The Armenian Minority of Post-Soviet Georgia and Its Identity

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The Armenian Minority of Post-Soviet Georgia and Its Identity Master’s Degree in Comparative International Relations Final Thesis The Armenian minority of post-Soviet Georgia and its identity Supervisor Ch. Prof. Aldo Ferrari Assistant Supervisor Ch. Prof. Giuli Shabashvili Graduand Francesco Moratelli 870244 Academic Year 2018 / 2019 INDEX - ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................ p. 5 - LIST OF ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS ............................................ p. 11 - INTRODUCTION - AIM OF THE STUDY....................................................... p. 13 - Note on the romanisation from the Armenian, Georgian and Russian Scripts ... p. 19 Chapter I. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND ........................................................... p. 20 I.1. Presence of Armenians in the territory of modern-day Georgia from Antiquity to the XVII century ...................................................................................... p. 20 I.2. History of the Armenian presence in Javakheti (VIII century B.C.-mid XX century A.D) .............................................................................................. p. 23 I.3. Armenian community of Tiflis in the XIX century ................................... p. 25 I.4. Ethnic Armenians under the Democratic Republic of Georgia and Georgian SSR .............................................................................................................. p. 30 I.5. The situation of Armenians in the post-1991 independent Republic of Georgia ..................................................................................................................... p. 33 I.6. Ethnic Armenians following the Rose Revolution (2003) .......................... p. 37 Chapter II. ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF CONTEMPORARY TBILISI ........ p. 41 II.1. A brief overview of the current situation ................................................... p. 41 II.2. The role of the Armenian Apostolic Church ............................................. p. 42 II.3. The Petros Adamyan Tbilisi State Armenian Drama Theatre ................... p. 43 II.4. The importance of the Armenian Schools of Tbilisi ................................. p. 43 II.5. Media situation among Tbilisi Armenians ................................................ p. 45 II.6. Current issues and Challenges of Tbilisi Armenians ................................. p. 46 II.7. Armenia in the perception of Tbilisi-Armenians ....................................... p. 47 II.8. “Armenian-ness” in the everyday life of Tbilisi Armenians ..................... p. 48 Chapter III. ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF CONTEMPORARY JAVAKHETI p. 50 III.1. Brief geographic and demographic overview .......................................... p. 50 2 III.2. Government Policy towards Javakheti .................................................... p. 51 III.3. Local actors ............................................................................................. p. 52 III.4. Migration and seasonal labour ................................................................. p. 53 Chapter IV. ARMENIAN AS A MINORITY LANGUAGE? ................................. p. 55 Chapter V. EDUCATION ........................................................................................ p. 57 V.1. Brief overview ........................................................................................... p. 57 V.2. Preschool education ................................................................................... p. 58 V.3. General education ...................................................................................... p. 60 V.4. Textbooks and national curricula .............................................................. p. 62 V.5. Teaching Minority-Specific Subjects ........................................................ p. 64 V.6. Teaching Georgian in non Georgian schools ............................................ p. 65 V.7. Higher Education ....................................................................................... p. 68 Chapter VI. THE ARMENIAN MINORITY AND THE MEDIA SITUATION ... p. 72 VI.1. Brief historical overview .......................................................................... p. 72 VI.2. Current Legislation................................................................................... p. 73 VI.3. Availability of Armenian-language media in Georgia ............................. p. 75 VI.4. Minority-related programs ....................................................................... p. 78 VI.5. Regional and local media ......................................................................... p. 80 VI.6. Current issues .......................................................................................... p. 82 Chapter VII. PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC LIFE ................................................ p. 84 VII.1. Overview of the situation ........................................................................ p. 84 VII.2. Political Participation .............................................................................. p. 87 VII.3. Attitude of ethnic Armenians toward Georgia’s foreign policies ........... p. 88 Chapter VIII. ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE ................................................ p. 90 VIII.1. Current situation and structure of the Legal System in Javakheti ......... p. 90 VIII.2. Issues in the administration of justice ................................................... p. 91 Chapter IX. ARMENOPHOBIA? ........................................................................... p. 94 IX.1. Historic development of anti-Armenian sentiments ................................ p. 94 3 IX.2. Anti-Armenian sentiments in Georgia ..................................................... p. 95 Chapter X. CASES OF DISCRIMINATION AND UNFAIR TREATMENT ........ p. 98 X.1. Unfair Treatment of ethnic Armenian Workers of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway ....................................................................................................... p. 98 X.2. Appropriation of Armenian Apostolic Churches of Georgia .................... p. 99 X.3. Monument to Mikhayel Avagyan in the village of Bughashen ................. p. 103 X.4. Perceived discrimination and fear, the reverse case of Gorelovka ............ p. 107 Chapter XI. ARMENIA-GEORGIA RELATIONS AFTER INDEPENDENCE .... p. 109 XI.1. Overview .................................................................................................. p. 109 XI.2. Impact on the Armenian minority of Georgia .......................................... p. 110 Chapter XII. MODELS FROM EUROPEAN STATES .......................................... p. 113 XII.1. Premise.................................................................................................... p. 113 XII.2. The case of Romania............................................................................... p. 113 XII.3. Applicability of the Romanian model to the Georgian reality................ p. 115 XII.4. The case of Croatia ................................................................................. p. 116 XII.5. Applicability of the Croatian model to the Georgian reality .................. p. 118 XII.6. Available possibilities for Georgia ......................................................... p. 118 - CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................... p. 119 - BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................ p. 122 4 ABSTRACT Il processo di integrazione delle minoranze etniche attualmente presenti sul territorio della Repubblica di Georgia rappresenta un problema di natura sociale, articolato su vari livelli, che comporta conseguenze sfavorevoli allo sviluppo complessivo di questa nazione e, per questo motivo, richiede particolari politiche volte a migliorare la coesistenza di queste popolazioni all’interno del Paese. Questa tesi si occupa esclusivamente della minoranza armena di Georgia e, dopo una contestualizzazione storica delle origini e delle fasi della presenza armena, si prefigge come scopo quello di analizzare lo stato attuale dell’identità degli armeni di Georgia sotto molteplici aspetti e punti di vista, quali la barriera linguistica e altri ostacoli che si presentano a livello burocratico, scolastico, mediatico e di partecipazione politica. L’indagine si focalizza sull’attuale situazione armena e in particolare sugli ostacoli che devono ancora essere affrontati da questa minoranza e sulle politiche attuate dai governi georgiani nei suoi confronti, con le relative ripercussioni sull’identità degli armeni di Georgia. A questo proposito, un miglioramento della situazione è auspicabile, infatti, perché gioverebbe non solo agli armeni, ma anche all’intera Georgia in quanto nazione in via di transizione verso un Paese democratico alla ricerca di un’intensificazione dei rapporti di cooperazione con organizzazioni internazionali quali la NATO e l’UE. Dal raggiungimento dell’indipendenza dall’Unione Sovietica nel 1991, la Georgia ha dovuto fronteggiare numerosi problemi di diversa natura, quali una guerra civile e la perdita di controllo effettivo su due regioni che costituivano il 20% della superficie del territorio nazionale: l’Abcasia e l’Ossezia del Sud. Fino ad ora, nonostante alcuni miglioramenti ottenuti, è mancato, da parte dei molteplici governi georgiani succedutisi, un forte segnale di volontà di risoluzione dei problemi con la minoranza armena ancora presente sul territorio nazionale, tramite
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