On March 27, Council of Armenian Organizations (NGOs) of Samtskhe-Javakheti (Javakhk) held a meeting, with the coordinator of the council Artak Gabrielyan presenting the outcomes of the trip to Brussels and meetings with European officials.

Heads of all districts of Javakhk, representative of human rights defender in Akhalkalaki, as well as representatives of various NGOs, youth, state and cultural organizations were invited to the meeting. Before the start of the gathering, many of those invited called and warned they wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting due to “pressure from the authorities.” As a result the event was held in A-Info news agency’s office.

Mr. Gabrielyan said that he had briefed the officials on the following 5 main principles that would help to tackle the problem of Javakhk: 1) to stop forcibly changing Javakhk’s demographic picture; 2) to increase Armenian representation in the regional and government institutions; 3) to implement a series of social and economic projects that would bring the economic development of the region in line with the rest of Georgia; 4) to allow the use of the Armenian language in institutions of administrative regions densely populated with Armenians; 5) to grant autonomy to Javakhk and Tsalka. The coordinator of the council expressed regret at the absence of local administration representatives at the gathering.

Upon completion of the meeting, Mr. Gabrielyan rendered the future, security, development and democracy in Javakhk possible only in the framework of autonomy.