by Gevork Gevorkyan on March 24, 2010
For the first time region Javakheti (often refered as Javakhk by ethnic Armenians) is mentioned in the historical source about Georgian king Parnavaz, where it is said that Javakheti (Javakhk) is administrative entity of Kartli kingdom that has its own ruler Eristavi (Georgian: ერისთავი) meaning Head of a Nation.
In the I century BC Greek geographer Strabon in his work indicates that Armenia that was initially very small grew larger during Artaxias (Armenian Ruler). Strabon also tells that Armenia managed to occupy foreign territories namely Paradre (modern Parkhal), Khorzene (part of modern Samtskhe-Javakheti), Meskheti and Gogareni (Modern Lower Kartli). Strabon clearly states that these territories (including Javakheti) were integral part of Ibeian Kingdom (ancient Georgian state) that was temporarily occupied by Armenians during short period of time. [click to continue…]
by Gevork Gevorkyan on March 16, 2010
Russian-Georgian War
Recent conflict in Georgia left much space for evaluation and analysis. These events turned out to be absolutely unexpected for western leaders. Russia’s step – invading into sovereign country, occupying parts of its territory and declaring there independence was something that western leaders thought could have happened in 19-20th centuries, but deemed unacceptable for world of 21st century.
Most probably West considered such a scenario having the same chance as an gigantic asteroid falling on the planet earth and probably that was why it took west so long to respond to this challenge. Besides the nature of this response left an impression that it was made without any clear strategy or plan. Initially EU leaders talked about imposition of economic sanctions, exclusion of Russia from G8 and preventing it from WTO membership. However later on they found these proposals to be unfeasible and eventually EU just expressed “concerns” several dozen times and “deep concerns” a bit fewer times that seems quite weak measure in the given circumstances. [click to continue…]
by Gevork Gevorkyan on March 16, 2010
Russian Skinheads
“There is a rise in racist aspirations in Russia” states member of European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) Michael Had. ECRI is a commission founded by Council of Europe in 1993 for monitoring racist and xenophobic issues in the member states. Had also stated that the public opinion towards ethnic minorities has significantly worsened recently and racist statements are often made by politicians as well.
It very hard not to agree with Michael Had’s position. Historically Russian society at some point created a concept of so-called “member of smaller nation”. This is a person, who is a Russian citizen, is integrated in Russian society, shares Russian culture, but at the same time hates the society he/she is part of and by all means tries to harm it. In this way Russian society created a group of individuals towards which the entire “xenophobic energy” of the nation was diverted. Anyone could be regarded under this concept: Jew, Georgian, Azeri, Armenian, Chechen, Latvian, Lithuanian, Kazakh, Kirghiz and so on. [click to continue…]