The Yerevan-based Yerkir Union of NGOs for Repatriation and Settlement that defend a jailed Georgian-Armenian activist, Vahagn Chakhalyan, have said they will seek assistance at international institutions after an appeals court in Tbilisi left the guilty verdict and a 10-year imprisonment sentence on him unchanged.

Chkhalyan, leader of the ‘United Javakhk Democratic Alliance’ political movement, was arrested in July 2008 following a car bomb blast near the home of the chief of police in Akhalkalak, the provincial center of the mostly Armenian-populated region of Samtskhe-Javakheti in southern Georgia. The Georgian court found Chakhalyan guilty of several crimes under the Criminal Code of Georgia, including “acquisition and possession of firearms and ammunition”, “organizing a group action which grossly disrupted public order”, and “hooliganism committed against a government representative.”

‘Yerkir’ Union program coordinator Robert Tatoyan believes that this, in fact, is the recurrent step taken by Georgian authorities against Georgian Armenians.

“Within 10-15 minutes of formal discussion, the Appeals Court made that verdict, and the hearings of the court were held in accordance with the same scenario as at the lower court – poor translation, rejection of petitions, delay of expertise, etc.,” Tatoyan said.

The Yerkir Union believes this way Georgian authorities consciously try to increase the pressure and the atmosphere of fear inside the Armenian community.

“Georgia does not realize that this way it acts against it own interests. The same way it lost South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and if it continues this way, one day we will also want to take Javakhk back,” Sevak Artsruni, head of ‘Yerkir’ Union, said.

As for the steps to be taken by the Armenian authorities, Artsruni hopes that the issue of six disputable Armenian churches in Georgia has already been raised by the president of Armenia, and it is quite possible that he will not be indifferent towards Chakhalyan in the future, either.