english and russian summaries to the monograph: ashot melkonyan, javakhk in the 19th century and the...

7/28/2019 English and Russian Summaries to the monograph: Ashot Melkonyan, Javakhk in the 19th Century and the First Quarter of the 20th Century Melkonyan, En

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English and Russian Summaries

to the monograph:

JAVAKHKIN THE 19th CENTURY ANDTHE FIRST QUARTER OF THE 20th CENTURY

by

Ashot Melkonyan

:

XIX XX

19- 20-


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SUMMARY

ASHOT MELKONYAN

JAVAKHK IN THE 19th CENTURY AND THE FIRST

QUARTER OF THE 20th CENTURY

InChapter I (Javakhk in Ancient and Medieval Times) a special attention is paid

to the history of Javakhk - one of the nine gavars(regions) of the ashkhar(province) of

Gugark in the north of the Kingdom of Great Armenia. In the second millennium B.C. it

constituted a part of the state formation ofHayasa. In the first millennium it is mentioned

in the form ofZabakhain the cuneiform inscriptions of King Argishti I (786-764 B.C.).

In the 6th 3 rd centuries B.C. Javakhk was one of the northern gavarsof the

Eruandid Kingdom. King Artashes I (189-160 B.C.) again reunited Javakhk, within the

province of Gugark, with the Armenian Kingdom and it remained a part of it until the fall

of the Arshakid dynasty. At the time of the Arshakids the gavar was mentioned as a

domain of the Vardzavuni princedom.

In 428 A.D. the Sasanians included that region into the Persian state and later, in

the second half of the 7th century it was conquered by the Arabs. In the 10th century it

formed a part of the Armenian Bagratid Kingdom and after its fall in the middle of the

11th century, for a short period, it was submitted to the Georgian Kingdom up to the time

of the Seljuk-Turkic invasions. Since the end of the 12th century Javakhk with its Tmuke

castle (Tmka-berd) and Akhalkalak (New Town) among other gavarsof Northern Armenia

was given to the Armenian Zakarians as a hereditary domain. Zresk was an Armenian

spiritual center of that region.

After the fall of the Mongol yoke in 1266 A.D. the region became a part of theprincipality of Samtskhe-Javakhk. In 1587 A.D. it was occupied by the Ottoman Turks and

included in the Chldr (then Akhltsikha) eyalet (vilayet, province) as a separate sanjak

(region).

From the outset Javakhk was inhabited by the Armenians. It is testified by the

Armenian, Georgian, Arabic, Turkish and other sources. According to the Georgian

historian Leonti Mroveli, at the beginning of the 4th century A.D., during the time of the

Christian preaching of St.Nune (Georgian - Nino), Armenian was the spoken language of

the population of Javakhk.


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According to the Turkish tax-lists of the16-18th centuries, the towns and villages of

Javakhk and neighbouring gavars were mostly populated by Armenians. The same

testimony can be found in the works of famous geographers, a Georgian author,

Vakhushti Bagrationi and a member of the Mkhitarist Congregation, Ghukas Inchichyan,

and others.

In Chapter II (Javakhk in the first three decades of the 19 th century) and Chapter

III (The Akhalkalak gavar as a part of the Russian Empire in 1828-1917 A.D.) are

analyzed questions concerning the history of Javakhk of the period from the beginning of

the 19th century until the first decades of the 20th century. At the beginning of the 19th

century Javakhk with other gavarsof the Southern Caucasus appeared in the sphere of

the foreign policy of the Russian Empire. In July of 1828 the troops under the command of

general I.F.Paskevich conquered Akhalkalak - the center of Javakhk. In 1830, 7300

Armenian families, headed by Karapet Archbishop Bagratuni, migrated from Erzerum,

Bassen, Baberd, Derjan and other gavarsof Western Armenia and settled in the region of

Akhaltskha, Akhalkalak and Tsalka (gavar Trekhk of the historical province of Gugark),

reconstructing and founding more than 60 villages and 50 churches. Owing to that

migration the former Armenian image of Javakhk was restored. 58,000 Western

Armenians settled alongside 1716 local Armenian (about 10-11,000 people), 639 Muslim

and 179 Georgian families.

In 1840 the Akhalkalak gavar (uezd) was involved in the Georgian-Imeretian

province, then - in the Tiflis province and in 1874 became a self-dependent gavar.

In 1841-1843 the exiled Russian sectarians (doukhobors) from different parts of

Russia settled in the southern part (nowadays the Ninotsminda region) of the Akhalkalak

gavarfounding 8-9 villages there.

In 1886 there were 110 villages in Javakhk which constituted 10 village-

communities with a population of about 63,000 people of whom 46,386 were Armenians.

They comprised the most of the population as in villages, as well as in Akhalkalak (in 1893

of the 4303 town population 4084 were Armenians).

Akhalkalak formed a separate uezdin the Tiflis province without undergoing serious

territorial changes. In the last decade of the 19th century it formed 2392,86 sq. verst

(249255 desyatin) or 2723,12 sq. km. Until the First World War the demographic situation

in the Akhalkalakgavar, according to nationalities, was the following:


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Years Armen. Georg. Russ. Greeks Jews Muslims Others Total

1886 46386 3735 6674 102 53 6824 14 63788

1894 49807 3714 7272 56 52 4962 6 65869

1897 48403 6322 4750 35 22 6827 910 67269

1914 81014 6905 7185 - - 3036 19 98159

Putting in comparison the data of this table, lets present the percentage ratio of

nationalities, correlated with the whole population of the Akhalkalakgavar:

Years Armenians Georgian

s

Russian

s

Greeks Jews Muslims Others

1886 72,7% 5,8% 10,4% 0,1% 0,08% 10,7% 0,02%

1894 75,6% 5,6% 11% 0,08% 00,7% 7,5% 0,09%

1897 72% 9,3% 7% 0,05% 0,03% 10,1% 1,3%

1914 82,5% 7% 7,3% - - 3% 0,01%

It is obvious that the Armenian population constantly preserved priority in number.

On the eve of the First World War, owing to high birth-rate, the share of the Armeniansnumber in the whole population of the Akhalkalak gavar reached 82,5%, and of the

Muslims decreased, due to a permanent migration. The percentage ratio of the Georgian

and Russian population mainly remained the same, varying within the limits of 6-10%.

In the period of the Russian domination, the Akhalkalakgavarwas in a process of

social-economic and cultural rise. Akhalkalak became a craft centre, villages began to play

an important role in the grain and meat production.

At the beginning of the 30s of the 19th

century Karapetyan school was opened inAkhaltskha and Mesropyan school in Akhalkalak by the initiative of Karapet Archbishop.

In 1856 the reconstruction of the church of St. Cross was finished. In 1870 the

Sandkhtian girls school was opened and in the 1880s - a Russian school, in 1889 a

college and a theatre group was founded.

At the end of the 19th century J. Ter-Grigorian and P.Abelian formed a liberating

group. The Dashnaktsutiunparty began to act here. The ideas of liberation of Western

Armenia penetrated the circles of the Akhalkalakians who, being Western Armenians

themselves, kept their links with the land of their ancestors - the province of Erzerum.


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Javakhk gave such famous national figures as Hovhannes Kajaznuni, Hamo Ohanjanian,

Ruben Ter-Minasian, Ruben Darbinian, writers Vahan Terian and Derenik Demirtchian,

poet Jivani and many others.

In Chapter IV (Javakhk in 1917-1923) are analyzed materials which show that in

1918 the most of the population migrated to the Bakuriani forest and the Tsalka region

because of the Turkish invasion in the Akhalkalak region. 30-35,000 Armenians of the

migrated 80,000 died. At the end of November, after the Turkish troops left the region,

Menshevik Georgia claimed the Javakhk territory. In December the Armenian-Georgian

war for Akhalkalak and Lori ended by the mediation of Britain. Though Javakhk was put

under Georgias control by the pressure of Britain, the Republic of Armenia during its

existence (1918-1920) persistently applied efforts to return it within the borders of the

Motherland. The leadership of Soviet Armenia (Al.Bekzadyan, Al.Myasnikyan and others)

to meet the wishes of the population also demanded to reunite Akhalkalak and

neighbouring Tsalka with the Motherland. But the Georgian-Azerbaijani Bolsheviks, acting

together, in July 1921 forcibly annexed Akhalkalak, as well as other Armenian territories,

giving them to Soviet Georgia and Soviet Azerbaijan. Soon the former Akhalkalak gavar,

within the borders of the Georgian SSR, was administratively divided into the regions of

Akhalkalak and Bogdanovka (now Notsminda).

Nowadays historic Javakhk, with its two regions is mainly Armenian populated with

100 villages and more than 100,000 people (95% Armenians). There are about 30

Armenian villages with 60000 population in neighbouring regions of Akhaltskha, Aspindza

and Tsalka. Javakhk is ahomogeneously Armenian populated region out of the Republic of

Armenia and notwithstanding social-economic and political hardship, it preserves its

Armenian originality.


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XIX XX . / /

// //

, . II . .

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:

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1886 46386 3735 6674 102 53 6824 14 63788

1894 49807 3714 7272 56 52 4962 6 65869

1897 48403 6322 4750 35 22 6827 910 67269

1914 81014 6905 7185 - - 3036 19 98159


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, , :

.

1886

72,7%

5,8% 10,4% 0,1% 0,08% 10,7% 0,02%

1894

75,6%

5,6% 11% 0,08% 00,7% 7,5% 0,09%

1897 72% 9,3% 7% 0,05% 0,03% 10,1% 1,3%

1914

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