22/04/2013 16:10
Georgia should hold referendum on Armenian Genocide recognition
“Constitutional amendments were adopted in Georgia in March, thanks to which the president’s powers were specified. The Georgian opposition, namely, President Saakashvili’s United National Movement focused more on an action held on April 19, which, according to my information, was attended by no more than 5-7 thousand people,” the expert on Georgia Johnny Melikian said at a meeting with reporters today, when commenting on the recent internal political developments in Georgia.
“It shows that Mikhail Saakashvili’s party has now lost the trust of people and that many of their party members did not take part the action,” Melikian added.
In his words, there was information available recently on an Abkhazian website that the head of Armenian community in Abkhazia Galust Trapizonian, who received the title of Hero of Abkhazia after the Georgian-Abkhazian war, allegedly was going to attend the Armenian president’s inauguration. J. Melikian stressed that there is a consensus between the Georgian opposition and the Abkhazian leadership concerning the opening of Abkhazian railway: Saakashvili’s opposition and the Abkhazian authorities are against the railway’s opening and try to create artificial tension in Armenian-Georgian relations with the aim of delaying the problem’s resolution.
When speaking about the recognition of the Armenian Genocide, Johnny Melikian noted that Georgian society lacks information about the Genocide. He considered it important to inform that country’s society about the Armenian Genocide.
The speaker mentioned Georgia’s economic dependence on Turkey as another obstacle to the Genocide’s recognition. According to him, the number of Georgian migrant workers in Turkey has reached 500,000. Besides, Georgia imports a lot of goods from Turkey.
Despite this, Johnny Melikian proposed that Georgia should hold a referendum on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.