights.
("RFE/RL Newsline," 12 November)

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(Compiled by Catherine A. Fitzpatrick)
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Copyright (c) 2002. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.

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