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Armeno-Georgian
War of 1918 and Armeno-Georgian Territorial
Issue in the 20th Century By Andrew Andersen and Georg Egge
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Introduction As of today, the territory of the tree states
to the south of the Main Caucasus, whose independence has been restored as a
result of the collapse of the Soviet Union, is the scene of two unresolved
military conflicts: the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Mountainous Karabakh and the Russo-Georgian one the two strategically
important regions of Georgia - Abkhazia and Tskhinvali
(the latter also known as the former South Ossetian
Autonomous Region). However, the potential zones of conflict in the South
Caucasus are not limited to Abkhazia, Karabakh and Tskhinvali. Certain influential political forces that are
interested in further destabilization of the region are seriously considering
the border area between Armenia and Georgia to be a potential centre of
another conflict in the South Caucasus. Indeed, the above mentioned area that
includes an Armenian-populated Georgia’s province of Javakheti
is marked by some tension that under certain circumstances can degenerate
into an inter-ethnic conflict. Various political groups that are voluntarily
or involuntarily trying to provoke a new conflict tend to appeal to the events
of Armeno-Georgian War that broke out at the end of
1918 and had a negative impact on the overall situation in the region. The
paucity of publicly available information on this historical episode opens up
great opportunities for ideologically-loaded and sometimes even instigative
interpretation of this little-known war of the early twentieth century. This paper aims at providing a detailed
description of the aforementioned events of the war and to analyze its
consequences for both Armenia and Georgia, leaving beyond the framework the
ways they are or can be used by destabilising forces, by which we mean
primarily the ruling circles of the Russian Federation that, despite internal
disagreements on some issues, have a complete consensus in their efforts to keep
the South Caucasus within the Russian sphere of political influence at the expense
of real independence and democracy of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, as
well as to prevent any serious politico-economic presence of the West in this
strategically important crossroads of Europe and Asia[1]. We strongly believe that knowledge of the
nature and details inter-ethnic and inter-state conflicts having their
origins back in the past, is a critical tool for success
in their effective and non-violent resolution. |
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