Международный центр конфликтов и переговоров (ICCN)

Legal space

On the initiative of late Giorgi Chanturia, the leader of the National-Democratic Party, quite influential in that period, an addendum was made to Article 9 of the Georgian Constitution (adopted in 1995) guaranteeing the freedom of faith and stipulating independence of the church from the State. The addendum read as follows: "The State recognizes an exceptional role of the Georgian Orthodox Church in the history of Georgia." This phrase, that did not seem to bear any special significance, turned out to have quite serious consequences.

From XVIII century, in South Georgia, which was part of the Ottoman Empire that time, the policy of the Islamization of local population was implemented through physical violence and economic pressure. The policy turned out to be effective and a large number of Meskhs adopted Islam.

Historically Georgia is a multinational country. The Armenians, Jews, Azeri, Ossetians Greeks, Kurds and other ethnic groups have been living on its territory for ages. In XIX century, after joining the Russian Empire, Russians, Ukrainians, Germans and Poles also settled down in Georgia. Today there live representatives of over 80 ethnic groups, out of which the most numerous are the Azeri (about 300 000), who are, mainly, collectively settled in the Kvemo Kartli region, and Armenians (about 250 000), who collectively reside in Samtskhe - Javakheti and Tsalka district, and are dispersed throughout Tbilisi and other towns.

The Law on Internally Displaced People, adopted in 1995, is still effective in Georgia. However, no amendments or addenda have been introduced to it since its adoption. Under the law in question, IDPs are broken down into two categories by place of residence: those residing in collective centers and the private sector. The monthly assistance allocated to them makes up 11 and 14 GEL, correspondingly.

Research group of the project "The Role of Civil Society in Rose Revolution in Georgia" included representatives of the International Centre on Conflict and Negotiation (ICCN): Dr. George Khutsishvili (head of the group), Dr. George Nizharadze, Rusudan Mshvidobadze, Dr Tina Gogheliani (researchers), as well as Davit Kiphiani (consultant), and Zurab Mkheidze (invited researcher). Prof. Zaza Piralishvili (I. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University) provided valuable contribution to the research and has co-written a chapter of the book, as well as Heiko Nowak (University of Tubingen, Germany).Valuable advice on development of methodology and the composition of the research work was done by the project international consultant Dr. Françoise Companjen (Free University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands) who has co-written chapters and participated in the editing work. Each part of the book has its own author, though all the contributors share general responsibility for the final product.