Kvemo Kartli is being “pinned” with separatism

The situation in Georgia around the elections in the Azerbaijani-populated Marneuli District in the region of Kvemo Kartli keeps the entire region in tension. Local authorities are trying in every way to deprive the Azerbaijani population of electing to the Parliament of Georgia someone who has the confidence and support of the people.

As reported by Azeri.Today, in this regard, Human Rights Monitoring Group of Ethnic Minorities of Georgia headed by human rights activist Elbrus Mamedov issued a statement, which reads:

“We have identified and highlighted a number of gross violations of citizens’ rights to freedom of expression. There have been numerous violations of human rights. Along with that, we would like to note that there is an artificial aggravation of ethnic, and in our case, religious tensions in the region. We have found that there is an active drawing of the Azerbaijani population in Kvemo Kartli into the artificial and imaginary separatism, when a number of Georgian media replicates “the presence of separatism” here.

There are no grounds and preconditions to say that there are signs of any separatism among Azerbaijanis and other peoples in the region of Kvemo-Kartli. At the same time, this kind of misinformation in the Georgian media gives reason to say that work is currently under way for failure of policy of integration of Azerbaijanis into civil society of Georgia. We are not concerned about who will be in the Parliament of Georgia, but we have something to say in defense of the stability and integrity of society and Azerbaijani community. Elections in Kvemo-Kartli region should not be carried out at the expense of social division, division within community in the face of more global and regional challenges facing Georgia. The lack of prediction of such direction and the course of events in the Kvemo-Kartli region suggests either the complete incompetence of leading Georgian parties and their party leaders, decision-makers and officials or deliberate and purposeful artificial building of inter-ethnic tension.

The complete absence of activity from the Georgian Ombudsman’s office in the region of Kvemo-Kartli, to pre-empt the possible incidents and defuse tensions, suggests disinterest of this entity in preventing the situation unhealthy for the society. Office of the Ombudsman of Georgia only acknowledges the situation, but later it will be very difficult to fix or even impossible to change the situation.

State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia, instead of tracking the level of integration of the Azerbaijani community, contributing to this process, is conducting extensive disintegration activities in the region, and its entities are involved in the destruction of the unity of the Azerbaijani community, which ultimately leads to disappointment and uncertainty about the fairness of the parliamentary elections”, – says the statement of E. Mamedov.

Source: Azeri.Today