Results of monitoring in Azerbaijani villages of Georgia announced

The monitoring that lasted two months, was being carried out to examine the living conditions of the Azerbaijani-populated villages in Georgia. Within the monitoring problems of residents of the villages, related with religion, drinking water, irrigation are studied, the head of the Monitoring Group, a member of the CAG, chairman of the charity "Garapapag" Elshad Aliyev said.

"According to initial results of the monitoring held in the 23 villages in Bolnisi region, living conditions of the Azerbaijanis in rural Georgia are quite bad. The residents of these villages are facing the problem of irrigation and worried about the renaming of the villages on the Georgian names. In addition, they seriously concerned about the widespread placing of crosses," Aliyev said.

According to Aliyev, the problems of all the villages, where monitoring was conducted, are similar. Among the major problems he called a threat to the closure of the Azerbaijani schools, the shortage of teachers and students, which is associated with Azerbaijani families' leaving the country to work in Russia, Turkey, Azerbaijan. 'With regard to the bad conditions of schools, the Azerbaijani children have to study in the Georgian schools. There are no young staffs in the Azerbaijani schools," Aliyev said.

According to Aliyev, there only are representatives of the older generations left in Azerbaijani-populated villages is Georgia. Aliyev also said, that pilgrimage crosses are put up near the Muslim cemeteries. He explained, that the names the names of the 23 villages, which were monitored, have been changed to the the Georgian names without appropriate consultation with the villagers.

"People are very concerned about changing the names of the ancient villages. For example, the village Gochulu has been renamed to Chaval, the village of Arkhli - to Nakheduri, Muganli - Farisi, Kolagir - to Surtava", Aliyev said.