While Overflowing Patience …

Today, the most important foreign policy priorities of RA are the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the question of genocide in the context of Armenian-Turkish relations. Addressing the Nagorno Karabakh Republic will enable the Republic of Armenia to concentrate forces on economic development and settlement of Armenian-Turkish relations will contribute to this growth. Armenia, however, missed out on the field of attention or, more precisely, closed her eyes for another very important issue – Javakheti with catastrophic demographic pattern and severe political and economic situation.

RA, to put it mildly, has serious problems with its two neighbors – Azerbaijan and Turkey, and “unconscious and unspoken” problem with Georgia. The essence of the Armenian-Azerbaijani and Armenian-Turkish relations is more or less known to a wide social circles, and the complexity of the Armenian-Georgian relations have only recently begun to be discussed and Armenian society has about them only a vague idea. When people talk about the problem of Javakheti, people have a weak and uncertain information about Javakhk as a true Armenian land, and even fewer people know his story. Many people think that Javakheti is Georgian territory, where Armenians make up the majority of the population. In order to somehow fill this gap, the following is a brief history of Javakheti.

In the VIII century BC Armenian-populated Javakheti Argishti I annexed the kingdom of Van, as evidenced by Horhorskaya Chronicle. Thereafter, until the fall of the Armenian kingdom in 428 year Javakh as part of Gugark region was part of Greater Hayk. Then, due to circumstances Javakh becomes part of the Persian Empire, and later – the Arab Caliphate. In the IX century Smbat I Bagratuni attaches Gugark, which was located in the Javakheti region, to his kingdom. Later, due to the weakening of the Armenian Kingdom, Javakhk from the end of X century until the beginning of XI century and the beginning of the XII century to the middle of the XIII century was part of an independent Georgian kingdom. But already in 1266, the Armenian prince Tmkaberda Sarkis Dzhahetsi establishes an autonomous principality Samtskhe, which lasted for nearly 3 centuries before 1535. Since 1547, Javakheti was annexed to the Ottoman Empire and remained in its composition until 1829, when the Russian-Turkish war of 1828-1829. He joined the Russian Empire.

In 1917, after the fall of Czarist Russia Javakhk twice in 1918 and in 1921 was attacked  by Turkey. The Armenian population has tried to find salvation on Georgian territory, but Georgian troops were not allowed to Armenian refugees to enter the territory of the Georgian interior areas. During the massacres committed by the Turks because of hunger, cold and disease in 1918-1921 of the 80,000 population of Javakheti died 35000. During this period, Javakheti became a disputed territory between Armenia and Georgia. The question of membership of the Akhalkalaki district was discussed at the plenum of the Politburo, which is July 7, 1917 referred the matter to the discussion of the Central Committee of Georgia, who introduced the Akhalkalaki, where the vast majority of the population were Armenians in Georgia.

Thus, after mentioning in Horhorskoy chronicles the last 28 centuries, until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, almost 13 centuries Javakheti was a member of the Armenian state, about 3 centuries it was virtually independent, and about 12 centuries under the influence or was a member of Persian empire, the Arab Caliphate, the Seljuk Turks, Ottoman Empire, Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union, and only half decades (from the end of X century until the XI century. and the end of the XII century. Until the middle of XIII century) Javakheti was in composed of independent Georgia.

Thus the question of Javakheti as a sword of Damocles hang over the Armenians. If the Armenian political circles continue to sacrifice Javakhk in favor of the so-called Armenian-Georgian “relations” (according to opinion polls, the RA of the overwhelming majority of the Georgian society is perceived as a potential enemy, not to mention the destructive activities of the Georgian authorities in the context of Armenian-Azerbaijani and the Armenian-Turkish relations), then ten years later Javakhk will be in the same situation as Artsakh in 1988 According to Armenian customs, waiting until the overflowing patience.