5 April 2024
A group of leading Armenian civil society organisations have released a statement expressing ‘strong solidarity’ with their Georgian counterparts, after Georgia’s authorities revived a controversial draft law targeting civil society organisations and the media.
On Friday, more than 20 civil society organisations and individuals signed a statement asserting that the concept of ‘foreign influence’ was associated with ‘advancing conspiracy theories used for violations of human rights and prosecution of the innocent’ in both Armenia and Georgia.
‘We support you in your courage to stand against consistent and constant efforts by Georgia’s government to limit civic freedoms and fundamental human rights, including in the form of limiting the political participation of women, also by re-introducing the draft law on Transparency of Foreign Influence’, the statement reads.
[Read more: Georgian Government to bring back aborted foreign agent law]
The authors also noted that it was important to unite ‘pro-democratic forces’ and build resistance to attempts to weaken democracy in the region.
‘We know that freedom is deeply and inherently rooted in our societies, and even in the darkest hours of history the fight for it was never compromised’, the statement concludes.
Seda Muradyan, the president of the Public Journalism Club, one of the statement’s signatories, told OC Media that such developments were dangerous and threatened democracy in the region, which is vulnerable in both countries.
‘I think that it was important to express solidarity with Georgia’s civil society in this situation so that they do not feel alone in the region’, said Muradyan. ‘It is unlikely that they will receive support from other neighbouring countries because it is known that the situation in other regional countries is even more lamentable in that regard.’
‘There have been very strong ties between our civil societies for many years,’ said Isabella Sargsyan, who also works in an Armenian civil society organisation but joined the statement as an individual. She told OC Media that when the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War broke out in 2020, a group of Georgians and Abkhazians issued a joint statement that it should be stopped.
She added that during the 2008 protests in Yerevan following the presidential election, she received direct support from Georgian counterparts.
‘When there was a sit-in, my Georgian colleagues and friends sent us flowers to put on our tent. They always followed and supported us,’ she said.
