National Integration Programme Begins

A new programme began at the Foundation on 10 July, 2007 with the arrival to Tbilisi of a selected group of young community leaders from the ethnic Armenian community of Samtskhe-Javakheti.

The programme, organised and implemented by the Foundation with the support of the Government of Finland, consists of a two-week training session in issues of nation-wide importance by leading experts in various fields and meetings with representatives of the country’s executive branch.  The ultimate goal of the programme is to assist in the creation of greater national unity through the further involvement, engagement and integration of ethnic minorities into Georgia’s civic and political life.  Cultural excursions round out the agenda of classroom lectures and official visits.

“It is a very important part of our work at the Foundation,” said Dr Ekaterine Metreveli, Programme Manager.  “Minority groups have been living in relative isolation and within an informational vacuum.  Training future community leaders in  democratisation, governance, the EU and other issues of key governmental focus and priority brings them a step closer to becoming a full part of the nation as a whole.”

The first part of the programme took place from 4 – 17 November 2006 with the training of ten representatives from local governmental, non-governmental organisations and educational institutions from the ethnic Azeri community of Kvemo Kartli.

“Integration is a serious problem for our region,” said Armen Amirkhanian, one of the group’s participants from Ninotsminda, “and so the opportunity to listen to the lectures of Dr Rondeli, as we have done in these opening days, and be able to ask questions and discuss the issues openly and easily is of tremendous value and importance.”

The lectures, addressing the topics of small states in the international system, the formation of Georgian foreign policy, the economics of transition, the European Union and Euro-Atlantic integration, NATO, globalisation, nationalism and governance, are taught by GFSIS Senior Experts and external special specialists.