More anxiety in Azerbaijan about compatriots in Georgia

Problems of ethnic Azerbaijanis of Georgia were in the focus of the roundtable, held at the Baku Media Centre to the topic "Place and historical role of Borchaly", the region in the south of Georgia, where Azerbaijanis compactly live.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, Zalimkhan Mamedli, leader of the "Borchaly" Society, has pointed, when opening the discussion, to the need of joint efforts of the two governments in addressing social and economic problems of the Azerbaijanis living in Georgia.

Lawyer from Baku Aslan Ismailov, a member of the international NGO named "Tolerance" and engaged in studying the problems of national minorities, believes that "because of their unsolved problems Azerbaijanis have failed so far to integrate into the Georgian society."

In Mr Ismailov's opinion, Azerbaijanis are subjected to discrimination there in land allocation, access to education and recruiting to state service.

Nasib Nasibli, deputy of Azerbaijani parliament from the "Musavat" Party, finds it necessary to amend and add the migration law of Azerbaijan with the aim to set privileges for the Azerbaijanis who arrive to the country from Georgia.

Fazil Gazanfaroglu, another MP, leader of the Party "Great Creativity", on the contrary, thinks it necessary to toughen the migration legislation. "Otherwise, a flow of migrants from Georgia will rush to Azerbaijan, which is inadmissible," he said.

Eteri Astemirova, who is representing Georgia's embassy in Azerbaijan, has noted that education problems of Azerbaijanis are in the focus of Ministries of Education of both countries. In her opinion, "provocative articles" appear rather frequently in Azerbaijan press; and "intrigues of a third force" can be traced in such publications; she named Russia to be this third force.