Armenian students held a protest rally at the Georgian Embassy in Yerevan to support the ethnic Armenian residents in Georgia’s Samtkshe-Javakheti region, Regnum reports.
According to the agency, the protesters held banners saying “Georgia Assimilates Armenians,” “No to Georgian Nazism” and “Georgia Implements White Genocide.” At the same time, the agency quotes Arsen Balyan, identified as the organizer of the rally, as saying “we ask the Georgian authorities not to react to the provocations of certain forces that want to escalate inter-ethnic conflicts, as Armenia and Georgia are friendly countries.”
According to the agency, Georgian envoy Giorgi Saganelidze met the protesters and assured them that the Georgian government plans to improve the social conditions of the Armenian residents in Javakheti by building roads and improving electricity supplies. He also reportedly assured them that Meskhetian Turks would not be resettled exclusively into Javakheti and that those who have been suspected of desacrating Armenian religious objects are already punished.
The report does not specify the number of protesters or the political movement taking responsibility and no official confirmation of the report has been given by the authorities.
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