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

Jonathan Wheatley is well aware that the ECRML considers a
language to be an expression of cultural wealth of a given society (ethnos)
(pp. 8, 22); considering the very background, he regards Megrelian,
Laz and Svan idioms as the "regional languages".
Apparently the prominent expert does not know that the expression
of national culture for Megrels, Svans or Laz who are aware of
their own ethnic history, is the centuries-old Georgian native written or
oral culture created by ancestors, which incorporates their native dialect
as well.
Cf. for Basques residing in France and Spain the Basque language
and the State language are indeed the expression of different cultures
while for Megrels-Laz-Svans the Georgian/Kartvelian culture is an ancestral
creation, thus the written culture created on the basis of common
Kartvelian linguistic system represents a native culture. Cf. for 100
years Ideologists and "experts" of the Russian empire have been attempting
to prove the opposite.
Clarification of other inaccuracies encountered in Jonathan
Wheatley’s academic report is of substantial importance; for insurance,
Jonathan Wheatley believes (p.14) that in the 19 th century only Georgian
intelligentsia protested against the Russian empire (due to its attempt
to create written language for Megrels and Svans). In fact, the
protests of the wider society in Samegrelo and Svaneti were rather substantial:
population of these Georgian regions realized that Russia was
violating native written culture and refused the imperial offer by actively
protesting against it; the very fact is well documented 248
.
In summary, it should be noted that the Russian-speaking authors
try with special persistence to impose ratification of the ECRML with
its extensive list of languages so that to use this high-level document as
248 T. Gvantseladze, M. Nachqebia, M. Tabidze, Spontaneous plebiscites on sociolinguistic
issues in the 2 nd half of the 19 th century and the 1 st half of the 20 th century, Caucasiological
collection, Tbilisi, 2007 (before publishing this article it has been presented
at the scientific conference dedicated to the 80th anniversary of Professon Jan Brown,
Tbilisi, 2007). T. Gvantseladze, M. Nachqebia, M. Tabidze, Grigol Daniani, Bishop of
Guria and Samegrelo, scientific-historical magazine “Svetitskhoveli”, 2009, № 1, pp.
149-163; R. Gujejiani, “Unified Svans”, against the russification policy in Georgia –
Archpriest Ivane Margiani, scientific-historical magazine “Svetitskhoveli”, 2009, № 1,
pp. 164-170, etc.
206