"evropuli qartia saqarTvelo "European Charter for Regional or ...

1. Chechen; 2. Tsova-Tush; 3. Khunzakh; 4. Udi; 5. Azeri; 6.
Armenian; 7. Laz or Chan; 8. Megrelian; 9. Abkhazian; 10. Svan; 11.
Ossetian 236
.
Based on such qualifications, a certain part of foreign or Georgian
specialists believe that, in accordance with recommendations of the
Council of Europe, the following twelve languages must enjoy the status
of minority or regional languages spread in Georgia: Russian, Armenian,
Azeri… Megrelian, Svan.
Cf., the Charter aims at protection of native languages of autoch-
237
thonous ethnic minorities . We would like to emphasize that Megrelian,
Laz and Svan are domestic idioms rather than ethnic minority languages
in Georgia.
Sadly, even the experts of the Council of Europe make a mistake
claiming that Georgian, Megrelian, Laz and Svan are languages of independent
ethnoses or sub-ethnoses; in their opinion, existence of these
"languages" justifies that fact that the Georgian nation fails to consolidate.
For instance, according to the report of the independent international
fact-finding mission designed by the European Union (headed by
Heidi Tagliavini, a Swiss diplomat), lack of consolidation of the Georgian
nation is, apart from other reasons, supposedly determined by existence
of Megrelian, Laz and Svan "languages" that differ from the
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Georgian language .
236
http://vlib.iue.it/history/asia/georgia.html.
237 For the history of the issue see T. Putkaradze. “European Charter for Regional or
Minority Languages” and the issue of linguistic policy planning in Georgia, Caucasiological
Series, V, Tbilisi, 2009; http://www.scribd.com/doc/12621676/T-Putkaradze-
European-Charter-for-Regional-or-Minority-Languages-and-An-Issue-of-Plannig-
Linguistic-Policy-in-Georgia
238 http://www.ceiig.ch/Report.html (volume II, p. 2). History of an Ambivalent Relationship:
"Georgian national identity claims historical origins dating as far back as the
establishment of an autocephalous Georgian church in the 4th century and the emergence
of the Georgian language with its own alphabet in the 5th century. Nevertheless,
for centuries Georgia was divided into diverse local sub-ethnic entities, each with its
own characteristic traditions, manners, dialects and, in the case of the Mingrelians, Lazs
and Svans, with separate languages similar to Georgian. The process of ethnic consolidation
and nation-making had not been completed (A standard work on this process is:
Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation, Bloomington/Indianapolis,
1994). Earlier Georgian history culminated in the united Georgian Kingdom of the 11 th
to 13 th centuries, when Georgia was a regional power in the Caucasus. In ensuing peri-
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