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TBILISI: Landlocked Javakhetia: Symptoms Of Difficulties Of TheNatio

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  • TBILISI: Landlocked Javakhetia: Symptoms Of Difficulties Of TheNatio

    LANDLOCKED JAVAKHETIA: SYMPTOMS OF DIFFICULTIES OF THE NATION-STATE IN GEORGIA?
    By Nicolas Landru In Tbilisi
    Translated By Simone Koshimizu

    Caucaz, Georgia
    April 2 2006

    Mountainous and isolated, over 92% of the population of Javakhetia
    is composed of Armenians. According to Georgian historiography, this
    region, located in the south-west of Georgia, is above all the cradle
    of national Christianity. The Georgian government remains categorical
    in view of the forum of local Armenian associations that called for
    an autonomous status last September. Against a backdrop of economic
    isolation and rows between the Armenian and Georgian Churches on
    religious heritage, does this strained context show the difficulties
    of building a nation-state in Georgia?

    Questioned about the position adopted by the Georgian diocese of
    the Armenian Apostolic Church in relation to this tension, Levon
    Isakhanyan, directorate assistant of the diocese, replies first of
    all that "no one knows what kind of country Georgia has become today.

    According to article 2 of the Georgian Constitution, the territorial
    organisation of the Georgian state is undefined". Is the lack of
    territorial organisation the source of the tensions that rose in
    the region?

    Javakhetia resulted from the crossing of Georgian, Turkish and
    Armenian lands. It was part of the XII century great Georgian kingdom,
    submitted to the Turkish control at the end of the Middle Ages,
    and then inhabited mainly by Muslims of controversial origins -
    Turkish or Georgian. The Russian conquest caused great upheavals:
    the Muslim population was exchanged for Armenian Christians by the
    Ottoman Empire. The arrival of Armenians fleeing the genocide in Turkey
    between 1915 and 1921 strengthened the Armenian nature of the region.

    Its isolation results from the expansion of the Russian empire against
    the Ottomans. In this process, Javakhetia was strongly militarised
    and its access was controlled. The USSR ended this process by turning
    the region into a no man's land. Being on the border of the NATO,
    access was forbidden, isolating the local inhabitants from the rest
    of Georgia. The development of ethnical affinities established in
    the USSR after Stalinisation, which soon weakened the republics,
    caused the region to be more attached to Yerevan than to Tbilisi.

    Legacy of the past, the Russian military base of Akhalkalaki is among
    those things that concentrated the grievances of the Georgian national
    movement against the Empire. Today it has become a symbolic issue
    of the independence that might be achieved, with the withdrawal of
    the army planned for the end of 2007. But the Armenian population in
    Akhalkalaki has not forgetton the Armenian genocide and the military
    base, an almost unique economic resource, protects them from Turkey as
    local people fear that Ankara could invade the region through the NATO.

    Lack of interest of the central government

    "In the Post-Soviet period, from Gamsakhurdia to Shevardnadze, nobody
    thought seriously about the integration of the region into Georgia",
    explains Levon Isakhanyan. "We have normal roads and they don't",
    he adds, explaining the different problems faced by the Armenians in
    Tbilisi and by those of Javakhetia.

    During Gamsakhurdia's government, a national construction with ethnical
    characteristics was designed in Georgia. Overwhelmed by the war in
    South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Tbilisi abandoned the region in 1991
    fearing separatism. A conception of ethnical minorities "invited"
    by the Georgian "host" did not allow the Armenians of Javakhetia to
    give their Georgian citizenship an identity dimension.

    In this context, the Armenian national and regional movement of
    Javakhk ran the country within an autarchy.

    The clientelism established by Shevardnadze allowed the country to
    be governed by alternate local clans without establishing a regional
    integration policy. The reattachment to the administrative entity
    of Samtskhe-Javakhetia in 1994 changed the regional demographic
    balance in favour of Georgians, which was interpreted by political
    organisations of Javakhetia as an attempt of "Georginisation".

    A politically alienated region

    Levon Isakhanyan confirms the legalistic position adopted by the
    diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church. "Only state structures
    have the right to define the forms of territorial organisation and
    the status of different regions in the heart of a unified Georgia",
    he says.

    But, based on examples of European democracies, he adds that "if
    Georgia wants to become a democratic country where all citizens feel
    equal and protected, it should think about a definitive form".

    The legal vacuum and the present status quo give rise to a severe
    lack of political legitimacy in Javakhetia. The gathering of the
    United Javakhk political forces claims that the representatives of
    the region do not defend the population's interests.

    Georgian authorities deny legitimacy to local political organisations,
    such as Virk, as they are not elected. Georgia does not recognise
    regional political parties; Virk says they could not be registered;
    but according to some, these leaders would not wish to be registered
    in order to keep a popular legitimacy of contestation.

    As far as the United Javakhk is concerned, it is mainly seen as a
    rising force - the JEM (Cultural and Sportive Youth Union of Javakhk)
    could soon become well-known based on the example of the decisive
    rally on 11 March when its members closed the Georgian church, the
    university and the court of Akhalkalaki to protest against the murder
    of an Armenian in Tsalka in the neighbouring region of Kvemo-Kartli.

    Local government is composed by elected people (Sakrebulo) who have
    little power compared to the Gamgebeli, the Georgian president's
    local representative, and have no more than 850,000 laris for the
    yearly budget of Akhalkalaki, which is not enough to introduce
    effective reforms.

    National parties only appear in the region in pre-electoral period.

    This explains the evident popularity of Virk and the United Javakhk
    among the population. Igor Giorgadze's party, which is opposed to
    the present government, has an office in Akhalkalaki.

    "Representatives of the Javakheti population are deputies chosen in
    major parliamentary elections", Levon Isakhanyan insists. But he also
    brings up the legal pre-conditions that exist in order to acquire a
    complex of rights and completely fulfil their status.

    If the Forum of Armenian associations of Javakhetia does not have the
    legal means of their claims yet, a deep unrest remains in Javakhetia
    within the Georgian state, almost completely separated from Tbilisi
    by the road system, language, media and ethno-cultural identity. The
    conflict of legitimacy shows the political alienation of a region
    that does not have a legal political force able to offer an adequate
    identification to its inhabitants. However, in order to forbid the
    closing of the Russian base in the end of 2007, local political
    organisations might deploy the necessary means to make the coming
    year tumultuous.

    New initiatives in Tbilisi

    "We have to do all we can for the development of Javakhetia", Guiorgui
    Kutsichvili declares. He is director of the International Centre
    for Conflict Negotiation of Tbilisi and is now launching a programme
    aiding the development of potato farming. "Georgian politicians should
    finally understand the necessity of changing the landlocked status
    of Javakhetia", he adds. Other NGOs and international organisations
    also try to promote the development of the region.

    The desire to establish programmes of integration also seems to point
    to the central government. "This year, the government will build new
    roads in Javakhetia within the framework of the Millennium Challenge
    Program; approximately 100,000 dollars will be spent. I think this
    government thinks more seriously about the integration of Armenians
    of Javakhetia into the common political space of Georgia than the
    previous one", Levon Isakhanyan suggests. He also mentions the teaching
    programme for Georgians in Javakhetia, launched under the aegis of
    the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). "The
    government finally thinks about the teaching of the Georgian language
    and that is really a good sign. We, Armenians of Georgia, need air
    to breathe and we need Georgian to express ourselves", he says.

    Isakhanyan considers it a diplomatic move on the part of the government
    to recognise Armenian as a regional language in Javakhetia and to
    seriously examine what the population claims, if they express it as
    a majority.

    But there's a long way from raising awareness to the introduction of
    effective reforms and the local population's reluctance to political
    and linguistic integration for fear of assimilating and losing their
    identity is still a reality. But without definitely adopting a model
    of construction of a nation-state in Georgia, can problems be solved?
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