“Freedom for the ones preventing the “Kars-Akhalkalak», “Neglecting the Javakhk issue is betraying the Armenian Issue”, “This is our homeland. We don’t need permission to come here” and other phrases were just some of the phrases on the posters seen during the demonstration near the Mikael Nalbandyan statue, which is in full swing for the past week. A group of young people are demanding the release of citizen of Georgia, member of the “United Javakhk” organization Vahagn Chakhalyan, who was arrested on October 11 for trespassing the border with Armenia and Georgia.
In one of our previous editions, we touched upon the minor details of this story. But on October 25, we found out that the “Inheritance” and “Homeland and Honor” parties have joined the demonstration (until then, the members of the “Armenian Aryan Association” and “New Times” party were also joining the demonstration). The young participants organized a petition by getting signatures right on the spot for the purpose of releaseing Chakhalyan and as of October 25, they had collected more than 1000 signatures. It is worth mentioning that 15 Armenian National Assembly MPs have also demanded the release of Vahagn Chakhalyan. The participants of the demonstration are certain that V. Chakhalyan is capable of preventing the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalak railway passing through Armenia. Besides that, they separate the release of Chakhalyan from the Javakhk issue and that’s what the posters are all about. The demonstrators have applied to all the corresponding bodies of Armenia and although it’s been a week already, they are still going on with the demonstration; however, state officials aren’t paying any attention to them, nobody has paid a visit to see them and doesn’t care about their demands. The young people are getting ready to send a letter to the Catholicos of all Armenians Garegin the Second; they have already sent a letter to the head of the Armenian Union of Russia Ara Abrahamyan. The authors of the letter suggest that Abrahamyan “apply the same method of releasing member of the “United Javakhk” democratic union Vahagn Chakhalyan from jail and the dictatorship of Armenia”, who was imprisoned for “trespassing the Armenian-Georgian border”, just like he had helped release the citizens of Armenia and Russia, who had taken part in the armed state overturns of Africa and had been imprisoned for a long time and returned to their homelands after their release. take advantage of his experience in releasing the Armenians and Russians, who were imprisoned for a long time for participating in the armed state overturns of Africa and then returned to their homeland. However, Prime Minister Andranik Markaryan has stated that the arrest of Chakhalyan is “very common”.
“That’s neither a political issue nor an issue concerning two states. I believe that there is no political issue here at all and that it’s not necessary for Armenia to make the situation more complicated by getting involved in the Javakhk issue of the internal affairs of Georgia,” said the prime minister.
On October 25, MP Hmayak Hovhannisyan announced that he plans to take the initiative of organizing closed hearings on the Javakhk issue at the National Assembly. The MP also announced that by doing what the Georgian authorities say and arresting the representative of “United Javakhk”, the Armenian authorities “are doing everything they can so that Armenia doesn’t become a cosmopolitan factor in the region”. As for politician Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan, he worries over which forces will be allocated in Javakhk after the dislocation of the Russian forces. Melik-Shahnazaryan says that if NATO Turkish forces are allocated, then the “Armenian army has to arrive there earlier”. The politician is certain that Armenians will leave as soon as the Turkish forces get allocated in Javakhk and the voluntary soldiers will protect the interests of the Armenians of Javakhk, just like during the Karabakh war. According to Melik-Shahnazaryan, if there are countries that are ready to go to war for the sake of just some citizens, then “we have a better reason to fight for the Armenians of Javkahk”. In any case, it’s a fact that there are always problems between countries and the people living in the given country and the Armenian-Georgian relations are no exception. It’s also a fact that parallel to the increasing tension of the Russian-Georgian tension, it’s amazing to see how many Armenians are just now realizing and voicing their opinions on the Armenian-Georgian issues. But it’s clear that this is an attempt of some powers of the world to add tension in the relations between Armenia and Georgia. Another fact is that neither Armenia nor Georgia wants to see tension. It is worth mentioning that the article about Chakhalyan printed in our previous edition was the reason for complaints of the youth participating in the demonstration because they thought that based on the article, we were considering them “’Russian agents”. That’s not the case at all; we understand and think that it’s great that they are willing to stand up for their rights of their compatriot. The only thing is that Armenian presses have to be careful of what they write and take notice of the fact that Chakhalyan’s case and other issues serve as a tool for certain powers and Armenia will most definitely get nothing good out of it.