Lulling Georgian patriots, some Armenian activists have recently justified anti-Georgian actions of their compatriots by saying that "there are different Armenians". They say that Armenian extremists in Abkhazia, who formed a battalion named after Baghramyan and who killed and expelled the Georgian population, are "other" Armenians, who have nothing to do with Armenians of Tbilisi and Samtskhe-Javakheti. Whereas "Javakhi Armenians" (meaning extremists) are big "friends of Georgia" despite their obvious separatist and anti-Georgian sentiments. The same as other separatists - "Artsakh Armenians" whom they say Georgians should help and "protect from genocide".

However, the facts testify to something else - the policy of Armenian nationalists in different parts of not only Georgia but around the world is fully coordinated and coordinated from the same centres. And their main goal is to "cleanse" the territories which appeal to Armenian nationalists from people of non-Armenian origin.

In relation to the Georgian territories, the Armenian extremists of Abkhazia and Samtskhe-Javakheti initially acted in complete concert. Moreover, it was the Armenian nationalists in Abkhazia who first established illegal armed groups in order to prevent a "reduction of the Armenian share" in Samtskhe-Javakheti through the return of the indigenous population, including Georgian Muslims, to their homeland. This is evidenced by the recently published memoirs of Valeria Oliounina, a well-known Russian pro-Armenian journalist and writer. She published her autobiographical story on the Proza.ru website dedicated specifically to Abkhazian Armenians and their involvement in the war against Georgia "The third bullet. Episode of the Georgian-Abkhazian War" (https://proza.ru/2023/05/16/1140 ).  There is a very interesting episode there:

"...In Abkhazia, there were two large and equally influential communities that did not quite get on with each other, to put it mildly. The "Krunk" in Sukhumi, led by Vladislav Ardzinba's associate Albert Topolyan, was an authoritarian politicised structure. While Gagra's "Mashtots", under the leadership of Arsen Chakryan was more democratic, independent. Albert Topolyan was continually trying to bring the Gagrinians under his "Krunk". This was the case both before and during the war. Despite the fact that the battalion was created through the efforts of Albert Topolyan, the influence of the "Mashtots" functionaries in it was very strong. In fact, the battalion became an armed force of the Gagra district community. Mashtots activists had tried out their forces a couple of years before the war, of course, under tragic circumstances as well. There was a well-known episode in the history of the USSR, when Meskhetian Turks were returning to Georgia from exile. They were going through Krasnodar Krai and Abkhazia. And on the border with Abkhazia they were met by armed Armenians of "Mashtots". The Turks did not even get into Georgia at that time, despite the arrival of units of the USSR Interior Ministry's Internal Troops...".

This passage fully exposes, first of all, the lie of Armenian nationalists that supposedly Abkhazian Armenian terrorist groups at first "did not even think" of participating in the separatist war, but then they, allegedly "forced", became involved in it exclusively because of "atrocities" committed against Armenians by the Georgian army and armed formations. In reality, the Armenian nationalists established their illegal armed formations in Abkhazia and Georgia long before the separatist war. And they even "competed" with each other to dominate these illegal paramilitary groups in the region.

The Armenian armed formations "Krunk" (in fact, a branch of the separatist Karabakh "Krunk") and "Mashtots" in Abkhazia were armed even before the Abkhazian separatists started arming themselves. And the Abkhazians who were fooled by separatism started arming themselves under the influence of and according to Armenian plans of fomenting of the separatist conflict, by analogy with the Artsakh conflict.

Furthermore, it should be taken into account that the Meskhetians themselves are an ethnic group of mixed, Georgian-Turkic origin. Many Meskhetians are aware of their Georgian roots, consider themselves Georgian Muslims and do not differ in any way from other Georgian Muslims - Adjarians. It was these Meskhetians (conscious of their Georgian origin) who primarily wanted to return to Georgia after the tragic events in Fergana.

The Georgian authorities at the time, despite the hysterical cries of Armenian nationalists about the "Turkish threat", were welcoming and helping them to settle down in their native land, which the returnees considered an integral part of United Georgia (unlike the Armenian nationalists, who consider Samtskhe-Javakheti an "original Armenian "javakhk").

However, as we can see, the Abkhaz Armenian extremists, in violation of all laws, including those of the then-existing USSR, created their own illegal armed formations. These armed formations began to dispose of the land that was foreign to them, where they themselves had recently settled, as to who should live here and who should not. And they did not let native Georgians, Georgian Muslims, to their native land. At that time this was already done "by order" of the Armenian "Javakhk" separatists to ensure that Georgians in Samtskhe-Javakheti were numerically inferior to Armenians. The same Armenian nationalists then carried out ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia.

Obviously, it is not the business of Armenian nationalists to decide who should live on Georgian soil and who should not! In the case of the Meskhetian Turks this issue can only concern the Georgian and Turkish peoples. In the case of Javakheti, what right do Armenian nationalists have to dispose of someone else's land when they themselves settled on that land during the Russian Empire, and in the case of Javakheti - where Muslim Georgians, expelled by Russian colonisers to Turkey, used to live?

The above excerpt from Valeria Oliounina's story also shows that even back then, the USSR authorities were already patronising Armenian nationalists. And instead of disarming the illegal armed extremist formations violating the rights of Soviet citizens to move freely within the USSR, they did not even allow units of the USSR Interior Ministry troops to disarm the arrogant Armenian nationalists.

All this shows that at that time, the Armenian "Javakhk" and "Artsakh" separatists and Armenian nationalists in Abkhazia were already acting in concert and preparing ethical cleansing in the Georgian Samtskhe-Javakheti. The same as they then did in Karabakh and Abkhazia. During the genocide in Khojaly Meskhetian Turks, who were sheltered on their land by Azerbaijan, were also killed. Among them were probably those Georgian Muslims who wanted to return to their ancestral homeland in Samtskhe-Javakheti through Abkhazia, but who were prevented from doing so by Armenian extremist formations.

The fact that the Georgians of Samtskhe-Javakheti were 'lucky' not to be subjected to ethnic cleansing like the Georgians of Abkhazia was only due to the resistance of Azerbaijan, which in the early 1990s repelled the Armenian aggression in Karabakh. The first Karabakh war constrained the considerable forces of the aggressors and did not allow the forces of Armenia and Russia, which aided them in fomenting separatism, to switch quickly to the occupation of Samtskhe-Javakheti according to the Karabakh scenario. 

But with the help of the same Russia, Armenian nationalists have succeeded in seizing another Georgian territory - Abkhazia. Here, after the ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population and due to the extinction of these Abkhaz under separatist rule, they have become the largest ethnic group, which is now rapidly increasing thanks to an influx of illegal migrants from Armenia and Karabakh. This has led to the emergence of the contours of "Maritime Armenia".

Alexandre Zakhariadze