PanARMENIAN.Net
The Armenian Community of Tbilisi and particularly of Javakh becomes
the subject of mere political speculation
One should not be concerned about pulling down the houses in Havlabar,
but about destruction of Khodjivank and constructions of Georgian
Orthodox temples in the Armenian cemetery sites.
20.09.2007 GMT+04:00
For some reason, when the Armenians start to stand up for their
compatriots abroad, talks about `the Armenians, living comfortably on
the territory of a given state wanting to join Armenia’ immediately
get heated. This completely unreasonable statement has been first put
forward by the Azerbaijani, for who the one word `Armenian’ is similar
to a curse.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ It has been written more than once that Armenia has
no territorial claims on Georgia. However the Armenian Community of
Tbilisi and particularly of Javakh is turned to a subject of mere
political speculation by those who are obviously interested in
deterioration of the Armenian-Georgian relations and who most probably
are from Baku or Ankara. On the site of Day.az an announcement is
disseminated by `the Union of Compatriots of Georgia’ (UCG), who
`unleash a war against the Armenian occupants of
Samtskhe-Javakheti’. The statement signed by the UCG chair says,
`Starting from this day (September 18) the UCG, where about 2500
Georgian patriots are voluntarily involved, unleashes a war against
the Armenian separatists’. There are two important factors to be paid
attention to. Firstly, for some reason the statement is published only
in an Azeri site, and secondly; the style and the vocabulary of the
given announcement reminds `the revelations’ of Azeri political
scientists.
According to the representative of Georgian Eparchy of the Armenian
Apostolic Church (AAC) Levon Isakhanyan, the announcement is `mere
nonsense’. `Even if it happened, the Georgian security service would
immediately suppress such movements. Besides, it is simply funny to
think that 2500 people can do anything against almost about 100.000
population of Javakh. But the most interesting thing is that the given
announcement is disseminated by Azerbaijani information portal,
Georgia doesn’t even know anything about this,’ said Isakhanyan.
Another problem is the reconstruction of the historical region of the
center of Tbilisi, the Armenian district of Havlabar. Armenians living
in Havlabar say, that the government of Georgia has decided to raze
the historical Armenian district of Tbilisi to the ground. According
to the inhabitants, an expensive district is going to be built
here. The government warned the local Armenians whose families had
been living in Havlabar for decades, that about $906 for each square
meter will be paid to them and that they will be resettled in the
uptown of Tbilisi. In case they refuse to obey the decision the
inhabitants of Havlabar will not get a penny and will be resettled by
force. Earlier it had been said that in the place of old houses new
residence of President of Georgia would be built. The truth is though,
it was announced in Tbilisi City Hall that there were no programs on
building a new elite district in the place of Havlabar. We cannot
confirm any of these statements, but it is quite obvious that there is
some kind of political motives underlying all this. The problem with
Havlabar is that it is a historical district which needs to be
reconstructed. After a significant part of the historical Tbilisi,
i.e. Vake, Saburtalo, Sololaki, was reconstructed the time for
Havlabar to undergo reconstruction works had come. According to the
historian and political scientist Sergey Minasyan, it is a historical
district, which has always been populated by poor Armenian people and
consequently the houses there are also poor and in bad condition,
something which cannot be said about other regions of Tbilisi
populated by the Armenian people. In fact, Havlabar is the front of
Tbilisi, but it is too uninviting for being that. The historian Samvel
Karapetyan, who is engaged with the issue of the Armenian monuments
abroad, thinks that the government’s decision to reconstruct Havlabar
is quite natural. `One should not be concerned about pulling down the
houses in Havlabar, but about destruction of Khodjivank and
constructions of Georgian Orthodox temples in the Armenian cemetery
sites,’ he says.
Meanwhile, the Armenian linguist Raffi Dikranian from Canada, having
visited Tbilisi on September 6 or 7, visited the Armenian district of
Havlabar and was shocked by the fact that in the place of old Armenian
cemetery situated between the recently built Orthodox Church of Holy
Trinity and the Armenian `Pantheon of the Great’ a huge trench was dug
intended for Georgian theological seminary. Raffi Dikranian called
upon all the interested parties to inform UNESCO about the destruction
of the Armenian cemetery, as well as to turn to the Georgian President
and demand to treat the Armenians of Tbilisi with respect, to organize
the reburials of the remains the way it is done in the civilized world
and allow the Armenians to remain in Havlabar. It should also be
mentioned that it was announced in the Georgian Eparchy of the
Armenian Apostolic Church, that the mentioned cemetery was destroyed
already 80 years ago during the Soviet Times…
PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department