Ara Papyan: Present-day Georgia has no right to Javakhk

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.