ARA PAPYAN: PRESENT-DAY GEORGIA HAS NO RIGHT TO JAVAKHK

PanARMENIAN.Net
02.08.2008 16:07 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Present-day Georgia has no right to Javakhk, for
no agreement on state border was signed between Armenia and Georgia
after the war in 1918, said Ara Papyan, head of Modus Vivendi center,
historian and former Armenian Ambassador to Canada.

"The issue of borders in the South Caucasus should be resolved on
the basis of the international law, through implementation of Woodrow
Wilson’s arbitral award and the principles proposed by the League of
Nations on February 24, 1920," he said.

"Decisions of the Communist Party’s Central Committee on Karabakh
and Javakhk should not determine Armenia’s borders with Georgia and
Azerbaijan. Leaders of modern Georgia eye the soviet era as period
of foreign occupation."

If someone questions the Paris conference’s decision on Armenia, this
person questions the entire legal and political system of Europe and
Middle East, according to him.

"A special commission dealing with the problem of Armenian borders
said in its report that all territorial disputes should be considered
by the League of Nations. Javakhk’s annexation to Georgia was a result
of occupation regime," Papyan said.

The Armenian-Georgian war for Javakhk started on December 5, 1918 and
was stopped after British interference on December 31. An agreement
signed in Tiflis in January 1919 stated that the northern part of
Borchalinsky district passed on to Georgia, the southern part passed
on to Armenia while the middle (Lori and Zangezur) was announced a
"neutral zone" and was under control of British governor-general.

After establishment of the soviet rule, Javakhk issue was raised
again. Overwhelming majority of the province stood for joining
Armenia. A final decision was taken at the plenary session of the
Caucasus Bureau and was forwarded to consideration of the Georgian
Communist Party’s Central Committee, which decreed that "taking into
account Akhalkalaki’s political and economic ties with Tiflis, the
proposals of our Armenian comrades is unacceptable."

After the end of WWI, Armenia and Turkey signed the Treaty of Sevres
which envisaged Armenia’s commitment to Woodrow Wilson’s arbitral award
determined borders with Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. According
to the award, Armenia was supposed to get Armenian-inhabited
Transcaucasian regions, thus bringing its territory to 110 thousand
km2.