Javakheti
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Javakheti (Georgian: ჯავახეთი, Javakheti) is a historical region of the nation of Georgia, in the southeastern part of the country's Samtskhe-Javakheti province. Today it comprises the Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda municipal territories. It was historically bordered in the west with both sides of the Mtkvari (Kur) river, in the north, south and east with the Shavvasheti, Samsari and Nialiskuri mountains. Principal economic activities in this region are subsistence agriculture (potato in common) and raising livestock.
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[edit] History
[edit] Antiquity
In the sources, the region was recorded as Zabakha in 785 BC, by the king Argishti I of Urartu.
According to Georgian historians, Javakheti was one of the major places of the Kingdom of Kartli from ancient times[citation needed] and was in between of both East Georgian and West Georgian cultural and historical elements (Javakheti, as the whole south-western typonomic of Georgia has elements of Zani Language[citation needed]).
Historical Javakheti was divided as Upper Javakheti (Akhalkalaki plateau) and Lowland Javakheti (with the canyon on the left side of the Mtkvari River).[citation needed]
[edit] Middle Ages
From the 11th century, the center of upper Javakheti became Akhalkalaki. From the 10th century, the center of lowland Javakheti was Tmogvi. In the centuries of rise of the Georgian kingdom (11th-13th centuries), Javakheti was also in the uprising period: bridges, churches, monasteries, and royal residences (Lgivi, Ghrtila, Bozhano, Vardzia) were built. From the 12th century, the domain was ruled by representatives of the feudal family of Toreli.
From the 13th century, the administrative borders of the region combined in addition Palakatsio (modern Turkey) and part of Samtskhe. In the 15th century, Javakheti was part of the Samtskhe-Saabatago feudal head. In the 16th century, the region, as other territories of southern Georgia, was occupied by the Ottoman Empire. The Georgian population of Javakheti was displaced to inner regions of Georgia - part to the Imereti, and another to the Kartli. Those who remained in the place became Muslims.
[edit] Russian Empire
In the first third of the 19th century, Russia conquered the Southern Caucasus, and the whole of Georgia, along with the rest of the Caucasus, was incorporated within the Russian Empire. In 1828, because of luck, the Russian army in battle with the Turks made the decision real to move people to Samtskhe-Javakheti. Trialeti and Javakheti was filled with Christian Armenians and Greeks.[1] In the early 20th century, a large number of Armenian refugees from the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire, and Doukhobor sect members of Russian Empire, settled the region.
On December 3, 1829, General Ivan Paskevich created a special committee for relocation with chairmanship of governor Piotr Zaveleisky (Russian: П. Д. Завелейский).[2] The committee was created for the act for relocation. Аccording to preliminary calculations, the committee planned to displace 8,000 families from Kars, Erzurum and Doğubeyazıt, but after a short time, the number was increased to 14,000.
The political target of Tsarist Russia was to get ethnical colours in Georgia, while the king-loving Georgian people were not very happy with Russian rule. Because of this, some people refused to move Meskhetians from Imereti back to their homes in freed places of Javakheti and other southern regions.
After an offensive on Akhaltsikhe, the sons of Mesketian families of the 16th-17th centuries (Tsitsishvili, Avalishvili, Muskhelishvili and others) got to Ivan Paskevich and requested the return of legitimate lands on according to conservated sigheles issued by Georgian kings. Paskevich refused their request with some regrets.
[edit] Soviet era
[edit] Republic of Georgia
Currently Armenians form the ethnic majority in the region.[3]
[edit] Name
In terminology, the name "Javakheti" is taken from javakh core with traditional Georgian –eti suffix; commonly, Javakheti means the home of Javakhs, as for example, the word "Ossetia" is taken from Georgian Osi plus -eti.
The earliest mention of the name was found in Urartu sources, in the notes of king Argishti I of Urartu, 785 BC, as Zaabakha. There is an opinion that name was derived from the Taokh region.[citation needed] Taokhs were the major population of Diaokhi (Tao) and were populating today's north-east Turkey and south Georgia, also in the territory of Javakheti. According to this, the middle name between Taokh and Javakh should be Chaokh.[4]
[edit] Current situation
An expected improvement is the planned construction of the highway (financed by the US Millennium Challenge Account) to more effectively link the region with the rest of Georgia. Also, a railroad is planned to run from Kars, Turkey to Baku, Azerbaijan via the area (see: Kars Baku Tbilisi railway line), but the Armenian population of Javakheti are opposed to this rail link because it excludes and isolates Armenia. There is already another railroad linking Armenia, Georgia and Turkey, which is the Kars-Gyumri-Akhalkalaki railroad line. The existing line is in working condition and could be operational within weeks, but due to the Turkish blockade of Armenia since 1993, the railroad is not operational.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Boeschoten, Hendrik; Rentzsch, Julian (2010). Turcology in Mainz. p. 142. ISBN 978-3-447-06113-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=XtW6cox7CIUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Turcology+in+Mainz&hl=en&ei=SQ4YTsqyIIqr8AP10YUv&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
- ^ Migration of Armenians (Russian).
- ^ http://www.caucaz.com/home_eng/breve_contenu.php?id=235[dead link]
- ^ Georgian antique manuscripts (Georgian)
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