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

torical ethnic minority" for the community which will be covered by the
"European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages", i.e. historical
minorities.
Due to the fact that the term National Minority is well-established
in the field of international law, it would be more reasonable to use the
terms "national minority" and "ethnic minority" as synonyms.
We think that, under certain condition, Abkhazs may be considered
as national (ethnic) minority as they have no prospects to maintain
their identity anywhere else; accordingly, it is logical that, in accordance
with the Constitution of Georgia, the Abkhazian language, in
combination with the Georgian language, enjoys the status of a state
language (data on Abkhazia: Abkhazs and Georgians are 17% and 47%
of the population, respectively).
While deciding the issue on assigning the "historical minority" status to
the other ethnic groups, it is important to consider the history and the size of
the group. For instance, according to 2002 census, there are more than 60 ethnic
groups of residents who hold citizenship. These groups are as follows: the
Tajiks – 15 persons, the Chinese – 47; the Romanies – 472; the Koreans – 22;
the Persians – 47; the Kurds – 2514; the Ingushs – 9; the Kists – 7110; the
Czechs – 46, etc. also, cf.:
Citizen of Georgia 4 371 535 100.0
the Georgian 3 611 173 83,8
the Azeri 284 761 6.5
the Armenian 248 929 5.7
the Russian 67 671 1.5
the Ossetian 38 028 0.9
the Greek 15 166 0.3
the Ukrainian 7 039 0.2
the Kurd 2 514 0.1
Naturally, the ECRML must not cover the languages of nonhistorical
(new) ethnic groups within the Georgian context, members of
which hold citizenship. At the same time, criteria (residence history,
number of citizens, level of endangered status, etc.) are to be defined in
order to classify the ethnic groups as (1) ethnic (national) minorities, (2)
diasporas (new minorities), and (3) new migrants.
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