ACCORDING TO VICE SPEAKER OF RA NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, JAVAKHK REMAINS THE ONLY TERRITORY WHERE ARMENIANS AND GEORGIANS LIVE SIDE BY SIDE

Noyan Tapan
Nov 6, 2007

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 6, NOYAN TAPAN. A paradoxical situation has formed
when two Christian peoples – Armenians and Georgians, who have lived
for millenniums in the South Caucasus, have almost ceaced being
neighbors now, Vahan Hovhannisian, vice speaker of the RA National
Assembly, member of the ARF Bureau, stated in his speech during an
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) – Ramkkavar-Azatakan Party
(RAP) interparty discussion. In his words, today Turkish settlements
are located along the whole Armenian-Georgian borderline. The exception
is Javakhk, and, as V. Hovhannisian put it, "Georgians should keep
this area as the apple of their eyes".

According to him, there are no political forces in Armenia that
question the territorial integrity of Georgia, and he does not
understand some Georgian mass media outlets’s attempts to present
Armenia as an enemy of Georgia. He said that if Greeks or Armenians are
moving from some Georgian area, it does not mean that Georgians will
settle there. "Our friends in Georgia should realize that any vacuum in
the South Caucasus is immediately filled with Turks, and in this case
Georgia’s stability is indeed in question," the NA vice speaker stated.