GEORGIA: ESPIONAGE ARRESTS OF ETHNIC ARMENIANS STOKE SUSPICION OF RUSSIA
Georgia’s arrest of two ethnic Armenians on espionage charges is threatening to increase tensions in the country’s predominately ethnic Armenian region of Samtskhe-Javakheti. Although aspects of the case remain unclear — including an alleged confession — the arrests have triggered public outrage in neighboring Armenia. Meanwhile in Georgia, many suspect that Russia is somehow involved.
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According to Andriashvili, the government’s case against Minasian and Hakopjanian focuses on a questionnaire the two men were allegedly paid to fill out by a Belarus-based non-governmental organization. Little is known about the organization, called the Association for Legal Assistance to the Population (ALAP). Its website is not functioning and there is no listing for an office in Georgia.
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The Georgian Interior Ministry’s Khizanishvili would not comment on claims that the government’s investigation focuses on the ALAP, adding that he did not know anything about the group.
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Parliamentarian Tamaz Petriashvili, who represents Akhaltsikhe in Georgia’s National Assembly, as well as an acquaintance of Minasian, described the arrests as a “surprise.”
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Petriashvili suspected that “some people” — a veiled reference to Russia — want to create conflict in Samtskhe-Javakheti. Certain groups in the region “are financed as if from Yerevan, but that is not from Yerevan […]
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A representative of the Armenian Foreign Ministry said that the government in Yerevan was monitoring the situation concerning Minasian and Hakopjanian’s arrest. “We watch the developments and are in a continuous daily contact on various levels” with the Georgian government, commented spokesperson Tigran Balaian.
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But while Samtskhe-Javakheti is known for its strong Armenian ties, such cultural influences appear slight in Akhaltsikhe, where store signboards are all in Georgian. Georgian town residents interviewed had little or no knowledge of the arrests.
According to Eduard Ayvazian, a computer instructor at Minasian’s center, prior to the arrests, no real tension existed between the town’s Georgian and Armenian communities.
“There is discrimination here, but not strong discrimination,” Ayvazian said. “The authorities are afraid that a conflict can start here. But I believe they are moving in the wrong direction with these types of arrests.”
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http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insightb/articles/eav021209b.shtml

Georgia Accused of Bullying Ethnic Armenians
Some Yerevan politicians say arrest of Armenian activists on espionage charges is attempt to intimidate the minority. Politicians in Armenia have been angered by the arrest in Georgia late last month of two ethnic Armenians charged with spying for Russia’s secret services. …
Georgian newspapers have barely mentioned the affair […].
Some Armenian politicians, however, have been furious and said the arrests were an attempt to intimidate their ethnic kin in Georgia.
Georgia’s state minister for re-integration Temur Lakobashvili said Russia had intensified espionage activities in the country since the August war over South Ossetia.
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The lawyer for the two arrested ethnic Armenians, Nino Andriashvili, said they were accused of cooperating with a Belarus-based organisation allegedly set up by Russia’s Federal Security Service, FSB, called the Association for Legal Assistance to the Population, ALAP.
Andriashvili said the two men had admitted being involved in espionage, but denied a secondary charge of planning to create a private army. She said the investigators had a video of the two men discussing the creation of such an army with the local head of ALAP, but that they had not thought he was being serious.
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Other NGOs in the region also filled in the forms, though they realised the questions were unusual.
“We all joked that this organisation reminded us of the FSB. And we were very surprised when we found out that they intended to spend so much money,” said the head of one NGO in Samtskhe-Javakheti, who asked to remain anonymous out of concerns that the criminal case might expand to take in other public figures.
“We were told that the possible projects were unlimited, and the money also. I have worked for many years in the non-governmental sector. When has there ever been money like that?”
The ALAP office in central Tbilisi closed a month ago. The telephones were disconnected, and they have not replied to emails.

http://www.iwpr.net/?p=crs&s=f&o=349859&apc_state=henh