On May 20th the Parliament of Georgia adopted a resolution, which qualifies the events of the 18th and 19th centuries in the western part of the North Caucasus as “genocide against the Cherkess people.” All 95 deputies voted for the document. Nobody voted against. The opposition boycotted the session. They didn’t want to be responsible for such a significant decision, but they also didn’t want to vote against it.
The text of the resolution was read by the chairman of the committee on North Caucasus affairs and community, Nugzar Tsiklauri. The honored guests of the parliament were representatives of Cherkess communities from the US, Europe, Turkey and Israel. The hall burst into applause when the voting figures appeared on screen. However, it wasn’t the only issue in the North Caucasus to discuss. MP Georgy Tortladze said that in the near future the parliament will start working on another resolution “On the genocide against the Chechen people in the last 17 years.”
However, the initiator of the discussion of the “Cherkess issue,” Nugzar Tsiklauri, told VK that the Chechen issue was unlikely to be heavily discussed in the near future .
The MP Bagaturia tried to tie the Cherkess issue with the developments in the eastern regions of Turkey in 1915. He said that “Armenian brothers could react negatively to recognizing the Cherkess genocide and not even a discussion of the issue which they took up with us long ago.” However, to this representatives of the ruling party replied that Armenia and Turkey are two independent states and Georgia shouldn’t interfere in their bilateral affairs, as it wants to have positive relations with both Armenia and Turkey.
Previously,Georgian experts believed that the genocide issue would be discussed regularly, though the Parliament is hardly likely to pass any decision on it. However, reality showed that this wasn’t so. Recognition of the Cherkess genocide is the second after the significant argument of Georgia against Moscow joining the WTO.
Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to VK.
