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

tection for historical minorities – must be applied to the Georgian language
(and its varieties) in the Republic of Turkey.
In addition, it is well documented that the autochthonous Georgians
(the Ingilos) reside in three regions of Azerbaijan; therefore the
Georgian language in this country must be covered by Part III of the
Charter.
The Georgians also compactly live in Iran.
Iran is not a member country of the Council of Europe though we
would like to mention the issue of the language of the Georgians residing
in this country: found centuries ago the Georgian were forcedly exiled
to Iran by the officials of Persian empire; therefore, the current authorities
in Iran have higher motivation toprotect the native culture and
linguistic rights of the Fereydanian Georgians. Today, the Georgian
language is not suppressed in Iran though, as far as we know, the state
fails to exercise care to protect it.
In Russia, the US, Greece and other countries the Georgian language
represents a language of diasporas or migrants; linguistic rights
of migrants are protected by legislation of all countries though it is the
Georgian state that must offer support to the Georgian migrants and representatives
of diaspora in protecting their identity.
In connection with the above mentioned, one of the "recommendations"
by T. Wicherkiewicz and his Georgian colleagues, namely, the
paragraph on page 38 suggests:
"Special importance must be attributed to the sociolinguistic research
on the Laz and the Megrels residing on the territory of Turkey
and Abkhazia respectively. Linguistic situation in the above mentioned
areas is to be clarified and defined. Best efforts are required to maintain
and develop linguistic and cultural heritage and self-perception 442
of our
brothers who are beyond the jurisdiction of Georgia".
The authors of the above recommendation would rather recall
other autochthonous Georgians in Turkey such as: the Machakhelians,
the Livanans, the Imerkhevians and the Taoans, etc. There are extensive
research materials on the linguistic-cultural "self-perception" of autochthonous
Georgians who hold Turkish citizenship. It would be better to
442 The term such as “identity” or “uniqueness” would be better to use in this context.
344