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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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Conclusion The current situation at Georgian-Armenian
border is relatively calm and free of hostilities. The border line itself remained
unchanged in principle since the agreement signed on November 6, 1921. As for
the territory of the former two disputed counties, it can be roughly divided
into the following three zones: A) Zone "A" - the former Lori sector
of the county of Borchalo with small increments of
territory as described above, which is now a part of Armenia (as of today, it
lies within three Armenian provinces: most of it – within the province of Lori,
and two smaller parts – within Shirak and Tavush). This territory is not claimed by Georgia, as modern
Georgia has no territorial claims to neighbouring countries, including
Armenia, either at the official level, or at the level of mass consciousness.
The ethnic composition of the zone "A" has changed since the war of
December 1918. Due to various circumstances beyond the scope of this study, this
territory became practically mono-ethnic: almost one hundred percent of its
population are Armenians. There are also small Greek and Russian residual communities
there. (B) Zone "B" - the former
northern sectors of the county of Borchalo (Borchalo, Ekaterinenfeld and Trialeti), located within Georgia where they are now
organized into four out of seven districts of the land Kvemo-Kartli:
Tsalka, Dmanisi, Bolnisi and Marneuli. The district
of Tsalka, is inhabited predominantly by ethnic Greeks (61%) and
Armenians (28.5%), in 1918-1920 was the only part of the county of Borchalo, on which Armenia laid no official claim. As for
the other three modern districts that belong to Zone “B” and in 1918 were
claimed by Armenia, but remained Georgian, as per the Agreement of January
17, 1919, their ethnic composition also changed significantly over the past
90 years, and as of today, the dominant ethnic group there is the Azeris (see Table 3). That fact possibly explains why
there are no claims on this territory coming from the contemporary leadership
of Armenia.
Table 3: Dominant ethnic groups of the former
northern sectors of the former Borchalo county, as
of the end of the 20th century. Source: General Census of the USSR for the
year 1989 (C) Area "C" – the former county
of Akhalkalaki district (two of the six districts
of the land Javakheti (Akhalkalaki
and Ninotsminda). As can be seen from Table 4, no significant
changes occurred in its ethnic composition since the beginning of the
twentieth century.
Таble 4: Dominant ethnic groups of the former Akhalkalaki county, as of the end of the 20th
century. Source: General Census of the USSR for the year
1989[1] At the official level, there are no Armenian
claims on this territory at the moment, but at the level of mass
consciousness it has been Zone “C” that during to decades since the restoration
of Armenian and Georgian independence became the subject of active propaganda
in Russian and partially, Armenian media aimed at destabilization of bilateral
relations between the two nations, revival of an old border strife going back
to 1918 and, finally, creation of “the second Karabakh”
in the Armenian-populated Georgian land of Javakheti.
the Armeno-Georgian border
area. As of today the propaganda campaign aimed at the creation of a new
conflict in the South Caucasus has been supported not only by the media and
some “analysts” but also by numerous online resources, claiming to represent
the interests of the Armenian people. We do not possess detailed information
regarding the degree of success in manipulating the public opinion both in
Armenia and in Armenian diasporas worldwide, but the ideologeme
of “the Armenian Javakh illegally annexed by
Georgia” has been successfully planted in mass consciousness since the late
80's, and it would hardly be an exaggeration to say that it is largely due to
the balanced and restrained position on both the Armenian and Georgian leadership
that the issue of Javakheti so far has not degraded
into inter-ethnic violence and hatred as well as into the military
involvement of Russian Federation in this part of Georgia that could be similar
to the operations in already destabilized Abkhazia and Tskhinvali-“South
Ossetia”. Some positive momentum for the improvement of political situation
in Javakheti was the evacuation of the Russian
military base that occurred in 2006, as well as a number of economic and
infrastructure programs of the central Georgian government. Given the number of economic and social
problems that trouble the present-day Javakheti, as
well as the experience of Armeno-Georgian relations
since 1918, it seems possible to give the following recommendations aimed at
neutralization of a number of conflict-provoking factors in this area:
The gradual smoothing of the objective and
subjective contradictions existing in the area of the Armeno-Georgian border, could contribute to regional
stability and serve as a positive example for the successful resolution of
other conflicts in the region, currently in a more dangerous stage. |
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