While we are well aware that the UN Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide is the international law
under which we seek justice for the Armenian Genocide, and we
know that the right to self-determination of Karabagh-Armenians
is protected under Article VIII of the Helsinki Final Act, what
of the rights of Javakhk Armenians? As a member of the Council
of Europe, Georgia signed the Framework Convention for the
Protection of National Minorities (FCNM) in 2005, which states
that a “genuinely democratic society should not only respect the
ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious identity of each
person belonging to a national minority, but also create
appropriate conditions enabling them to express, preserve, and
develop this identity.” Yet, Georgia fails to respect the letter
and spirit of the rights afforded to the Javakhk-Armenians under
this charter. During a recent visit to the historic Armenian
region lying north of the present-day Armenian Republic, I lay
witness to the reli