By Ashot Melkonian
Translated by T. Sonentz-Papazian
Historian Dr. Ashot Melkonian is the Director of the Institute of History at the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. He holds a Ph.D. in History from Yerevan State University. His research interests include historical demographics of Armenia, history of Javakhk, and Armenian-Georgian relations. Dr. Melkonyan is a recipient of the Movses Khorenatsi medal for his contributions to academia.
Part I: From Javakhq’s Historical Past
Gugarq, the 13th of the 15 regions (ashkhars) of historical Armenia’s Metz Haiq (Greater Armenia) Kingdom, covered the northern section of the Armenian Highlands. In the east, it bordered on the province of Utiq; in the west, of Tayq; in the south, of Ayrarat; and in the north it bordered on Iberia (Virq, Georgia). Its administrative center was the city of Tsurtav. Gugarq was one of the four borderline counties of the Armenian Kingdom and, at times, it enjoyed a certain autonomy. According to some Georgian historians, the name Gugarq has a Georgian origin, and it derives from the inhabitants of the region who were called “Gogars” or “Gargars.” But Armenian sources do not mention such an ethnicity. As for the land of the Gargars, it has no correlation with Gugarq.
The nine constituent counties of Gugarq were Dzoropor, Koghbopor, Tzobopor, Tashir, Treghq, Kangarq, Kgharjq, Upper Javakhq, and Artahan. Up to the first partition of Armenia (387 A.D.), the region also included neighboring Shavshet, Inner Javakhq, Mangleatspor, Qwishapor, Boghnopor, Khantsikhen, and Paruar. The total area covered more than 16,500 square kilometers.
Javakhq is mentioned as eighth in rank of the Gugarq counties. It was located in the central part of the region and covered areas of the plateau of the same name (the headland of Akhalqalaq, upland of Javakhq) and the mountainous area surrounding the latter, bordering on Treghq (Trialet) in the north, on Samsar and Javakhq mountains (Kechut, Mtin) in the east, and in the south, on the headland forming the extension of the Ashotsq plateau.
In historiography, different points of view are offered on the terminology of the name “Javakhq.” According to the Georgian writer Leonti Mroveli (author of Annals of Qartli and The Life of Qartli), the plain of Kur, the environs of the river Potskhov (historic Samtskhe province, now Akhaltskha), and other surrounding lands were inherited by Javakhos, son of Mtskhetos, grandson of the ancestor of the Georgians, Qartlos. After Javakhos, the region has been called Javakhq, Javakheti in Georgian. However, rightfully considering this “thesis” mythological and overly simplistic, many later researchers have attempted to find other explanations. Some, having in mind the region’s favorable climate for growing barley, have connected javi, the Georgian word for barley, with the name. Others have tried to find in the area an ethnic race of Javakhis.
In reality, the place-name of Javakhq, as is evident in the inscriptions of Van (Kingdom of Van)—where it is mentioned from the close of the 9th century B.C.—is a transliterated variant of the land called “Zabakha” or “Zabakhian”: Zabakha-Jabakha-Javakha-Javakhq. In the Khokhorian inscriptions of Argishti I (786-764 B.C.), among the conquered lands of Diaukh or Daya (Tayq) and Tariun (Daruynq, Basen), there is mention of Zabakhan. This name is also referred to in several inscriptions left by a number of succeeding Urartian kings. Although, there is no mention of Javakhq prior to the 8th century B.C., by studying the pre-Urartian era, it is possible to presume that it had either been an administrative part of an early Armenian state formation of the 2nd millennia B.C.—in all likelihood of Hayasa or Etiuni—or it may have been a fairly large, separate entity including the entire western section of the province of Gugarq. The second hypothesis is more probable; it is not by coincidence that the above-mentioned Argishti inscription mentions Zabakha as an occupied country. It means that until the beginning of the 8th century B.C., Javakhq had been a self-governing nation at the time and, as a territory inhabited by ethnic Armenians, was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of Van, constituting its largest province on the north-western frontier.
There is almost no direct reference to Javakhq from the post-Urartian, Armenian Ervanduni era. We can only cite two semi-legendary, yet noteworthy, references from Moses of Khoren’s History of the Armenians and Qartlis Tskhovreba. The father of historians notes that Vagharshak I bequeathed “half of the Javakhs sector” to Gushar of the Sharas and assigned a viceroy there to protect the Armenian homeland against the north-Caucasian highlanders. Many scholars studying this venture of the semi-legendary figure Vagharshak place it in the 3rd century B.C. At that time, it seems, Javakhq was within the domains of the Ervandunis and was given to Gushar, thus becoming identified with the latter; as such, it ceased to be a vast province in its own right and was included in the newly formed frontier principality as two split parts: Upper Javakhq and Lower Javakhq. Upper Javakhq is identified with the “half of the Javakhs sector” mentioned by Moses of Khoren, since it was given to the Shirak province of the neighboring Shara. There are no sources mentioning Lower Javakhq. But, if there was the upper segment—which was the southern and northeastern highland—there must have also been a “Lower Javakhq” encompassing the lowlands in the west and northwest.
It is significant that the above account by Moses of Khoren, written in 3rd-century B.C. (approximately) Javakhq, appears in its inaccurate, “Georgian” version in Qartlis Tskhoveba, according to which—as mentioned above—it was given to Javakhos. The fact is that in 270 B.C., adjacent to northern Metz Haiq, the Parnavazian state of the Georgians (Iberia, Virq) had come into existence and, with the assistance of the Seleucids—who were opposed to the Armenian Ervandunis—had occupied and annexed the provinces of Gugarq and Javakhq, along with other neighboring areas. At that time, the center of Javakhq was the fortress of Tzunda, which the Armenians called Qajatun (City of the Brave). The Greek writer Strabo describes the steps taken to recover the territories listed above from the Georgians. He writes that in the 2nd century B.C., King Artaxes of the Armenians (189-160) had regained from the Iberians, among other lands, Gogarene (Gugarq) and rejoined them to his country. The same statement, in different words, i
s encountered also in Georgian sources. According to Leonti Mroveli, in order to conquer Javakhetia, the Qartvelians (Georgians) prompted the Osetians—the Alans, mentioned in Armenian annals—to attack Artaxes. It means that the Armeno-Alan war, described by Moses of Khoren in the well-known fable of “Artaxes and Satenik,” was fought also for Javakhq. Artaxes was not only able to re-conquer the Armenian lands, but he also subjugated the small Georgian Kingdom. In fact, the Georgian throne passed to the viceroy (Bdeshkh) of Gugarq. It is not surprising, therefore, that in reference many future writers make use of the title “Bdeshkh of Gugarians and Georgians.”
Similarly, during the period of the Artaxiads and Arshakunis, references to Javakhq are rare and it is basically through the concept of the entire province of Gugarq that one can visualize the region. The latter, until the downfall of the Arshakunis in 428 A.D., has remained the northern frontier province of Metz Haiq, and has not been separated from it even in the first half of the first century of our era (1-52 A.D.), when the Armenian throne was occupied by foreigners, including Georgians.
From the few references to the region in question, perhaps the most valuable—a revealing observation on its demographic composition—belongs to the pen of a Georgian historian. According to tradition, Nino (Nune, of Armenian sources), one of the Hripsimean sisterhood of Christian missionaries, on her way to Georgia from Armenia, finds herself in Javakhq, where she meets Mskheti shepherds on the shores of Lake Parvana and, speaking to them in Armenian, receives the right directions to get to Mskhet. This testimony elucidates two important issues. First, that Nune, a resident of Armenia until her passage to Virq, was familiar with the native language and, along with other missionaries, brought Christianity from Armenia to the land of the Georgians. Second, that the language spoken in Javakhq was Armenian, since it was populated with Armenians, otherwise there would have been no necessity for shepherds from Mskhet to learn the language of the Armenians.
During the reign of Arshak II (350-368 A.D.), Gugarq revolted and pledged allegiance to the Georgian king. By the order of King Pap, Sparapet (Supreme Commander) Mushegh re-conquered Gugarq and punished the Bdeshkh and the princes who had helped him, re-establishing the River Kur as the boundary between Armenia and Georgia: “…the old boundary, which prevailed before between the land of the Armenians and that of the Georgians, which is the great River Kur itself.”
It is remarkable that, while being part of Gugarq, during the 3rd and 4th centuries, Javakhq managed to maintain its internal autonomy. The princely clan of the Vardzavunis ruled there, and had their special place in Arsacid (Arshakuni) Armenia. In the “Gahnamak” (Register of Noble Clans), they occupied the 23rd place on a list of 70 “nakhararutiuns.” During wartime, they contributed 200 warriors to the eastern of the four command sectors. After the partition of Armenia in the year 387 A.D., the influence of the Arsacids on Gugarq and Javakhq was considerably weakened and, after the fall of the Armenian Kingdom, the two regions were absorbed into the Georgian Satrapy set up under the rule of Persia, at the same time that Artsakh was made part of another Persian dominion, Aghvanq.
Along with all of northern Armenia, Javakhq also remained under Persian rule until the Arab invasions of the 7th century. In History of Taron, written by the contemporary author Hovhan Mamikonian, in his narrative of the Arab conquests, once more we come across the name of Javakhq. The author relates that the Arab general Abd el-Rahib had sacked, in the mid-7th century, the Armenian provinces of Harq, Basen, Javakhq, Vananda and, moving on to Virq, had returned to Arabia with his loot. It is noteworthy, that Javakhq is listed with the Armenian provinces, and Virq is mentioned only at the end. It signifies that in the years 40-50 of the 7th century, during the period of the Arab invasions, this province was part of Armenia, not Virq.
Javakhq remained under Arab domination until the end of the 9th century, when Smbat I of the Bagratids (890-914 A.D.), according to the historian Hovhannes of Draskhanakert, “…up and assailed the province of the Gugars, subduing and conquering them for the fortification of his own domain.”
During the years 70-80 A.D., most of Gugarq formed part of the Kingdom of Lori, or Kiurik (also Gugarq, Dzoraget). Upper Javakhq—particularly Gogshen, its southern section—remained under the rule of the Bagratids for a while, as, towards the end of the 10th century, Inner Javakhq became a part of the increasingly more powerful Georgian Bagratids. By the beginning of the 11th century, the same fate befell the heartland of Upper Javakhq. In a short while, the Georgian kings turned Javakhq and the neighboring Samtskhe into strong, fortified outposts of their southern domains as a protection against separatist forces, the Byzantine Empire and, later on, the Seljuk Turks. At the start of the 11th century, Bagrat III fortified one of the centers of the province and called it New City, Akhalqalaq in Georgian (akhali meaning “new,” qalaqi meaning “city”). In the years 1044-1047, in his war against Liparit Orbelian, Bagrat IV built the Akhalklaq fort on the left bank of the stream called Qarasunaghbiur. A certain number of Georgians were brought here to populate the area.
Georgian hegemony did not last very long. In the year 1064, Armenia and Georgia were devastated by the Seljuks. At that time, the Sultan Alp Aslan “…set up camp in the province called Javalis (Javakhs),” writes Matheos Urhayetsi, “and surrounding with arms the city called Alakh (Akhal-qaghaq city), with a mighty assault captured Alakh city, ruthlessly putting men and women, priests, clerics, and nobles to the sword. He flooded the city with blood and took countless youngsters and girls to Persia as slaves, and treasures of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls beyond measure.” Vardan the historian also narrates on these events: The nephew of Tughril, Alp-Aslan “…returned with a force of a hundred thousand and captured the new city that the Georgians call Akhal-city (qaghaq).” It is obvious from these statements by historians that by the middle of the 11th century, Akhalqalaq, which had replaced Dzunda as regional center, had lost a sizable part of its population to atrocious massacres and mass deportations.
At the beginning of the 12th century, King David the Builder of Georgia (1089-1125) managed to regain Lori and Javakhq from the Seljuk Turks. But, over the entire duration of the 11th century, Javakhq—along with other provinces—continued to change hands. In August 1175, the troops of Sultan-Atabek Eltkuz of Gandzak occupied and sacked Javakhq and Treghq. Georgi III (1156-1184), avoiding a confrontation, showed no opposition to the Seljuk aggression. After destroying Ani and Shirak, Eltkuz “…totally devastates Akhal-qaghaq and Javakhet and then turns towards Dvin…” Only towards the end of the 12th century—according to Queen Tamar’s (1184-1213) historian—after the victorious campaigns of Zachary and Ivane Zacharians, did the territories between Javakhq and Sper fall under Georgian rule.
During this period, infiltrations of Qartvelian ethnic groups into Javakhq continued along with the spread of Georgian Orthodoxy—a process that was evident during the rise of the Bagratids of Georgia (from the 12th to the beginning of the 13th century) not only in Akhalqalaq but also other areas of northern Armenia which, as a result of the growing Armeno-Georgian alliance, had been absorbed into the boundaries of Georgia. Nevertheless, of those provinces, Lori, Samtskhe-Akhaltskha, Daush, areas around Sevan, as well as Javakhq remained essentially Armenian-populated territories. It is not by chance that the Georgian court trusted these provinces to the Armenian Zacharians who, under the aegis of Georgia, created their own fiefdom.
The historian of Queen Tamar writes that Sargis Erkainabazuk Tmogveli (Tmogvetsi) and Shalva Toreli (Toretsi) were viceroys of Javakhq. The first had his seat at Tmogvi, in the Armenian fort of Tmuk or Tmka, located in the valley of Kur, not far from the town of Tzunda; while the second, in all probability, governed from the hamlet of Torea. It is significant that there were two governors in Javakhq. It means that the former administrative division of the province was maintained. The Toreans were also under the jurisdiction of the Tmkaberd Zacharians. Autonomous Akhalqalaq was the most important administrative and economic center of the province.
In the mid-20’s of the 13th century, Javakhq was subjugated by the Central Asian conqueror Jalaleddin, and during the 30’s, it was devastated by the Mongol invasions. But in several provinces, as in Javakhq, the autonomy of the Zacharians prevailed. Based on the new administrative division of 1245, Javakhq was left to the Toreans, under Mongol supervision. In 1266, taking advantage of the Georgian kings’ struggle against the Mongols, the lord of Tmkaberd, Sargis Jaghetsi, in the name of the satrapy of Samtskhe, succeeded to establish a vast principality from Tashir to Erzrum, including Javakhq. Until the beginning of the 14th century, by paying a certain amount of taxes to the Mongols, this basically Armenian-populated principality, constituted in northern and northwestern Armenia, maintained its autonomy until 1535 by resisting pressures from Qartli, Leng-Timur and his successor Timurians and, from the 15th century onwards, Turkmen Koyunlu tribes. Armenian cultural life thrived in Javakhq under the Bagratids, Zacharians, and the succeeding Jaghetsis; the numerous surviving architectural monuments are living proof of that era.
Towards the end of the 15th century, Javakhq became the target of numerous aggressors. In 1484, the troops of Yaghub Khan of Persia devastated the area, massacring and enslaving the population and setting the province on fire. In 1535, in a joint effort, the kings of Imeretia and Qartli defeated the forces of the ruler of Samtskhe and occupied Akhalqalaq and Akhaltskha. However, in the wars against Sefian Iran in 1547, the Ottoman Turks occupied those cities. By the 1555 Persian-Turkish peace treaty of Amasia, Javakhq was ceded to Persia. But the war began again in 1578, the Turks reentered Javakhq, and made it part of the newly constituted vilayet (province) of Chlter, and later, in 1637, a separate sanjak (district).
The Ottomans began a census in the conquered regions for taxation purposes. One of the taxpayers lists, prepared by the Turks at the close of the 16th century, contains valuable information on the demographic picture of Akhalqalaq. Called “Extensive Register of Gurjistan (Georgian) Vilayet,” it contains a listing of all the counties, their villages, and inhabitants. It shows that in most areas of Akhalqalaq, the inhabitants were Christians, with Armenian or Georgian names, and names common to both ethnicities. We come across Armenian names—or names widely used by Armenians—in Kokia, Ruben, Roseb (Hovsep); in Orja, Prince Hanes, his brother Sargis, elder of Hanes, Kirakos, Simon, Ghazar son of Nazar; in Kotelia, Zachar; in Baralet, grandson of Mitich (Mkrtich), his son Sargis; in Turtskh, son of Masur (Mansur) Sargis, Avag; in Khando, Hacob; in Vachia, Qerob; in Qartzep, Bayandur; in Hokam, Manuel son of Sargis; in Qilda, Khachatur; in Upper and Lower Khospia, Mitich, Ter-Beki, Khosik-Husik, Sahak; in Jigrashen, grandson of Zachar; in Greater Majadia, Hacob; in Naqalaqev, Havategh son of Karapet; in Korkh, Rostom, his son Kirakos, Shahaba son of Mkrtich, Hanes son of Sargis, Kirakos son of Astvatzatur; in Gumburdo, David son of Kharaba, Mkrtich son of Amirkhan, Yaral son of Kirakos, Abraham son of Shahkul, Manuk; in Olaverd, Abas; in Khulgumo, Astvatzatur, Artashes; in Heshtia, Ter-Hacob; in Metz Khorenia and Chamdura, Grigor, his brother Mose, Sahak son of Grigor, his brother Sargis, Ter-Hacob, his brother Yaral, Khachatur, Murat son of Jihanshe; in Orja, Vahram, Sargis, Eghiazar; in Zresk, Shahmurat, Rosep, Simon, Samson, Astvatzatur; in Ghaurma, Sargis; in Bavra, Bayandur; in Toria, Araqel, Bayandur, Janibek son of Sargis, Mkrtich; in Abul, Eghiazar, David, Sargis; in the fortress of Akhalqalaq, Murat, his brother Zadik; in Little Murjakhet, Hanes son of Sargis; in Little Manzara, Dolik son of Astvatzatur; in Tzunda, Jojik son of Jhanshe, his brother Manuk; in Sulda, Shermazan, his son Simon; in Erinja, son of Eghiazar, his brother Manas, Hacob; in Khozabun, Manuk son of Astvatzatur; in Aragova, Sargis; in Apnia, Abas; in Bezhono, Simon; in Alastan, Arzuman; in Lomaturtskh, Rostom son of Alibek; in Zak, Eghiazar, Rosep; in Burnashet, Sargis, etc.
It is noteworthy that there were also locations where the populations were overwhelmingly Armenian. Thus, the famous fortress town of Tmuk (Tmotsvi), according to the same source, was mostly Armenian populated. There, we come across the following names: Sargis son of Araqel, Rostom son of Anania, his brother Mkrtich, Vardan son of Etigar, Hovhannes son of Bayandur, Papu son of Shirin, Berik son of Piraziz, his son Mkrtich, Murat, Ter-Hacob, Berik son of Murat, his brother Margar, Hacob, Sargis son of Meliq, etc. Qenarbel Village of the Chldri Region was all Armenian populated: son of Tzaruk, his brother Astvatzatur, son of Margar, Norses (Nerses) son of Ghulijan, Khosik-Husik, son of Rostom, Sargis son of Mukhtar, Mkrtich son of Velijan, son of Mkrtich, his brother Sargis, Murat son of Karapet, Martiros son of Avanes, Hovhannes son of Amiraziz, his brother Karapet, Khachik son of Hambardzum, Tornik son of Tzaruk, Khachatur son of Alexan, Margar, Papu son of Margar, etc.
Many Armenians also lived in the villages of Metz and Poqr Kartzakh of the same province: Nadar son of Shahnazar, Vardan, Grigor son of Suqias, Jhanshe son of Kirakos, son of Mkrtich, his brother Vardzel, Bayandur, Khachik son of Yarali, Son of Sahak, son of Anton, Ter-Hacob son of Jomerd, his son Shahaziz, Yaraziz son of Ter-Hacob, Sargis, Astvatzatur, Diarbek son of Sahak, his brother Astvatzatur, etc. It should be noted that, among the names listed above, the name Ter-Hacob is mentioned many times, while in Khospia, it is the name Ter-Bek—an occurrence that proves the presence of Armenian clergy along with churches and parishioners.
In subsequent eras, during the long and brutal Ottoman domination, the province in question was not immune to forced Islamization. The Islamic faith was adopted particularly by Armenians who had converted to the Chalcedonian creed. By the 17th and 18th centuries, these Islamized elements, along with Turkish newcomers, were known regionally as Meskhetians in Akhaltskha, Adige and, to a lesser degree, in Akhalqalaq. Thus, according to the Georgian author Vakhusht Bagration, in the mid-40’s of the 18th century, the core populations of the well-known hamlets in Akhalqalaq, Baralet, and Kokia were Meskhetian and Armenian. Although in comparison to the Christians the Mohamedans were few, the destructive realities of foreign occupation were leading to the disfigurement of the native ethnicity. In particular, Nadir Shah’s invasion in the mid 1730’s had dire consequences. Around 6,000 Armenian captives of northern Armenia were brought by force to Persia: “…and they enslaved the province of Nariman, Javakhetia, Chltur, and Ghayi Ghula, which were full of our co-nationals,” writes Abraham of Crete, “and they moved man and woman, old and young, and took them to Khorasan—6,000 in all, from what we hear.” Nevertheless, as a statement by Ghucas Injijian indicates, at the close of the 18th century, the province of Akhalqalaq continued to be a region inhabited mainly by Armenians. Just in Akhalqalaq City, there were 600 Armenian and Georgian households. Over the last decades of the 18th century, Georgian kings attempted to liberate the province of Akhalqalaq from the Turks. In 1772, Herakl II of Kskhet and Solomon of Imeritia laid siege to the fortress of Akhalqalaq, without any success. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Russian Empire’s involvement in Transcaucasia became progressively more active. In April 1807, Field Marshall Gudovich’s troops surrounded Akhalqalaq, but suffering enormous losses, retreated. On Sept. 5, 1810, in the vicinity of Akhalqalaq, the division under the command of General Paulucci overwhelmed the troops of Hussein Ghuli Khan of Erivan sent to assist the Turks, and on Dec. 8, 1811, Kotliarevski’s army group, crossing the snow-covered mountains of Treghq, staged a surprise attack on Javakhq and captured the Akhalqalaq citadel. However, by the terms of the 1812 Bucharest peace treaty, it was returned to Turkey.
On July 24, 1828, General Paskevich occupied Akhalqalaq in one swift assault, and on July 26, the fort of Khertvis (Khertez). On Sept. 2, 1829, based on the Treaty of Adrianopolis, the provinces of Akhalqalaq and Akhaltskha were turned over to Russia. The war had caused serious damage to the Armenian and Georgian villages; many of them were depopulated, with many emigrating. The Russian occupation gave the native population a chance to return and partly rebuild several hamlets, such as Hokam, Baralet, Kokia, Gondura, Abul, Diliska, Majadia, and Aragova. Already, at the end of the war in 1829, the region was inhabited by 1,716 Armenian, 639 Muslim, and 179 Georgian families.
At the end of 1829, with the efforts of Karapet Archbishop Bagratuni, 58,000 Armenians from Erzrum, Basen, and Khnus, and partly from the environs of Derjan, making use of the 13th Article of the Adrianopolis Treaty, settled in the provinces of Akhaltskha and Akhalqalaq. In Akhalqalaq province alone, the Erzrum Armenians, along with the natives, rebuilt or founded around 50 villages. In 1831, a few dozen Armenian families from Akhaltskha set the foundations of a widespread district in the half-ruined southern sector of Akhalqalaq. Thus, the number of native Javakhq Armenians was enhanced with Western Armenians who, actually more numerous than the Eastern Armenian-speaking natives (whom they called Yerli or Yerlagan) imposed their dialect, lifestyle, and traditions in the region. During the 1830’s, a small percentage of Western Armenians who had not found the comfortable living standards promised by the Russian authorities, returned to Western Armenia, while the majority, overcoming numerous difficulties, remained and developed the region. Soon, Akhaltskha and Akhalqalaq turned into overwhelmingly Armenian-populated provinces in Transcaucasia, since the majority of Meskhetians of the area, not wishing to live under Russian rule, emigrated to Turkey. By 1831, the number of Armenians in the Akhalqalaq province exceeded 30,000—of which, as noted above, 1,716 families (nearly 10,000-13,000 people) were native locals, some of them Catholics.
In 1840, the province of Akhalqalaq, constituting the main area of the Turkish sanjak, was incorporated into Georgeoimeritia and, in 1846, into the Tbilisi province. In 1860, it was made into a sub-sector of Akhaltskha and, in 1874, was given the status of a full-fledged province. That same year, Akhalqalaq received provincial status of the third level; in 1890, the rating of a second-level city; and in 1896, the regular autonomy of a metropolis.
Between 1841 and 1843, exiled members of the Russian Dukhobor sect established eight to nine villages in the southern sector of the region (the present region of Ninotzminda). Thus, Javakhq became multi-ethnic. In 1886, the province included 110 villages, grouped in 10 rural districts: Aragova (13), Baralet (23), Varevan (9), Vachian (11), Gorelovka (8), Diliska (9), Kartzakh (10), Satkha (8), Khertvis (11), Heshtia (8). All in all, approximately 63,800 people, of which 46,386 were Armenians (39,597 Apostolic, 7,236 Catholic), 6,674 Russians (6,597 Dukhobors), 3,735 Georgians, 6,824 Muslims, 53 Jews, 14 Yezdis, and 102 Greeks. From the provided data, it is clear that the overwhelming majority of the population (72.7 percent) were Armenians. The Muslims constituted 10.7 percent, the Russian Dukhobors 10.4 percent, and the Georgians 5.8 percent. The Armenians outnumbered the others not only in the villages but in the city of Akhalqalaq, as well; in 1893, 4,084 of a population of 4,303 were Armenian. At the close of the 19th century, in the same 110 villages and the city, there was a population of 63,799, of which 50,467 (or 79 percent of the entire population) were Armenian under Russian rule, the Akhalqalaq province marked great socio-economic and cultural progress, turning into a technological center, while the villages played an important role in providing grain to the Transcaucasus. At the start of the 1830’s, the Mesropian Boys’ School opened its doors with the efforts of Archbishop Karapet. In 1856, the Surb Khach (Holy Cross) church was renovated with the donations of benefactor Karapet Yaghubian. In 1870, the Sandkhtian Girls’ School, in the 1880’s, the Russian schools, and in 1889, the municipal gymnasium started their classes.
Towards the close of the 19th century, a liberation group was organized by J. Ter-Grigorian and P. Abelian. Thereupon, political activities were initiated by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF). Javakhq produced national figures, such as Hovhannes Qajaznuni, Hamo Ohanjanian, Vahan Terian, Ruben Ter-Minasian, Ruben Darbinian, and many others.
Part II: The Tragic Page of Javakhq’s History (1918-21)
As early as before World War I, the administrative division of Trans-Caucasia became a subject of serious discussion among many national and political circles—a matter of great importance to Armenian, Georgian, and Tatar (Azerbaijani) activists who explained the Czarist-implemented divisions by the failure of the latter’s consideration of national territorial factors. These studies were restarted after the February 1917 revolution. In the summer of 1917, the Georgian Mensheviks believed that the territorial division of Trans-Caucasia should be based on principles of ethnicity; that is, wherever a given ethnic group outnumbered the others, that area should be ceded to the administrative district assigned to that particular ethnic group. As such, plebiscites were considered necessary in matters of territorial disputes. This democratic stance was acceptable to other Georgian political parties as well. And the even-handed approach was approved by all Armenian political entities. In the event of implementation, this principle would make the attachment of the mostly Armenian-populated areas of the Tbilisi Province—Borchalu (including Lori), the districts of Akhalqalaq, and the southwestern area of Elizavetpol (Karabagh and Zangezur)—to the Erivan Province inevitable. Added to the former Erivan Province, these territories would constitute 54,000 sq. kilometers with a population of 1,970,000—of which the Armenians would number 1,169,000; Muslims 546,000; Georgians 7,000, etc.
From the spring of 1917, in Petrograd, a special commission for the administrative redistribution of Trans-Caucasia started its deliberations, presided by jurist Zurab Avalov. That commission passed a resolution to make Borchalu (four fifths of the land constituting Lori), as well as the Akhalqalaq District (then part of the Tbilisi Province) part of the proposed Alexandropol Province. Parallel to this, other deliberations were taking place with the participation of Alexander Khatisian and Avetis Shahkhatunian. Later, the latter published a work substantiating the advantages of a demographic approach to the administrative apportionment of Trans-Caucasia.
In September/October 1917, Georgian political figures, particularly the national democrats, stood in opposition to the separation of the Borchalu and Akhalqalaq regions from the Tbilisi Province. In essence, they identified the concept of the “Tbilisi Province” with that of Georgian national statehood. Thus, in the results of the 1917 revisions, the question of administrative divisions turned into a basic issue of national territorial boundaries.
In the post-October period of 1917, parallel to the Georgian political inclination to come out of the Russian orbit, the ethnicity approach was gradually forgotten. In the matter of Lori and Akhalqalaq, the unyielding Georgian intransigence prevailed.
In early 1918, the Armenians of Akhalqalaq attempted to resolve this problem on their own. On Jan. 21, the Regional Executive Committee of Akhalqalaq passed a resolution to administratively unite with the Province of Alexandropol. This step was an original way to express their desire to become part of Armenia.
Towards the end of 1917 and the beginning of 1918, encouraged by the retreat of Russian forces from Trans-Caucasia, the Turkish military command began activating plans for an invasion. With Turkish instigation and support, the Meskhetians (Muslims of Akhaltskha and Akhalqalaq) staged an attack on the city of Akhaltskha, whose Armenian and Georgian population showed a heroic resistance under the leadership of the city’s young and energetic mayor, Zori Zoryan.
At the close of 1917, the National Council of Akhalqalaq was formed, headed by the mayor, Mkrtich Margarian. The Council appointed a temporary committee in charge of the defense of the province that exerted some effort in containing the excesses committed by the activist elements of the Meskhetians. In both the Akhalqalaq and Akhaltskha provinces, Armenians and Georgians acted in concert, providing stirring examples of military cooperation. In the south-western sector of Akhalqalaq Province, the Georgians of the Gumburdo, Kartzakh, and Sulda villages joined the Armenians in the fight against the Turks of the Hokam, Khavet, and Erinja villages. However, in March/April 1918, after the attack of Vehib Pasha’s forces and particularly following the fall of the Kars Province, the situation of Akhalqalaq became critical. The Akhalqalaq authorities managed to save 1,500 Armenians of the regions of Ardahan and Olti—mostly women and children—by exchanging them for the Turkish villagers of Kokia, Toq, and other places.
The Armenian Council of Tbilisi tried to provide military assistance to Akhalqalaq. Colonel Arakelov was dispatched to the province, where the work of organizing a separate company of the Armenian Corps was begun. Unfortunately, unlike in Akhaltskha, the retreating Russian garrison of Akhalqalaq had taken with it most of the weaponry and ammunition, allowing the induction and arming of only 2,000 of the 5,000 available young volunteers. The Trans-Caucasian Seim made no real effort to protect Akhalqalaq against the Turkish invasion. The appeals to the Seim of famous Akhalqalaq intellectuals, such as the writer Derenik Demirdjian and social activist Poghos Abelian, to move the rich stores of grain out of the area before the arrival of the Turks fell on deaf ears.
On May 7, 1918, Turkish forces, advancing from Chder, entered the province of Akhalqalaq. A brief resistance was staged near Kartzakh—in the area of Mount Giok Dagh—by the small, ill-equipped detachments of locally recruited fighters. Col. Araqelov, instead of proceeding to the front, continued to “command” the operations of the defense forces from a distance of 25-30 kilometers from Akhalqalaq. Thanks to former personnel of the Russian Army—Ludvig Demirdjian, Khoren Mnoyan, Zarmair Khanoyan, and Poghos Abelian—recently arrived from Tbilisi, as well as fighting groups under the command of Russian officer Reznikov, fierce defensive battles were fought, which allowed time to organize the evacuation of the population from the province. The troops of the detachment under the command of the Georgian National Council abandoned their frontline positions without firing a shot.
The population of the northern villages of the province moved to Bakurian, while those in the south went to Tzalka, leaving most of their possessions behind. Only the Turkish-speaking Catholics and the Russian Dukhobors did not evacuate. Thus, by the end of May, the majority of the population of Akhalqalaq City and the inhabitants of 61 Armenian villages had to flee.
The invading Turkish troops and the local Meskhetians plundered the villages and massacred some of those who had remained behind. From the remainder of the captured population, they picked hundreds of able-bodied men and shipped them to Turkey as slave laborers, and exiled more than one-thousand elderly and women to the refugee camp in Bakurian. A terrible fate awaited the populations from the Khorenia and Takhcha villages, who had not been able to leave the area: Most of them were herded into barns and brutally murdered.
The Turkish invaders also carried out massacres in the villages of Metz Arakeal, Gumburdo, and Abul, as well as in Akhalqalaq City and elsewhere. These atrocities would have reached disastrous proportions if the population of certain locations had not resorted to arms to defend themselves. The invaders were met with stubborn resistance around the village of Satkha. General Arjevanidze, the commander of the Georgian troops stationed in the sector of Borzhom, not only denied military or material assistance to the Armenian refugees, but he proceeded to disarm the Armenian volunteers and, following orders from the Georgian National Council, prevented refugees from Akhalqalaq from settling in Baguria or any other part of Georgia. Only Georgians received permission to move to the Georgian interior.
It was during the massive deportations from Akhalqalaq that the three Trans-Caucasian republics came to being. With its May 28 Declaration, the Armenian National Council assumed supreme power as sole authority in the Armenian provinces. Naturally, the choice of the rather amorphous “Armenian provinces” terminology was not without reason. With such a formulation, the National Council, on the one hand, was trying to avert a conflict of boundaries with the Ottoman Turks and newly independent neighboring countries at a time of geopolitical turmoil; on the other hand, it was making a statement on Armenian rights to historic Armenian lands, albeit without geographic precision. Thus, Western Armenia, Karabagh, Javakhq, and other disputed territories remained within its scope.
Hardly one week later, however, on June 4, the Georgian Mensheviks, who had prepared their declaration of independence under German auspices with a peace treaty between Georgia and the Ottoman Empire signed in Batum, reserved the right to hand over mostly Armenian-populated provinces like Akhaltskha and Akhalqalaq to Turkey. One can presume that such a step was not necessarily taken from an inability to resist Turkish pressure. It pursued far-reaching purposes. First, it created the impression that newly independent Georgia, like Armenia, was making serious territorial concessions to a victorious Turkey. Secondly, with its first international treaty, it put on record its legal right to decide the fate of those provinces. In case of an ultimate Turkish defeat, Georgia would be able to reclaim its “legal” right to Akhaltskha and Akhalqalaq. And finally, a prospect that was most desirable, Turkish occupation could radically change Javakhq’s ethno-demographic picture by depriving it of its Armenian inhabitants. Future events came to substantiate these chauvinistic Georgian policies.
Focusing on the issue of boundaries between the newly constituted republics, the Georgian and Armenian National Councils began negotiations in the beginning of June. The president of the Georgian National Council, N. Zhordania, and Prime Minister N. Ramishvili proposed to A. Aharonian, H. Qajaznuni, and A. Khatisian of the Armenian National Council to follow the doctrine of demographics in the case of Borchalu. There was no talk of Akhalqalaq, since it was occupied by the Turks—although, as mentioned, the Georgians saw the solution of that issue in favor of Georgia. Soon after, I. Tzereteli announced to the members of the special commission appointed by the Armenian National Council (Kh. Kardjikian. G. Khatisian, and G. Ghorghanian), that, for strategic reasons, Georgia could not give up Akhalqalaq, Lori, and the Pambak region of the Alexandropol Province. The Georgian statesman tried to assure the Armenian commission, that this decision was also prompted by the interests of the Armenian populations of those specific regions, since in the German-sponsored Georgian Republic a safer status could be secured for the Armenians. Kh. Kardjikian protested against the Georgian decision to disregard the accepted demographic doctrine, qualifying this Menshevik approach as a process of dividing Armenia between Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. The Armeno-Georgian consultations on the issue of boundaries entered a cul-de-sac and restarted only in the autumn, when the Turks started to evacuate the occupied areas.
Simultaneously, the condition of the Akhalqalaq refugees continued to deteriorate. They had, in fact, encountered a unique sort of confinement. To the north, the Georgian troops had closed the road to shelter in Bakurian and Borzhom, while the Turks had interdicted the return road to the province.
In the beginning of July 1918, the Georgian government refused to grant the request of the Armenian National Council to allow the refugees access to central Georgia, or to settle down in the abandoned homes of Muslims who had fled from Borchalu. This inhuman stance was “explained” as a preventive measure against the possible spread of epidemics in Georgia. Yet from June to August, there was clearly no evidence of epidemics amongst the refugees; only in autumn did such outbreaks occur. Even with such an excuse, it is not possible to exonerate the Georgian government of its delinquency in taking care of the needs of its displaced citizens. It should be noted that, instead of performing their duty, the last detachments of General Arjevanidze abandoned the northern boundaries of the province of Akhalqalaq, allowing Turkish irregulars to harass the refugees with renewed attacks.
With the assistance of the Armenian National Council, the Javakhq natives of Tbilisi founded the “Akhalqalaq Compatriotic Society” with an executive body of 10 persons—amongst whom were noted national figures Poghos Abelian (secretary), B. Ohanjanian (president), Grigor Baboyan (vice-president), Hovhannes Malkhasian, Jalal Ter Grigorian, and Karapet Shahbaronian. With an appeal addressed to the Armenians of Tbilisi, the Society managed to collect the sums needed to help the refugees. A delegation of Akhalqalaq refugees, who had asked the Turkish command permission to return to their native lands, were met with immediate refusal. The Turks, without concealing their plans to have the Akhalqalaq Province returned to the Ottoman Empire, declared that the Armenian villages were now inhabited by Muslims from Turkey. The Young Turks—in their zeal to ethnically cleanse Akhalqalaq of its Armenian population and to annex the region to Turkey—on the matter of allowing the natives of the province to return to their homes, remained adamant in their refusal to heed the intercessions and requests of not only Armenian and other international humanitarian organizations, but those of General von Kress, the representative of their ally Germany, as well.
Thus, deprived of the right to seek refuge in any direction by the Georgian authorities and the Turkish command, the displaced Javakhq populations were condemned to perish.
In September and early October, in response to repeated protests and requests by the Armenian government and the Akhalqalaq Compatriots’ Society on the matter of permission to return to Akhalqalaq or to move to Georgia, Georgian government spokesman Kuzhukhov gave his answer, in writing, on Oct. 4, to the principal Armenian commission on refugees. Since there is a crisis of provisions in Georgia, he wrote, and the Turkish military command refuses to let the Akhalqalaq Armenians to return to their homes, the Georgian authorities are proposing to settle the refugees in the northern Caucasus or in the Armenian Republic.
A quick meeting was initiated by Samson Harutiunian, the chairman of the refugees’ commission and leader of the Armenian Populist Party, with the participation of members of the Georgian-Armenian National Assembly Presidium. Invited to represent the Akhalqalaq population, Poghos Abelian declared that he was informed by the chairman of the Turkish delegation, Abdul Kerim, that the Turks intended to evacuate Akhalqalaq and were not opposed to the return of Armenians to the province; moreover, Avetis Aharonian, the chairman of the Armenian Delegation to Constantinople, had reached an agreement with the Ottoman government.
Kuzhukhov was asked to submit the document of the Turkish refusal. No answer was received. It soon became clear that the Georgian authorities did not wish to allow the Armenians’ return and attempted to put the blame on the Turks. Thus, a contrived famine was promoted. The situation of the refugees turned acute; the cold season had started, along with rain and the decrease of fodder and cattle. The Georgian authorities allowed hundreds of bandits and speculators from Kutayisi, Coris, and Borzhom to buy at very low prices and—in many cases, with the help of the Georgian militia—to seize tens of thousands of cattle and farm animals. As a result of this purposely adopted policy, the Georgian government solved its problem of provisions for its population.
The entire burden of the refugee problem was left on the shoulders of the Armenian Refugee Commission, the Akhalqalaq Homeland Council, the Armenian Benevolent Society of the Caucasus, the U.S. Mission to Georgia and, a good part, on A. Jamalian, the representative of Armenia. In the name of the Armenian Republic, the National Council appointed Arshak Torosian in Bakuria and Ararat Ter Grigorian in Tzalka, as permanent representatives in these locations. In their turn, the refugees nominated Rev. Father Mesrop Selian as their spokesman. Yet, the number of the refugees was so great—80,000 to 85,000 people—that the efforts never achieved much success.
By December 1918, typhoid and cholera epidemics began decimating the refugee masses. In a “Mshak” news article of the time, written by Poghos Abelian, one could read the following: “The annihilation of the people of Akhalqalaq is making such swift headway, if timely and effective steps are not taken to save them, this generation of Akhalqalaqis will be the last one on earth.”
From June to November 1918, over 18,000 people lost their lives in the woods of Bakurian. Almost the same amount of victims could be counted among the Armenians who had sought refuge in the Tzalka and Manglis regions. By the next spring, the number of victims had reached 40,000.
By November 1918, overcoming the difficulties created by the Georgian military authorities, the remainder of the refugees managed to return to their ruined and ransacked homes via seldom used, secondary roads. To allow passage from Bakurian to Akhalqalaq, the Georgian military demanded affidavits from the Armenian refugees attesting to their willingness to accept Georgian citizenship and recognition of the province as an integral part of Georgia.
Small armed groups of refugees tried to bring law and order to Akhalqalaq after the retreat of the Turks. The region around lakes Madatapa, Parvana, and Saghamo, adjacent to Alexandropol, was put under military supervision.
However, on Nov. 29, the Georgian representative in Yerevan, S. Mdivani, declared that, according to his government, the boundary between Georgia and Armenia should be set on the southern limits of the former Tbilisi Province, making Lori and Akhalqalaq part of the Georgian state.
Hardly a week after this declaration, on Dec. 5, the Georgian forces that had already occupied Lori since November, pushed their way into Akhalqalaq under the command of Gen. Maghashvili. The local Armenian troops were disarmed, while the small unit sent from Armenia, in order to avoid a Georgian-Armenian armed confrontation, evacuated the area of the Ephremovka-Troyitskoye villages, which it had occupied upon the retreat of the Turks.
The Qajaznuni government, having been empowered by the Armenian Parliament to deal freely with this issue, protested more than once against the illegal occupation of Lori and Akhalqalaq. But the Georgians remained adamant. Thus, by mid-December the Georgian-Armenian war had started, a conflict caused mainly by Turkish designs: Before evacuating these disputed areas, they had told each one of the Georgian and Armenian governments, separately, that they were ceding the regions to them.
The Armenian troops led by Dro liberated most of Lori. On Dec. 11-12, a detachment of the Fourth Armenian Infantry Division moved from Alexandropol towards Akhalqalaq and after a clash with the Georgian troops, secured most of the Akhalqalaq Province. The Georgian forces retreated towards the north.
During this war, the Georgians staged a veritable manhunt of Armenians in Tbilisi. Thousands of Armenians were declared prisoners of war and shipped to Qutayis.
As the war progressed, the Entente powers sought to find ways to put an end to it. On Dec. 25, British and French high-ranking officers signed an agreement with N. Zhordania; it proposed a cease-fire, the positioning of Georgian troops in areas north of the Jalaloghli-Dsegh line, and the Armenians to hold the areas south of that line. A Georgian regime was to be imposed on Akhalqalaq under Allied supervision, with Armenian and Muslim representatives participating in the administration.
Designated to sign this agreement, Arshak Jamalian categorically refused to do so, objecting to the terms concerning Akhalqalaq. The British attached the following addendum to the document: “Mr. Jamalian does not agree with the point that stipulates Georgian occupation of Akhalqalaq.” In essence, the Allies, discounting the opinions of the Armenian side, tried to implement the proposed agreement.
A few days later, on Dec. 31, the Armeno-Georgian hostilities ceased with the intercession of the British. The Jan. 9-17, 1919 peace conference of Tbilisi decreed a status of neutrality for Lori, while the status of Akhalqalaq remained pending. In March, both republics recognized each other’s independence and railways were reopened for regular travel. The tension between Armenia and Georgia gradually abated.
By March 1919, the remaining groups of Akhalqalaq refugees regained their homeland. The province was thoroughly sacked and the stocks of grain were taken to Turkey. Only the Turkish-speaking villages of Armenian Catholics and Russian Dukhobors were left relatively unscathed. Both communities assisted the returning refugees to resettle and to restart their lives.
Already in June, the Armenian government had managed to share the grain received by rail with those facing starvation in Akhalqalaq. This relief operation was put on a state level. In Tbilisi, the Armenian Mission created a special commission under the leadership of D. Davitkhanian. In May alone, Armenia allotted 3 million rubles to the needy and 74 million rubles for the purchase of grain to stave off the threat of starvation.
In spite of the measures taken, the economy of Javakhq did not improve. The Georgian authorities imposed heavy duties not only on grain being exported to Armenia, but also on grain being shipped to Akhalqalaq, to be shared by both Armenian and Georgian refugees. The number of animal stock had dwindled sharply. Because of the freezing weather begun at the close of 1918, the Turks had not been able to take all of the animals and movable goods from the province. Poghos Abelian approached Makaev, the newly appointed governor general of Akhalqalaq, requesting that the remaining goods be turned over to the refugees. Makaev flatly refused the request. With regret, the Georgian-Armenian Council that, especially since the Armeno-Georgian war, had become quite ineffective, failed to support Abelian’s, and numerous other concerned activists’, efforts.
Makaev disarmed the Armenian population and, utilizing the Georgian militia brought from Imeretia and Tbilisi, established an oppressive regime, under which Georgians and Meskhet Turks retained their right to bear arms. Only Armenians “volunteers,” forcibly conscripted into the Georgian army to fight against rebellious Abkhazian and Ajarian regions, were given arms.
The policy of colonizing Javakhq with ethnic Georgians had started. By the end of 1920, a few hundred Imeretian families were relocated in Akhalqalaq under the supervision of the Georgian government. The local Georgian authorities confiscated from the Armenians large areas of grazing land in the north and east, and handed them to the newcomers. By various machinations, certain villages were left without tillable land. There was considerable misfeasance concerning the administration of lands belonging to the Akhaltskha’s Holy Savior Church in Kartzakh, Dadesh, Sulda, and other locations. The Georgian government did not hesitate to implement a policy of ethnic assimilation with a campaign of “Georgianizing” all Catholic Armenians.
Naturally, the chauvinistic policies implemented in Javakhq by the Menshevik government did not go unnoticed in Armenia. But in 1919, the Armenian government, for a variety of reasons, deemed it necessary to be satisfied by just sharing its grain with Akhalqalaq and delaying its boundary discussions with Georgia until a satisfactory agreement could be reached at the coming Paris Conference. Writing about this subject, Ruben Ter Minassian states: “Georgia’s intentions concerning Armenia were unjust, considering that she had seized a purely Armenian-populated region like Akhalqalaq from us, in spite of the fact that, both geographically and demographically, that province belongs to Armenia. Georgia was unjust also in coveting Lori… In spite of these disturbing facts, the Bureau was of the opinion that it was necessary to be patient and to yield to the Georgians to the limits of feasibility.” But Ruben and the other leaders of the Republic had to consider that the more the Armenian side showed willingness to be accommodating, the more the Georgian side became intractable on the issues of Akhalqalaq and Lori.
On Sept. 17, 1919, a new Armeno-Georgian conference convened in Tbilisi. Georgia was represented by N. Ramishvili and S. Mdivani; the Armenian representatives were S. Mamikonian and S. Khachatrian. Apprehensive over the possibility of renewed Armeno-Georgian confrontation following the British withdrawal from Lori, the Georgians proposed an approach of “mutual concessions” on the issue of boundaries, leaving to the Armenians the areas south of the village of Sqori and the plain of Lori (Jalaloghli-Vorontsovka), while Georgia would keep all lands north of that line, as well as the province of Akhalqalaq. They considered this “concession” temporary, until the granting of Western Armenian provinces to Armenia by the Paris Conference.
The Armenian delegation announced that it was authorized by its government to cede to Georgia the Khrami (Tzalka) area, and the northern and central regions of Akhalqalaq Province. The southern Javakhq lakes region, along with the villages of Heshtia, Satkha, Hokam, and Azmana, up to the River Kur, was to be attached to Armenia. Based on the Armenian plan, the boundary would extend to the north of Koghb, along Lalvar. Although either side was less than satisfied by the plans presented and no written agreement followed, because the Armenian side had shown a willingness to cede the major part of Akhalqalaq, Georgia agreed to grant Armenia transit rights, telegraphic communication, and other facilities. It is noteworthy that Georgia took “readiness to yield” as an actual concession and assumed freedom to make final dispositions in regards to Javakhq. “The Georgians took advantage of our weakness,” wrote Ruben, “and utilized their geographic advantage in a brutal fashion, to trample our people’s integrity and legitimate rights.”
The boundary discussions continued in Tbilisi. S. Mamikonian and S. Khachatrian remained there and, as they used to say in those days, continued to haggle over boundaries in “a fruitless bazaar”—a situation that left both Georgian and Armenian circles dissatisfied. Convinced, since 1919, that it was meaningless to continue asking the Georgians to make mutual concessions on the matter of boundaries, the Armenian side strived to put this issue on the Paris Conference agenda.
As one positive outcome of the negotiations, one can perhaps mention the Nov. 14, 1919 Armeno-Georgian agreement, according to which all present and future matters of contention between the parties would be resolved through political means or arbitration.
On May 7, 1920, a mutual recognition agreement was signed between Russia and Georgia. With this agreement, Russia recognized Georgia’s claims on Lori, Akhalqalaq, and Zaqatala. In that connection, Prime Minister Hamo Ohanjanian sent telegrams of protest to the governments of the Soviet Russian Federation and Georgia, stating that by considering Lori and Akhalqalaq their own, the Georgian authorities were countermanding the 1919 Armeno-Georgian agreement to consider the ownership of these territories undecided.
The 1920 law on Armenian citizenship, which in essence guaranteed citizenship rights to Armenians residing abroad, displeased the Georgians and prompted them to take demagogic positions during the Armeno-Georgian discussions taking place over the months of July and August. They were opposed to the granting of Armenian citizenship to the Armenians of Georgia; they argued that, in that case, they should be moved to Armenia. At these same meetings, the Georgian delegation demanded from the Armenians the entire Akhalqalaq Province, along with the lakes region, Lori, up to the Sanahin station, and a major portion of the provinces of Ardahan and Olti. The Armenian side rejected these demands.
Faced with an impasse, the Armenian and Georgian sides asked the Entente powers to help resolve the dispute. It was no accident that a special clause was introduced into the Aug. 10, 1920 Sevres Treaty, stipulating that the question of boundaries between the Trans-Caucasian countries be resolved by a commission formed of representatives of the interested parties and, in the case of failure to reach an agreement, that it be left to the adjudication of the Allied powers.
In the autumn of 1920, during the days of the Armeno-Turkish war, the Armenian government, aware of the secret ties between the Turks and the Georgians, found itself compelled to make concessions to Georgia on the matter of boundaries. On Nov. 13, the Georgians sent troops to the neutral zone of Lori and to Ardahan.
Towards the end of February and the beginning of March 1921, the province of Akhalqalaq was subjected to a new attack by the Kemalist Turks. Invading Javakhq (considered Georgian territory at the time), the Turks acted against the secret Turkish-Georgian agreement not to move into Georgian territory. There are grounds to believe that, just before the fall of independent Georgia’s government, for political reasons, permission was given to the Turks to enter the province of Akhalqalaq after disarming, once more, the Armenian population.
The troops of Ghumantar Pasha and the Turkish mob, along with Jamal Agha and Molla Bairam of the Turkish-populated village of Hokam, moved towards the province’s southern villages of Kartzakh, Sulda, Dadesh, and Gumbordo. Many inhabitants of Gumbordo, amongst them women, fell in an unequal battle, and the Turks took hundreds of men as prisoners, killing some of them at the Kuri gorge, and drowning the rest in wells. There were also massacres at other villages. This time, the population of the province did not migrate. The Turks encountered a stiff resistance at the approaches of Alastan, Molit, Tabatzghuri, and other villages.
As a result of the Turkish aggressions of 1918 and 1921, the Akhalqalaq region lost 42-45 percent of its Armenian population through armed conflict, famine, and epidemics. Thus, while the city of Akhalqalaq had a population of 5,070 in 1917, it had only 2,737 in 1922.
In the second half of March 1921, the troops of the 11th Red Army entered Akhalqalaq. While the Red Army entered Lori from Armenia, it entered Akhalqalaq from Georgia, via the Borzhom-Akhaltskha railroad—a fact that would later play an important role, in the adjudication process of its ownership.
After the retreat of the Turkish forces, the petitions of the Javakhq population to the RevComs of Soviet Armenia and Georgia, the leadership of the Red Army, as well as other pertinent courts, to attach the province to Soviet Armenia or Russia became more frequent. In one of them, written on April 23, representatives of the Sulda, Mragoval, Dadesh, Vachian, and Karzakh villages told the Armenian representative in Georgia: “We request that our province, where of the 80,000 inhabitants more than 60,000 are Armenian…be attached to the Republic of Armenia… If our homeland does not become part of Armenia, which would protect us against massacres…oppression, furthermore, if our homeland does not become part of Soviet Russia, and the Turkish scimitar is not removed from above our heads, we can no longer stay in our fatherland which, over the last years, has turned into hell, and we will be forced to migrate to the hinterlands of Russia….”
From spring 1921, the problem of many disputed territories between the Trans-Caucasian republics, including those of the Akhalqalaq and its adjacent Khram (Tzalka) regions, were discussed by the newly created Soviet republics of Trans-Caucasia. A special commission created on May 1921 by the Caucasian Bureau of the Communist Party of Russia had its very first meeting in June 25-27 in Tbilisi under the chairmanship of S. Kirov. Georgia was represented by two, Azerbaijan by three, and Armenia by one (A. Bekzadian) commission member. At the very first meeting, Bekzadian, mentioning the unjust territorial adjudications imposed by the Czarist regime, and the dire straits Soviet Armenia found itself in, asked the commission members to concede the mainly Armenian-populated (72 percent) province of Akhalqalaq, Lori, and Nogorno Karabagh (94 percent) to Armenia. But, he remained a minority faced with the Georgian and Azeri representatives, who also enjoyed the support of Kirov, arguing that such territorial changes would encourage anti-revolutionary activity in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Bekzadian’s proposal was rejected. The latter demanded that the final decision be left to the Central Committee’s Caucasian Bureau.
The leadership of Armenia asked specialists and people of knowledge in the matter to prepare documentation on the disputed territories. With the recommendation of Armenia’s foreign minister, A. Mravian, in July 1921, Poghos Abelian presented a detailed document on Akhalqalaq, containing the historical, geographic, demographic, and economic foundations for the valid Armenian claims on that province. “The Armenians of Javakhq,” wrote Abelian in his report, “consider the Menshevik government worse than Turkey. They are so apprehensive, that they will not accede to any Georgian rule… This is the truth. The inhabitant of Akhalqalaq wants the region to be Russian, forever immune to Turkish aggression; short of that, he wants his fate tied to that of Armenia and, at this time, he wants to join Soviet Armenia.” Abelian ruled out any form of autonomy. As a last resort, he was ready to consider an autonomous Javakhq—along with Tzalka—under Armenian supervision.
On July 7, 1921, the plenary meeting of the Caucasian Bureau, with the participation of J. Stalin, examined the matter of the disputed Lori and Akhalqalaq provinces claimed by both Armenia and Georgia. With six votes for and one undecided, it was decided to attach the neutral zone of Lori to Armenia, and to refer the matter of ceding the regions of Akhalqalaq and Khram (Tzalka) to Armenia to the Central Committee of the Georgian Communist Party, and to submit the latter’s decision to the scrutiny and evaluation of the Caucasian Bureau’s plenary meeting. It is not hard to guess that, left to the whims of the Georgian Bolsheviks, the Armenian claims would be rejected. And sure enough, on July 16, the Politbureau of the Georgian Communist Party CC considered the claim unacceptable, basing its decision on concocted economic “ties” with the regions and other “political considerations.” By a strange “coincidence,” with similar “arguments” in its July 5 plenary meeting, the Caucasian Bureau decided to detach another
Armenian region, Nagorno-Karabagh, from Armenia and attach it to Azerbaijan. In July 1921, a Georgian-Azeri concord was quite obvious. Thus, the historically Armenian Javakhq was given to Georgia.
During 1918-21, the matter of Javakhq’s reunification with the mother country remained unresolved for the following fundamental reasons: The Republic of Armenia, considering the acquisition of Western Armenia paramount, did not demonstrate the necessary zeal in the matter of Georgian- and Azeri-occupied Armenian territories. Because of the 1918 and 1921 Turkish incursions, nearly half (40,000 Armenians) of the population was killed, while the province was near total economic collapse—conditions that prevented the Armenian population from effectively pursuing the cause of reunification with Armenia.
Informed of the decisions of the Caucasian Bureau and the Georgian Communist Party, the Armenians of Javakhq in July 1921 sent several letters of protest to Moscow, Tbilisi, and Yerevan. The Georgian RevCom seemed bent on exacerbating the problem. Arustamov, a well-known Bolshevik and Red Army member, enjoying the respect and trust of the Akhalqalaq population, was summarily dismissed from the chairmanship of the RevCom. All the petitions of the people remained unheeded, and Comrade Arustamov had to leave Akhalqalaq in the midst of popular demonstrations of sympathy and support. Soon after, a man intensely disliked by the people, S. Nadiradze, a leader of special punitive units of the former Menshevik regime, was appointed military commander of the province. When, under popular pressure, the RevCom dismissed him from his post, the Georgian Bolsheviks of Tbilisi returned him to Akhalqalaq, with wider prerogatives and authority. Renewed protests by the people were followed by the arrival of a special commission. By the commission’s orders, several people were arrested, including Mnoyan, a well-known Armenian Bolshevik member of the RevCom. They were taken to Tbilisi and handed over to the Cheka (Extraordinary Commission). A month later, a new special commission arrived in Akhalqalaq and, on charges of “chauvinistic” activities, arrested longtime Bolshevik activist Karapet Ghazanjian, one of the founders of the Akhalqalaq RevCom. (Having been a commander of one of the companies of the 11th Red Army, Ghazanjian had distinguished himself in February 1921 during the battles waged against Georgian Menshevik forces for the liberation of Lori.)
Along with the liquidation of Armenian Communist cadres, between April and July 1921, the confiscation of Armenian peasants’ possessions was completed. The local Turkish population, which had taken part in the robbery and murder of the Armenians, amassing a fortune at the Armenians’ expense during the two Turkish incursions, was now being catered to in all possible ways.
Thus, the Armenians of Akhalqalaq, oppressed and abused under Georgian rule, whose casualties numbered in the tens of thousands during the two Turkish invasions, found themselves—in the spring and summer of 1921—left to the tender mercies of chauvinistic and predatory Georgian Bolsheviks. It is not by accident that representatives of certain villages (particularly Catholic ones) were in those days assisting their fellow villagers to migrate to Russia. Many villagers had already left on their own. The government of Soviet Georgia, apprehensive of an eventual depopulation of the region, forbade the exodus of the Armenians by special decree.
It is also significant that in many letters addressed to the Soviet Armenian authorities—petitions that one cannot read without empathy and emotion—the Armenians of Akhalqalaq described the local nightmarish conditions and expressed the conviction that the only solution to the predicament was the reunification of the region with Soviet Armenia. “…in order to lift the blockade on Javakhetia,” read one letter, “…to put an end to the visits of special commissars, to stop all kinds of juvenile eccentricities and institutionalized pilfering, there is only one way, a solution that is the profound wish of the Armenians of the province, constituting 75 percent of the entire population, which is to return the province to its ethnic Soviet Republic.”
Even after the July 7 Caucasian Bureau and July 16 Georgian CC decisions, certain Armenian Bolsheviks representing the national wing took various steps to rectify the foreign subordination problem of both Javakhq and Nagorno-Karabagh. ArmRevCom chairman, A. Miasnikian, visited the province of Akhalqalaq to defuse the rising popular unrest, stem the exodus of the population, and seek ways to solve the problem. With his initiation, in 1922, a group of field workers prepared a proposal to set up an autonomous Armenian area within the Georgian state that would include the province of Akhalqalaq and the Armenian-inhabited areas of Borchalu. But the Georgian ruling circles and certain intellectuals, particularly the historian I. Javakhashvili, rejected the concept, regarding it as a step to dismember Georgia. In 1923, the proposal was officially killed.
Outnumbered and outmaneuvered by the Georgian and Azeri Bolsheviks, who also enjoyed the backing of the Center, the weakened Armenian leadership finally gave in. By means of oppressive measures, the Soviet regime succeeded in silencing the Armenians of Javakhq by demolishing their dream to see their homeland returned to its legitimate owners, as an integral part of Armenia.
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A new administrative region was formed from large areas of the Akhalqalaq province using the same name. Of the northern villages, Tabatzghuri, Molit, and Chkharola were attached to the Borzhomi region, while Damalan was integrated into the more recently formed region of Aspindza. In 1930, the southeastern sector of Akhalqalaq was detached and reconstituted as the region of Bogdanovka (later renamed Ninotzminda).
During the years of the Soviet regime, as a result of the prevailing difficult socio-political conditions, the population’s exodus from Javakhq became an endemic demographic phenomenon. In that context, it was not by chance that during World War II, more than other Armenian-populated regions, Akhalqalaq had an extensive loss of inhabitants. Of the 12,684 wartime recruits, Akhalqalaq suffered 7,788 (61.4 percent) casualties, partly missing in action. The Meskhet Turks were also victims of “ethnic cleansing” after Stalin, in the summer of 1944, accused them of treason; they were gathered from Akhaltskha, Adigeni, Aspindza, and other areas of Akhalqalaq and deported to Central Asia. Local Armenians were not allowed to inhabit the vacated villages; instead, large numbers of Georgians were moved in from Imeretia by the government and given title to the properties left behind by the Meskhetians. As a result of these government-sponsored demographic redistributions, a Georgian-inhabited entity called Aspindza emerged between the Armenian inhabited regions of Akhaltskha and Akhalqalaq. At the same time, between 1946 and 1949, Armenians from various regions of the Georgian SSR—including Javakhq—were deported to the Alta region and to Siberia.
From 1950-70, the migration of the Armenians to the Armenian SSR, north Caucasus, and other republics of the USSR, caused by economic and political factors, accelerated noticeably. That is why regions with high reproductive rates like Akhalqalaq and Bogdanovka (constituting the historic Upper Javakhq Province) in 1989 showed the same number of inhabitants (105,000) as in 1917.
In the aftermath of the 1989 earthquake in Ajaria, the Georgian government wasted no time in relocating the homeless and others affected by the disaster to the Akhalqalaq villages of Kotelia, Hokam, Gogashen Chunchkha, and others, building for them two-story homes in the villages of the Russian Dukhobors. Throughout the seven decades of Soviet rule, Akhalqalaq and Bogdanovka had never seen residential construction on such a large scale. However, even this periodic attempt to change the demographic picture proved ineffective. The harsh climate of the region forced most of them to return home.
Today, historic Javakhq, with its two regions, its Armenian populated 100 villages and a population of more than 100,000 (95 percent Armenian), constitutes the most homogenous Armenian territory outside the borders of the Armenian Republic that continues to exist as a living entity of Armenian language, culture, and customs.
Photo by Samuel Karapetyan. the famous medieval Armenian fortress Tmkaberd in Javakhk.
