Protests in Javakheti over financial police closures

October 13, 2005
The Messenger
By M. Alkhazashvili

Recent protests in Akhalkalaki immediately made headlines in the Georgian, Russian and Armenian media. After the incident many in the media, as well as Armenian officials, called on the Georgian government to exercise special caution in the Javakheti region, which is populated largely by ethnic Armenians, and to avoid further ethnic conflict within its borders.

The presidential representative, or governor, in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region Goga Khachidze stated that for the last three months Akhalkalaki has not been able to fulfill its local budget because many locals refuse to pay taxes. Recently the regional Tax Service, which is staffed by ethnic Armenians, inspected three enterprises and the financial police closed these businesses due to tax evasion.

[...]. During the meeting some residents confronted the police and officers fired into the air to restore calm.

[...] both residents and the police - were Armenian, {but} it is being treated by the Russian media as a case of Georgian police attempting to stomp out separatist movements in the region.

Even in Armenia the incident was viewed as an ethnic confrontation. Garnik Isagulian, President Robert Kocharian's national security adviser, issued a statement calling on Georgia to be more careful in dealing with Javakheti.
[...]
Even the Georgian media has warned the local administration to be careful. Indeed, exercising caution is important, but in the end we still have a simple dilemma: will we stand for people claiming ethnic discrimination when they are forced to pay taxes?

President Mikheil Saakashvili has defended the police and supported their work to control the situation in the region. "All attempts to create disorder will be unsuccessful" he said.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.