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The News in Brief

Friday, August 4
Mustafa Emre Cabuk’s Lawyer to appeal against decision of Refugee Ministry

Soso Baratashvili, lawyer of Demirel college manager Mustafa Emre Cabuk, will appeal to Tbilisi City Court today. As the lawyer told InterPressNews, they will appeal against the decision of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees of Georgia, according to which, Cabuk and his family members were refused to be granted a refugee status.

According to Soso Baratashvili, the complaint emphasizes the fact that a number of articles of the International Convention on Refugees were violated by the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees.

"We have evidence, 450 pages, which confirms that the Ministry should have granted the refugee status. The complaint emphasizes the fact that a number of articles of the International Convention on Refugees, were violated by the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees. The international law prohibits transfer of this person to Turkey as he is politically persecuted. In case of extradition to Turkey, he will face torture and inhuman treatment," said Soso Baratashvili.

Mustafa Emre Cabuk was detained by the request of the Turkish authorities in Georgia and was sentenced to pre-trial detention. (IPN)



Reconciliation Minister on Abolition of Georgian Schools in S.Ossetia

The announcement that eight Georgian schools of Tskhinvali Region will be transferred to Russian-language education is “extremely alarming” and amounts to “ethnic-based discrimination,” Georgia’s State Minister for Reconciliation Ketevan Tsikhelashvili told Civil.ge on August 2.

“This will not only be a violation of the rights of the residents and a step made against their will, but also a deprivation of children of the opportunity to get education, since neither the students nor the teachers know the Russian language,” said Tsikhelashvili.

Drawing parallels with the situation in Gali District of Abkhazia, “where step-by-step Russification was pursued and all schools were transferred to Russian-language instruction,” Tsikhelashvili said “this is a totally unacceptable situation, which does not fit within civil, humane, or reasonable boundaries, particularly since it concerns the rights of children and their future.”

“This is clearly an ethnic-based discrimination, targeted against ethnic Georgians,” the Reconciliation Minister added.

She also stressed that ethnic Georgian residents of the two occupied regions are not allowed to return to their homes, while “those Georgians who do remain in Abkhazia and Tskhinvali Region have to live in almost unbearable circumstances.”

“Restricting the opportunity to get education is a pressure on them [the remaining Georgians] and an indirect attempt to expel them, which is amplified by other restrictions imposed on them - from the freedom of movement to the property rights,” Tsikhelashvili said.

“The discriminatory policies targeting the ethnic Georgians have reached an unimaginable scale and the situation is worsening day-by-day,” she also noted.

The State Minister then said this issue deserves “very intense international attention and engagement,” so that the conditions for ethnic Georgians in Abkhazia and South Ossetia improve. “This is unacceptable and we will not reconcile with this; we will make the issue the main discussion topic not only at the Geneva International Discussions and the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meetings,” but also at “all” other formats, she concluded.

The Russian-backed authorities in Tskhinvali Region/South Ossetia announced on July 26 that the Georgian language schooling in the region’s ethnic Georgian populated areas would be banned beginning from the 2017/2018 academic year. (civil.ge)



Davit Narmania denies employment of ruling party activists in Tbilisi City Hall

Tbilisi Mayor Davit Narmania claims that the information spread by one of the media outlets and National Movement, according to which, the ruling party activists were employed in the Tbilisi City Hall ahead of the elections, is a sheer lie.

As Narmania said before the start of the Tbilisi governmental session, he was not given the opportunity to respond to the report, which raises a reasonable doubt that it was aimed at providing false information to the public.

"I want to emphasize that every employee employed in the Tbilisi City Hall and a public servant working under the contract are appointed in full compliance with the requirements of the legislation. As for the employment of 600 new people, these people are not new staff, but the existing human resources, which continued working in the City Hall under new contracts from the 1st of July”, said Narmania.

According to the Mayor, the Tbilisi City Hall has been cutting administrative expenses each year for the last three years and this information is open and available to each interested person. (1tv.ge)