Javakhetia, territorially related to Georgia, has always been the most populous ethnic Armenian – there were more than 88% of them. Throughout the tragic fate of Javakheti, its inhabitants were repeatedly forced to defend their small Motherland with weapons in their hands. Mentality of the population was forged for years by a difficult, bloody fate. Therefore, the socium of this small country was not affected by the destructive tendency of modern societies to atomize, self-isolate people from each other, come along with the ideology of neo-liberalism and the development of the masses of cyberspace. Javakheti Armenians, like in the distant years of their ancestors, are distinguished by their love of freedom, awareness of the value of succession of generations and the importance of preserving their traditions. The freedom-loving and strong character of the Javakheti was formed under the influence of the factors of the nearest unfriendly neighborhood – Turkey. But, as it turned out in the twenty-first century, Georgia is also not the most pleasant neighbor, having great ties with Turkey. Over the past twenty-five years, the living conditions of the residents of Javakhetia have deteriorated significantly. However, Georgia’s ongoing attempts to assimilate Javakhetia, to compel the people to renounce their national identity and identity, naturally encounter the silent resistance of the Javak Armenians as yet. In the meantime, Georgia’s state media are doing everything to change the public opinion of Georgians towards the Armenian population of Javakheti. In full force, official Tbilisi uses a propaganda machine, planting Georgian in schools and higher educational institutions. “They want to make us Georgians, only Georgians” of the second grade “- these bitter words can often be heard in Javakheti. Meanwhile, the region’s indigenous population has almost halved in the past 20 years. Those who stayed, despite the worsening living standards and the ever greater displacement of indigenous Armenians from all spheres of cultural and state life, would never agree to the loss of their self-identification. The former peaceful relations with the Georgians were replaced by their opposite. For a long time, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, forces active in the Caucasus, interested in the nazificationtion and chauvinization of the peoples of the Caucasus have been active in the Caucasus. Georgia justifies its true goals with the interests of its own security, which is allegedly under threat of potential separatists living in Javakheti.

In fact, recently in Javakheti something similar has happened to those plans that Georgian politicians feared, playing with such a phenomenon as a solid national identity. In response to pressure from government structures that give “good” to the settlement of the Javakh territory, Armenians living in Georgia have a strong tendency to manifestations of radical separatism, as they hope that with the recognition of the autonomy and independence of Javakheti, Georgian ruling elites will leave them alone . However, Georgia is not at all an independent player on the political map of the world. In many matters of foreign and domestic policy, official Tbilisi resorts to the help of its North American mentors, on the one hand. On the other hand, they do not want to lose friendly relations with Turkey.

In the era of information technology, information warfare methods have become very diverse and, therefore, more effective. The ruling elites of Georgia, agreeing with the official Ankara, may well go to the bloodshed between the “correctly” processed by the Georgian population, and creating the people’s militia of the Armenians of Javakheti. Georgian citizens are instilled with a dangerous tendency to see their enemies in Javakheti, just as the Abkhazians and South Ossetians were just a threat to the security of the Georgian people.

Simultaneously, the soil is prepared for the eviction of the indigenous Javakheti to Armenia. Very soon, the ruling elites of Georgia and Turkey will completely untie their hands. The initial success of the Azerbaijani-Turkish capital in Georgia is explained by the hostility and xenophobia adopted by the mass public consciousness towards the Armenians living on the territory of Georgia. As yet, the ruling elites of Ankara and Tbilisi are not ready to begin a serious “fight against separatist movements” of the Javakhkh. If you look at the root of the problem, it is easy to understand that in this region Georgia helps its partner in Turkey to realize economic and geopolitical interests. For official Ankara, the danger posed by Armenians, in view of the Turkish-built Turkish-Turkish oil pipeline Baku-Ceyhan pipeline, is not entitled to be ignored. The government of Erdogan, with the weakness of the Georgian authorities and their energy dependence on Turkey, has long been ready to exercise complete control over Javakheti, where Turkish investors have long been building their homes, populate the region with Meskhetian Turks, aiming not only to strengthen the protection of the geopolitically important oil pipeline ” Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku “, but also – the preparation of punitive groups” paramilitaries “, for which it is necessary to build through new railroad tracks – running, according to plan, namely in the capital city the Akhalkalaki.

The Georgian and Azerbaijani authorities ignored the massive introduction of Azerbaijani and Turkish migrants into Javakheti. But, after all, it should be clear to everyone who follows the modern trends of the world and Europe, that it is precisely the layers of migrants who are not going to integrate into Georgian society. In this poor, crisis-prone region of Georgia, Javakheti, populated by Armenian Christians, ordinary people have few social guarantees and security guarantees from the increased migration of Meskhetian Turks. In Javakheti, there is an active construction of mosques and madrasahs, Muslim schools: the way is prepared so that in the near future Javakhetia would be declared a Turkic region within Georgia. Given that R. Erdogan is obsessed with the idea of neo-Ottomanism – the construction of a great Turkey, it is not difficult to guess the fate of the people of Javakheti. However, such a geopolitical project may in the future also hit the population of Georgia, whose government now works so closely with Erdogan.

Similarly, in the distant 1915 the Turkish state massively, with the use of the army, expelled the Armenians from their home country, considering themselves to be continuers of the traditions of the Ottoman Empire – to liberate neighboring lands from non-Turkic origin. Now they want to take the Javakhetian territory under the Turkic protectorate. Modern Ankara, defying the world community (which recognized the fact of the Armenian genocide in the 20th century as a crime against humanity), still shamelessly denies the genocide of the Armenian people. The Turkish media only agree that in the history of the two countries there have been some excesses during the deportation of the Armenian population, but – through the fault of some particularly diligent officials who carried out, on their own initiative, the deportation of Armenians by harsh measures. In general, does not the international community know that Turkey conducted mass deportation and genocide of the Armenian population only as a forced measure – “in response to the betrayal of Armenians.” Unfortunately, historical lessons were in vain, without teaching the national ruling elites.

The logic of the Tbilisi government is also quite obvious – for the sake of preserving its own power, it willingly seeks to enlist the support of powerful neighbors. And also – solve at the expense of the population of Javakheti the problem of Azerbaijanis in Georgia, resettling them there from Kakheti dissatisfied with the state of the land resources of Azerbaijanis from Kakheti, where the Azerbaijanis are unhappy with the state of land resources. But it is rather difficult to understand why Georgian high-ranking officials who initiated such actions do not think at all about the future. After all, with such a rate of aggravation of interethnic problems in the near future, the territory of Georgia may have its own “Kosovo”. Apparently, the desire of the ruling elites of Georgia, which has not been accepted into NATO for so long, to protect its ever growing ambitions and business interests, at least with the help of cooperation with its southern neighbors – a fairly powerful Turkey and Azerbaijan, is too great. And the cooperation is far from equal: in exchange, receiving from interested in this geopolitical game only political and economic handouts

In July 2018, comrade Aghassi Iordanyan, head of the “Armenian Revolutionary Socialist Union of Javakheti”, came out to communicate with the “Southeast Star” Social Action International, thanks to which more information details became known to us. A. Iordanyan gave his analysis of the main reasons and prerequisites for strengthening the ethnic and political conflicts of Javakhk (as the Armenians call their territory in southern Georgia). Conflict factors are connected not least with the continued return of Meskhetian Turks to Javakheti, the leaders of which, under the auspices of the Tbilisi authorities (and, according to some sources, are in cooperation with representatives of the authorities of Ankara and Baku), launched the project back in 2007. to strengthen the influence of Turkey in this strategically important for several countries Javakheti region. The softest, how can you call the actions of the leadership of Georgia in this region condoning the increased influence of Meskhetian Turks. Referring to the ethnically and religiously changing composition of the population, official Tbilisi approved a change in parliamentary representation. Now in the Parliament of the region, instead of the provision according to which each region of Javakhetia was provided by two Armenian deputies, now – one. Thus, the separatist sentiment among the Armenian population was further intensified and exacerbated. The radical separatist movements of Javakheti Armenians are forced to consolidate to protect the territory of their historical residence from aggressively-minded Azeri migrants (Meskhetian Turks, among others). Agassi Iordanyan notes that the official Tbilisi “closes its eyes” to the aggravation of the situation in the Javakheti region, and this can have a negative impact on the entire multi-cultural population of Georgia, triggering local conflicts capable of escalating in the future to military actions between different ethnic groups in Georgia. The authorities of Azerbaijan itself, which closely cooperate with Tbilisi regarding the issues of population transfer to the Javakheti region, at the moment, are barely able to cope with the most radical armed groups of young people inside their country.

So, in Javakhetia there are perspectives of the “people’s liberation war”, the purpose of which is to see the Armenian movements in the possible withdrawal of Javakhetia from Georgia (according to the principle of Abhazia and South Ossetia). In connection with the above, the special services, security agencies of Georgia, which for a long time declared the “National Liberation Armenian Movement of Javakhetia” separatist-extremist, and, therefore, criminal. Based on the declaration of the ethnic liberation movement as terrorist separatist groups, Tbilisi is preparing a series of operations “to prevent the armed separation of the Armenians of Javakhetia, which threatens to violate the territorial integrity of Georgia.” Also, according to some information, the finances of Turkey and the local Georgian-Turkish lobby are already involved in Georgia’s forthcoming “restraining” and “punitive” policy, which has made it possible to strengthen Turkey’s geopolitical influence in the South Caucasus. So, at the moment, thanks to the Turkish-Georgian-Azerbaijani lobby, there are more than 10 websites of anti-Armenian and Armenian-phobic content on the territory of Georgia. One of them, http://kavkazplus.com/ – preaches interethnic and religious hatred. Moreover, the active activity of the Armenian-phobic sites, as well as individual provocations of national chauvinists, incl. known Georgian journalists and public figures, is carried out with the financial support of NGOs, which in turn receive money from foreign sources – international NGOs interested in destabilizing Asia Minor. In 2015-2016, the NGO Synergy Network jointly with the Institute for the Study of Nationalism and Conflict, under the aegis of local authorities, launched the project “Increasing the participation of IDPs (internally displaced persons) in policy development in Georgia”.

A. Iordanyan remarks that at the moment one of the most powerful Armenian movements is the “Virk” Party (of which he is also a member). There are also many other groups and movements for the liberation of the Armenian “Javakh” – from Georgian and Azeri-Turkish arbitrariness. And the activists of these groups understand that the only possible tactic at the moment is their consolidation with each other, despite the fact that the range of ultimate goals between different groups of Armenians varies widely: from giving Javakheti full autonomy (in the status of the “Autonomous Republic of Javakh”, with the introduction of local self-government, until the complete separation of Javakheti from Georgia and its annexation to Armenia, which is expressed by local authoritative politician David Rstakyan, whose activists At the same time, the authorities of Georgia, by adding the party “Virk” to the list of extremist ones, actually declared it and the leaders outlawed, which probably played a big role in the manifested tendency of consolidation of the parties and movements of ethnic Armenians, such as the “Union the intelligentsia of Javakhk under the chairmanship of Azad Shypaktyan, and in Armenia (with neutral silence from the country’s top leadership), volunteer armed groups are being formed under the name “The Liberation Front of Javakh”, to which they are ready to join informal armed units of the “Red Dashnaks” who separated from the Armenian National Revolutionary Front “Dashnakatsutyun”, planning to invade small groups in the territory of the Georgian region to protect local Armenian patriotic organizations from the punitive actions of Georgian security forces, on the one hand, and to support them in fight against Turkish domination (there is information that the Meskhetian Turks and Azerbaijanis arriving in Javakhetia are currently forming in an organized way crime groups, which, according to A.Iordanyan, Georgian security forces are ready to be used for punitive purposes against the Armenian national liberation movement “Javakhk” and “Virk”.

All this, as well as the active actions of the Georgian authorities at present on the militarization of this area, causes great fear among the population in the very security of the continued existence of Armenians in Javakheti. So, recently in the center of Akhalkalaki (the capital of Javakhetia) the events related to the arrival of the Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania and the Chief of the General Staff of the Georgian Armed Forces, Major-General Vakhtang Kapanadze, were recently held. They laid a symbolic capsule in the foundation of a new grand military training center. At the political meeting of the “Virk” party David Rstakyan said that he had reliable information about the full financing of the Georgian military-strategic facility being built by the Turkish banks, adding that he was ready to transfer this information to the Russian side in confidence. Our comrades-in-arms Agassi Iordanyan and David Rstakyan believe that the above-mentioned Georgian military-strategic facilities are “Georgian” only nominally, in reality, it is the military advancement of Turkey deep into Georgia, and consequently, to the Russian borders.

The initial reason for the rise of separatist sentiments among ethnic Armenians in Javakhetia was the facts that occurred earlier, immediately after the withdrawal of Russian military units from Javakheti. In fact, right after that followed the settlement of Javakheti by the Turks – from the whole territory of Georgia, with the complicity of the Georgian leadership of the region, trying not to pay attention to the interethnic clashes of the population groups that came and live there historically throughout the region. At the same time, the local authorities began to freely provide the Azerbaijanis from the neighboring region with places for the market, to lease land in perpetual rent for a low fee, creating a Turkish-Azerbaijani economic lobby on the territory of Javakhetia intended to displace the Armenian indigenous population existing there for centuries.
The local population sees the reason for the Georgian policy of ethnic mixing of Javakheti by the Turks in building on the site of the once former Russian base of the 62nd Army, a new one. the largest military strategic facility in Georgia, including the training military complex together with the whole military town, which is being built for, according to the logic explained by the Georgian authorities, the media, for control over the separatists of Javakheti. In fact, according to the source’s sources, the goals pursued by official Tbilisi in the confusion of the ethnic population, the militarization of the district, and the subsequent tightening of control over the separatists from the indigenous Armenian population – the unhindered holding of Turkish-Azerbaijani economic projects in this region, which is in line with the current strategic course official Ankara, which, together with official Baku, carries out the focus of energy flows, which will strengthen geopolitical influence in the South Caucasus, and akzhe – to return the Azerbaijani population within the limits of their former residence. Thus, the project, which plays an important role in the implementation of these strategic goals, is the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. the agreement on which was signed on February 8, 2007 in Tbilisi, which will be held in the region of Javakheti. It assumes direct rail connection between Turkey and Georgia, followed by the merger of this branch with the existing railway network in Azerbaijan (and, in the case of the unification in the east of the railway tunnel under the Bosphorus “Marmara-paradise” by rail and sea between Baku and Kazakhstan (Aktau) will become part of the railway communication between Asia and Europe, which will also be the implementation of geostrategic plans to prevent the influence of these policies on the regions of the Russian Federation It is known that at the Brussels The issue of natural gas supplies from Azerbaijan to Europe through the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline was discussed in 2018-2019, according to the Armenian political scientist-Marxist Gagik Abramyan (from Gyumri), who knows the operative actions of the Georgian leadership in relation to the South Gas Corridor. Javakheti – there are indications of Turkey, whose plans include the shift of the accents of the potential volunteer forces of Armenia from the problems of Nagorno-Karabakh, where the process of peaceful occupation of the territory is going on, with the aim of building the Turkish military but tactical installations on the territory of Shushi, directed towards Armenia. The second goal is to create a condition for the expulsion of ethnic Armenians from Armenia to the territory of Javakheti to exclude separatist movements in the region where Turkey plans to realize its economic and geopolitical interests – control over the geographical location from which the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline, sponsored by the Azerbaijani-Turkish capital, construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku railway through Javakheti.

With the continuation of similar events in Javakheti, the strengthening of the militarization of the region, the Georgian authorities (or indifference) carrying out the project of actions for the artificial settlement of Javakheti by the Turks, the leaders of the “national-liberation Armenian” movement of Javakhetia already plan a written official appeal for any possible support – to the International of Combat Social actions of the “SOUTH-EAST STAR” and the European Free Alliance (EFA), as they foresee a new wave of the Armenian genocide. The Russian Federation, in the person of citizen V.Putin, is now interested in establishing good, diplomatic relations with Ottoman T. Erdogan. Consequently, the support of the Javakhk Armenians, which interfere with their national liberation movements – its “Bonaparist”, neo-imperialist major military and economic ambitions, is not beneficial to the Kremlin.

It would seem logical to address the political leaders of the national liberation movement of Javakheti – to their native, neighboring Armenia, but remembering in 2016, when the incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan – not only did not respond to the group letter of the Javakhist Armenians, who asked for any help – and sent them a letter directly to the Georgian president, warning him of the threat that is ripening in the Samtse-Javakheti region … The Jordanian additionally informed us that four activists of the Javakheti Party “Virk” were arrested: literally on July 25, It is collected from their homes and apartments for employees of the Georgian State Security Service and taken to an unknown destination. Characteristically, persons detained by the Georgian SGB are not leaders of the party or movement, but are members of a wide range of organizations. The arrest of D. Rstakyan or one of his deputies would have provoked a premature wave of protest from Armenians in the region.

We are at the forefront of events and will continue to report on the development of events in Javakheti, spreading information about the small genocide of the indigenous Armenian population, by the will of politicians who turned out to be part of the territory of Georgia.

Camilla Abramyan
Analyst of the Headquarters of the 4-th Network Rate
ICSA “South Eastern Star”
Gyumri, Armenia

Alan Arhonskiy
Chief of the Caucasian Staff 11-th Network Rate
ICSA “South Eastern Star”

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