Language Research

The Germans and Meskhetians exemplify minorities being affected by repression. They are also subject to the very important question of rehabilitation.

On June 30, 1992, the government of the country passed Resolution 648 "On the Restoration of the Nationality of Persons of German Descent Living in Georgia", designed for Germans who had to keep their nationality secret because of repression during the Second World War and post-war period.

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Updated (October 2002)

GEORGIAN AZERIS LOCKED OUT BY LANGUAGE

Controversial new language legislation may further isolate 300,000 Azerbaijanis in Georgia living mostly in villages in the southern region of Kvemo Kartli, not far from the capital Tbilisi, and near the borders with Armenia and Azerbaijan.

If President Shevardnadze steps down, the Azerbaijanis who live in Georgia will be seriously worried about their security. Most of the current opposition to the head of state seems to be either pro-Armenian or Georgian nationalists.

Another disadvantage for this ethnic group is that its members do not speak Georgian and have few opportunities to learn it. The linguistic isolation of such a large group could become a serious problem, especially if a new draft Law on the Georgian Language is voted through parliament later this year.

One reason for the region's strong local identity is that it is largely economically self-sufficient. The hard-working Azerbaijanis dominate in Georgia's agricultural markets. Despite their proximity to the Georgian capital, a lack of basic language skills has placed the Azerbaijanis in a complete information vacuum.

Ramin Bairamov, a chairman of the society "Inter-cultural friendship" in the Kvemo Kartli region, said a story how local Azerbaijanis looked for the name of Heidar Aliev, the president of Azerbaijan, on voting ballots, because they did not realize that Georgia was another state.

"Why should we expect something else?" Bairamov said. "The majority of local people watch Azerbaijani television channels, read Azerbaijani newspapers and take no part in the socio-political life of Georgia."

Although office work in the whole country should be done in Georgian, the local authorities, schools, clinics and other state offices write all their documents in Russian, as they used to in Soviet times.

Efforts to encourage people in the Gardaban region to speak Georgian have been ineffectual. The State Language Chamber, a government body that has been in charge of the task, organized free language courses for state employees in the region but in two years just 120 people attended the classes.

A separate presidential program for extra financing of the Georgian language teaching in non-Georgian schools offered teachers bonuses of 50 Lari (around $22) a month, a sum almost equivalent to their average salary, but even this did not attract the required number of teachers to the region.

A few years ago one of the Azerbaijani schools in Nazarlo opened a Georgian department and the overwhelming majority of parents sent their first-grade children there. But four years later, when the children had finished primary education, they found that there was no one who could teach them history, biology or mathematics in Georgian.

"It's a big problem," said Kazanfar Gulamov, a headmaster of the school in Kesalo. "To work successfully, a teacher should speak Azeri as well, and in reality many of the Georgian language teachers don't have any special education."

This fragile situation could be further undermined this autumn if, as anticipated, the Georgian parliament passes a new language law. If a current draft under discussion is passed, knowledge of Georgian will be compulsory for anyone working in a state institution.

Source: Minelres Archive, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/, by Zaza Baazov, a freelance journalist based in Tbilisi, March 2002

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Updated (March 2004)

GEORGIAN LEADERSHIP WOOS ARMENIAN AND AZERBAIJANI MINORITIES

One of the first moves made by the interim Georgian leadership that came to power in November 2003 was to launch a campaign attracting the country's Azerbaijani and Armenian minority. There are approximately 500,000 Azerbaijanis and 250,000 Armenians living in Georgia, constituting 11.4 and 5.7 percent of the total population (4.93 million in 2003).

The overwhelming majority of both communities live compactly in the regions where they constitute up to 90 percent of the total population. In case of the Azerbaijanis, the area in question comprises the Bolnisi, Marneuli, and Dmanisi Regions, southeast of Tbilisi, while the Armenians live mainly in Djavakheti (Djavakhk in Armenian) in the south of Georgia.

In both communities, knowledge of the Georgian language is rare, with Russian being the most commonly used second language. Consequently, the Azerbaijanis tend to watch Azerbaijani (and Turkish) television channels, while the Armenians watch Armenian and Russian programs.

In the light of a strong ethnic identity among these two minority communities, their interest in or even awareness of Georgian national issues is fundamentally hindered by a language barrier and a lack of access to the national media. Due to this, a new Georgian leadership's campaign addressed specifically these two communities with a 15-minute program on the state television. The ethnic Azerbaijani and Armenian voters were encouraged to participate in the January preterm presidential election by printing ballot papers also in Armenian and Azerbaijani.¹

The Georgian government also plans to restore historic Azerbaijani village names that were replaced by Georgian toponyms in the past.

On the other hand, Georgia failed to meet some basic needs of the Armenian population in Djavakheti Region. Its geographical isolation from the rest of Georgia with roads that have not been repaired for nearly two decades caused that local Armenians find it more convenient to travel to Armenia for such necessities as medical care or higher education.

Source: Minelres news, http://lists.delfi.lv/pipermail/minelres/2004-February/003206.html, RFE/RL Newsline, Vol. 8, No. 25, Part I, February 9, 2004, by Liz Fuller and Richard Giragosian

¹ In order to avoid a situation in which voters with no knowledge of Georgian would have to ask polling station officials for assistance in marking ballot papers those were printed in both the Georgian and Russian language.

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