English and Russian Summaries

to the monograph:

JAVAKHK

IN THE 19th CENTURY AND

THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE 20th CENTURY
by
Ashot Melkonyan

:

XIX XX

19- 20-

SUMMARY

ASHOT MELKONYAN

JAVAKHK IN THE 19th CENTURY AND THE FIRST

QUARTER OF THE 20th CENTURY
In Chapter 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 of Hayasa. In the first millennium it is mentioned
in the form of Zabakha in 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 gavars of 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 gavars of 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 the
principality 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.

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 19th 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 gavars of 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 gavars of 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

gavar founding 8-9 villages there.

In 1886 there were 110 villages in Javakhk which constituted 10 villagecommunities 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 uezd in 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 Akhalkalak gavar, according to nationalities, was the following:

Years

Armen.

Georg.

1886

46386

3735

1894

49807

1897
1914

Russ.

Greeks

Jews

Muslims

Others

Total

6674

102

53

6824

14

63788

3714

7272

56

52

4962

65869

48403

6322

4750

35

22

6827

910

67269

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 Akhalkalak gavar:
Years

Armenians Georgian
s

Russian

Greeks

Jews

Muslims Others

0,1%

0,08%

10,7%

0,02%

1886

72,7%

5,8%

10,4%

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 Armenians
number 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 Akhalkalak gavar was 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 in
Akhaltskha 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 Dashnaktsutiun party 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.

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 a homogeneously Armenian populated region out of the Republic of
Armenia and notwithstanding social-economic and political hardship, it preserves its
Armenian originality.

XIX XX .
/ /
// //
, . II . .

I /786-764 . . ./.
VI-III . . . .
I /189-160 . . ./ ,
, ,
.
.
428 . .
VII . . X
, XI .,
-, . XII
., ,
/-/ / /,
. .
, 1266 .
- , 1587 . -
/ - /, //.
,
, , , .
, IV .,
/ /,
.
XVI-XVIII .,
.
, ,
.

XIX

./

/ 1828-1917./

 XIX . XX .
,

. 1828 .
. . - . 1830
. 7300 - , , ,

, /
/, 60 50 .

. 1716 / 10-11 ./ , 639
179 , 58
.
1840 . ,
, - ,
- , 1874 .
.
1841-1843 ., , ( )
8-9 .
1886 . 110 , 10
. 63,8 , 48386
. ,
( 1893 . 4303 4084 ).

. XIX .
2392,86 . (249255 ) 2723,12 . .
:

..

1886

46386

3735

6674

102

53

6824

14

63788

1894

49807

3714

7272

56

52

4962

65869

1897

48403

6322

4750

35

22

6827

910

67269

1914

81014

6905

7185

3036

19

98159

 , , :

0,1%

0,08%

10,7%

0,02%

1886

5,8%

10,4%

5,6%

11%

0,08%

00,7%

7,5%

0,09%

9,3%

7%

0,05%

0,03%

10,1%

1,3%

3%

0,01%

72,7%
1894
75,6%
1897

72%

1914

7%

7,3%

82,5%

,
. ,
82,5%, ,
, ,

, ,
6-10%.

-
,

.
1830 .
, .
1856 . . 1870 .
,

80- . - , 1889 . -

. .
XIX . . - .
.
.
,
, - .
, . , , , ; , ,
.
/ 1917-1923 ./ ,
1918 . ,
7

80 .

, 30-35 . . . 1918 .,
,
.

, 1918 . .
,
(1918-1920 .)
.
(. , . .),
,
. ,
, 1921 .
,
.
(
) .
,
100 100- (95%
). ,
30 60- . ,
, -
, .