Criminal case on early marriage of Azerbaijanis initiated in Georgia

Baku/11.02.21/Turan: An investigation has been launched in Georgia based on the video recording of the engagement of underage Azerbaijanis. In a remote area in Tbilisi, populated by Azerbaijanis, a girl of about 11 years old, a schoolchild, participates in an engagement ceremony with a 14-15-year-old teenager. Everyone speaks Azerbaijani. The incident caused outrage in Georgia because  it is contrary to local legislation. The investigation was launched under Article 150 of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which punishes forcing to marry a minor. The Office of the Public Defender of Georgia joined the investigation.

The Public Defender of Azerbaijan Sabina Aliyeva became interested in the case of the alleged engagement of minors, and she turned to her colleague in Georgia Nino Lomjaria for help. Alieva asked the Georgian authorities to act appropriately to promptly investigate this fact and ensure the protection of the rights of minors.

The girl's family claims that the messages on the social network are false. "The video does not capture the marriage, but only the consent of the family. And the wedding will take place in three years, when she will be 18," a relative of the family told an Azerbaijani TV channel who arrived in Tbilisi's Ponichala district to prepare a story (JamNews). The names of the boy and girl were not released.

Many Azerbaijani and Georgian activists are demanding tougher Georgian legislation regarding the coercion of girls into marriage. The law says nothing about engagement.

“Engagement is the path to early marriage, and it should be prohibited in the same way as early marriages themselves,” wrote Samira Bayramova, a civic activist from the Kvemo Kartli region, where the Azerbaijani community lives compactly, on her Facebook page.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia, in 2019, 175 crimes were solved in the country, qualified as marriage with children. Almost the same number of such crimes was detected in 2018 - 176 cases. Such crimes are especially frequent in several regions of Georgia, including in the mountainous part of the Achara region and in places of compact residence of ethnic Azerbaijanis. Premature marriages are common here, and, as the locals say, they are part of the local tradition. — 0—