Opening statement by the editorial board of Caucasus Plus

We are not able to present the whole history of Armenian-Georgian relations on this site. However, we will try to discuss an episode of these relations from the period of the Armenian-Georgian War of December 1918 from the very interesting monograph "Armenian-Georgian War" written by reserve colonel, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Archil Chachkhiyani.

We believe that this war has not been thoroughly studied, not properly studied with all its very sad consequences, which not only created another dark spot in the history of relations between Georgia and Armenia, but also played a very complicated role in the relations between these two countries, as well as in the whole issue of demarcation and demilitarisation of the borders of Georgia. As a result of this war, the political, territorial, military-political, diplomatic, economic and administrative order of the entire South Caucasus was severely damaged.

Today, many Georgians do not even know about this war. Among them, not only young people, but even middle-aged people do not know that there was a bloody war between Armenia and Georgia at the beginning of the last century.

Later, in 1920-1921, the outcome of this war played an important role in the process of territorial redistribution of the ancestral lands that historically belonged to Georgia and the subsequent fate of its state structure. It also influenced the fate of the newly formed country of Armenia, which appeared for the first time in the Caucasus.

Keeping silent about the already deliberately hushed up catastrophes does no good to the Georgians and, surprisingly, first and foremost to the Armenian people themselves.

Materials, facts, links, clippings for the series of articles to be published under the title "Archil Chachkhiani "Armenian-Georgian War - 1918"" are taken from the monograph by Archil Chachkhiani :

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At the beginning of the 20th century, a certain part of the Armenian people was under the strong ideological influence of the developed countries of 19th century Europe, especially Great Britain, towards the Middle East. At the same time, these processes were accompanied by the spread of a new revolutionary ideology - Marxism. The fatal combination of these two factors, starting from the 80s of the 19th century, involved Armenia and the Armenian people in fatal political games, which ended with the heaviest consequences for the Armenians.

At the end of 1918, the nationalist-expansionist policy of the Armenian Dashnaks turned into the Armenian-Georgian war.  All responsibility for the outbreak of the Armenian-Georgian war must be borne by the Dashnaks and the Dashnak government of Armenia.

The pseudo-socialist character of the Revolutionary Federation of Armenians - Dashnak Socialist Party ("Dashnaktsutyun"), as well as its extremely reactionary, chauvinist and nationalist programme, practically manifested and expressed itself in robberies by Armenian armed gangs and combat units of the Dashnaks, in the plundering of the peaceful Muslim (and not only) population of Eastern Anatolia and Transcaucasia, in raids and massacres. Such completely unjustified barbaric actions took place en masse on the territory of 6 eastern vilayets of the Ottoman Empire. This in turn, if not completely, at least partially, removes the so-called world famous issue of the so-called "Armenian Genocide" from the agenda.

Also interesting was the opinion of Hovhannes Kachaznuni, the first Prime Minister of the First Republic of Armenia, a Dashnak, about Armenia-Georgia: "We were at war with a neighbour with whom we should have had the closest relations. We communicated with the outside world through Georgia. Our sincere desire was to establish friendly relations with the Georgians, but we were unable to do so. In addition to the position of the Georgian government, our weakness and political immaturity played a role in this".

However, leaders of nationalist-separatist Armenian organisations still refer to Georgia's historic Samtskhe-Javakheti region as "Javakhk". They see it as an integral part of 'Greater Armenia'.

For our research, we used the documents available to us in the archives of the Hoover Institution for War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University, the archives of Harvard University, as well as selected documents in the archives of the British Ministry of War, memoirs and writings of political and military figures of the First Republic of Georgia who either participated directly in this war or had close contact with the issue.

We unequivocally state that the Armenian-Georgian war of 1918-1919 was a very serious military-political confrontation for both states and, frankly speaking, it was a full-scale war with all its constituent combat components and political aspects.

Because of this war, the cold, unfriendly and tense relations between the first republics of Georgia and Armenia played a decisive role in the subsequent state-political organisation of these Transcaucasian republics and, in general, in the state-political organisation of the entire region and the subsequent redivision of the territories that historically belonged to them.

At that time, militant Armenian terrorist groups systematically and systematically destroyed the Turkish, Azerbaijani and Kurdish populations of Turkey and the Caucasus. As a result, Russian archives contain a large number of records of court hearings in which a large number of Armenian bandits were tried, many of whom were sentenced to death.

But in the war between the Georgian and Armenian nations, in that terrible feud, the German and then Anglo-American interventionists actively participated, together with the nationalist parties, who needed to isolate the peoples of Transcaucasia and wage fratricidal wars to strengthen their domination.

... In the demands of the Armenian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, in their claims against Turkey, they asked the Paris Conference for the return of the churches-monasteries and adjacent territories. This was repeated in the same way in relation to Georgia. To this day, they are still demanding more than 400 church monasteries with their adjacent territories and ancient cemeteries from Georgia.

 "The Armenians are a hard-working, creative people and producers, but they live in a fatally inert atmosphere. Armenians are true Aryan Christians, but they are drowning in a Tatar-Muslim sea. The Armenian, a core European, lives among the most backward peoples of the East, i.e. the Turks and the Tatars, and this is perhaps the most tragic phenomenon for the Armenian people. - argued the Armenian delegation.

A secret "Armenian Red Book" was also presented at the Paris conference, the contents of which were unknown, as the book contained nothing but denunciations and slanders such as the following: "We are the only bearers of European culture in Transcaucasia and we are being oppressed by the Georgians, Turks and Tatars", "They are preventing us from fulfilling the entire "Great Historical Mission" of the enlighteners of Asia Minor and Transcaucasia".

In early 1918, the following accusations were made against the Georgians:

1. Georgia's "betrayal" of the Armenians during the "Ottoman armed aggression";

2. The "inhuman attitude" of the Georgian government towards Armenian refugees expelled from the Ottoman Empire;

 3. Georgia's economic and communications blockade of the Ararat Republic of Armenia;

And most importantly:

4. The fact of the occupation of the "ancestral Armenian lands" by military units and units of the armed forces of the Democratic Republic of Georgia until 1918. Armenians still believe that Eastern Georgia was part of "Greater Armenia" in ancient times.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the contours of where, how and by what means Armenian nationalists were going to create their new state "Great Armenia", something similar to a mono-ethnic Armenian community, were already clearly outlined. In the process of creating the Armenian state, the main strategic line of the Armenian ultra-nationalist ideology can be seen - the natural and violent "invasion" of the Transcaucasian and Anatolian lands, i.e. the deportation and liquidation of the peoples living there. Once an artificial ethnic majority had been established, the plan was to cut off the territories of these peoples and merge them with their own.

Since the end of the 19th century, the Armenians' sense of national exclusivity and self-centred aspirations have been the basis of their expansionist views and extremely aggressive foreign policy towards neighbouring countries and the peoples living there.

... There is no single, established and organised opinion on the historical origin and racial affiliation of the Armenian ethnos.

The Russian-Soviet historian and linguist, Doctor of Historical Sciences Igor Diakonov, does not share the hypothesis of the French historian François Lenorman about the Phrygian origin of the proto-Armenians. However, as far as the ethnogenesis of the Armenians is concerned, he starts from the positions of comparative linguistics. He states unequivocally that "the formation of the Armenian ethnos took place outside the Caucasus" ....

Archil Chachkhiani "Armenian-Georgian War" - Part 1.

To be continued...