ARMENIANS LIVING IN KRASNODAR REGION OF RUSSIA HAVE APPEALED TO VLADIMIR PUTIN TO PREVENT THE START OF INTER-ETHNIC COLLISIONS IN THE REGION

PanARMENIAN.Net - 21.07.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. The Constituent Assembly of Krasnodar regional social organization "Armenian scientific informational-cultural center "Amshen" was held in Tuapsinski district of Krasnodar region of Russia.

As was reported to MEDIAMAX in the editorial office of the local Armenian paper "Yerkramas", the founders of the center are the heads of the Armenian communities of Apsheronski and Tuapsinski districts of Krasnodar region, where the majority of the Armenian population belongs to the ethnic group of Amshen Armenians (Armenians, coming from Amshen, a province in Western Armenia, are living mainly on the Black Sea coasts of Russia and Abkhazia).

An appeal to the president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin was adopted at the Constituent Assembly, which, in particular, reads:

"Many of us, not by hearsay, know about inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts, and today we, the heads of the Armenian communities of Tuapsinski and Apsheronski districts of Krasnodar region are appealing to you as the President of Russia and the guarantor of its Constitution. Kuban, being located between such seats of conflicts as Chechnya, the Crimea, Abkhazia, can become an arena for such collisions itself. Unfortunately, many regional leaders of Russia, of Krasnodar region among them, do not pay much attention to the specific geopolitical position of the region, and speaking in press or by TV, are creating precedents for opposing the nations living in Kuban to one another. We are greatly worried about all this".

During the recent months the governor of Krasnodar region Nikolay Kondratenko, as well as his deputies have repeatedly addressed accusations to the Armenians residing in the region, charging them with separatism attempts. Collisions between the Cossacks and ethnic Armenians because of it have even taken place. -0-