Office of High Commissioner on National Minorities organizes meeting of political parties and minority representatives in Akhalkalaki, Georgia

The office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities organized a meeting for representatives of national minorities and political parties with the aim of supporting dialogue in Akhalkalaki, Georgia on 8 December 2014. Akhalkalaki, in Georgia’s Samtskhe Javakheti region, is densely populated by ethnic Armenians.

The meeting was organized as part of a project on “Multiparty Dialogue –strengthening the participation of national minorities in political life”, which promotes minorities’ participation in public life by establishing dialogue between minority communities and political parties. Nine of the main political parties are participating in the project.

Several minority participants pointed out that even though the Samtskhe Javakheti region could serve as a model of good integration practice for the rest of Georgia, many political parties were not fully engaged in the area.

The project started in September 2014 and will run for two years, culminating ahead of the parliamentary elections scheduled for 2016. It was initiated by the High Commissioner on National Minorities, and is supported by Finland, the Netherlands and the United States, and is implemented by the South Caucasus office of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy.