Georgian Parliament Vice Speaker Attends Ceremony Marking Centenary of Armenian Massacre

Georgian parliamentary delegation led by vice speaker Manana Kobakhidze participated in the ceremonies in Armenia marking the centenary of the massacre of about 1.5 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, regarded by over 20 countries as genocide.

MP Kobakhidze chairs Georgian-Armenian group of friendship in the Georgian Parliament.

Meanwhile in Tbilisi, representatives of the Armenian community held a rally outside the Turkish embassy on Thursday evening calling to recognise the massacre as genocide. A similar rally was also held outside the Turkish embassy on Friday.

Every year in April the Armenian community appeals to the Georgian Parliament with the request to recognize mass killings of Armenians century ago as genocide. Wary of damaging relations with its strategic partners, Turkey and Azerbaijan, Tbilisi has been leaving those appeals unheeded.   

The issue occasionally becomes subject of brief disputes in the Georgian Parliament. When on April 15 a lawmaker from opposition UNM party, Samvel Petrosian, a majoritarian MP from predominantly ethnic Armenian populated Akhalkalaki constituency, called in his speech in the Parliament for recognition of genocide, it drew angry response from another UNM lawmaker Azer Suleimanov, a majoritarian MP from predominantly ethnic Azerbaijani populated Marneuli constituency. Three years ago the issue triggered a brief scuffle between some lawmakers in the Georgian Parliament.

In 2011 Georgia became the first and so far the only country, whose Parliament recognized the 19th century massacre and deportations of Circassians by the tsarist Russia in the northwest Caucasus as genocide.