Արդահանի խնդիրը հայ-վրացական հարաբերություններում (1920 թ. հունվար-օգոստոս)

Abstract

In the period of the existence of the First Republic of Armenia one of the factors distorting the Armenian-Georgian relations, was the dispute around Ardahan. This was a new phenomenon in the history of the Armenian-Georgian territorial disputes and was due to the struggle of Armenia for the exit to the sea. Having claims for the districts of Ardahan and Olti, Georgia was depriving Armenia from the own exit to the sea in the direction of Batum or Lazistan, thus Armenia was appearing in the complete dependence from Georgia regarding the communication, which could create an opportunity to make the Armenian side to make concessions in case of other border disputes. The dispute around Ardahan continued throughout 1919. Only in October the dispute was resolved. The Georgian side agreed to withdraw troops from the territories of Ardahan, located to the south of Kura River, which belonged to Armenia, and the Armenian side agreed that the personnel of Georgian garrison in the northern part of Ardahan town would become 100 instead of previous 50 (according to the agreement reached in April the territories located to the north of the Kura river in Ardahan region passed to Georgia, and the southern part – to Armenia; the size of the garrison was also defined). In January 1920 the Georgian government offered Armenia to form a militarypolitical alliance against the Turks; instead they demanded the northern part of Alaverdi and pits and increase of the Georgian garrison up to 300 soldiers. This proposal was rejected by the diplomatic representative of Armenia in Tiflis T. Bekzadyan. In the process of these negotiations in the end of February the Georgian government, without any consent, moved the troops into southern Ardahan. This step justified the distrust of the Armenians towards the proposed alliance, as it was used as bait by the Georgians. On June 29 the Georgian-Armenian conference was organized to discuss the Armenian-Georgian contentious issues. Here the Georgian delegation officially demanded the Ardahan province, substantiating the rights of Georgia in historical, ethnographic aspects, as well as in the context of security of Batumi. This demand, which was justified with poor arguments, was rejected by the Armenian delegation. So, the Ardahan issue, as well as other contentious issues in the context of the Armenian-Georgian relations received no resolution up to September. The TurkishArmenian War began in September and Ardahan issue received new manifestations.