South Caucasus Frontier Squabble

Some Armenian villagers may have to slaughter cows they cannot afford to feed, now that Georgian border guards have unilaterally decided their traditional grazing lands are Georgian territory.



Georgian officials declined to comment on the situation, but some Armenian politicians said the August 25 move by their counterparts in Tbilisi was unjustified and illegal.



“I could not collect hay. I have 11 cattle, and what will I feed them with this winter,” asked Nvard Shahbekian, a resident of the village of Bavra, which lies on the border between the two South Caucasus countries.



She has calculated that she will need 20 tonnes of hay to feed her livestock, and could now have to buy the feed at 80 US dollars a tonne.



“What can I do? I don’t have this money. Even if I am going to be shot, I must collect my own hay,” she said.



The villagers said the Georgian border guards had suddenly set up a checkpoint between them and their fields, and threatened to fine them 2,000 laris (1,200 dollars) if they passed it, although Georgian officials were not available to confirm this.



Shahbekian’s cattle, and those of her neighbours, are hostages to legal uncertainty surrounding the precise limits of the two countries.



Armenian and Georgian set up a joint commission more than a decade ago to oversee the demarcation of their border but, as the Bavra villagers’ struggle makes clear, problems remain since 30 per cent of the border is yet to be agreed on.



Experts say both sides are guilty of unilaterally defining the border to serve their own purposes.



“There have been cases, when according to the Georgian authorities, the Armenian side has itself unilaterally moved the border, therefore until the delimitation is finished and there is an agreement between the government at the level of foreign ministers, who head the commission, the territorial resolution will not be final,” Sergei Minasian, an analyst at the Caucasus Institute in Yerevan, said.



The Armenians say the location of the border is laid out in a deal signed between the two then-Soviet republics in 1921, and amendments to it agreed over the next two decades.



“According to these amendments, the lands of Bavra in particular are worked by Armenian farmers living in the village. Apart from this, they have certificates of the privatisation of this land,” said Shirak Torosian, a member of the Armenian parliament from the ruling Republican Party.



He is also chairman of the Javakhq organisation, which campaigns for ethnic Armenians who live in southern Georgia.



However, Georgian politicians source their claims from a 1947 map, which awarded the land to them.



“Now the Georgian border guards see the actions of the Armenian villagers as a violation of the border, and bring in the 1947 map, which supposedly agreed that this territory is part of Georgia, but this is doubtful, since in that difficult time, when the Second World War was ongoing, it is unlikely that the border could be surveyed,” Torosian said.



The Armenian foreign ministry confirmed that the border delimitation were ongoing, and had even been on the agenda when Georgia’s foreign minister visited Yerevan on September 5. Georgian officials were tight-lipped, however, and both the foreign ministry and the border guards in Tbilisi refused to comment on the situation in Bavra.



“Between two young states, in which the process of institution building is ongoing and the demarcation of the border is not finished, such incidents can occur, but the situation is under control and will be regulated,” said David Darchiashvili, a member of the Georgian parliament and chairman of its Committee on European Integration.



“The demarcation of the border is not completed, like with Azerbaijan, but the situation is being stirred up by a few irresponsible websites… I am sure that soon all will be made clear at a diplomatic level. This can all be regulated if good will is shown.”



Armenia has good reason not to make a scandal out of the incident, since 70 per cent of the country’s exports go via Georgian territory, which is almost its only outlet to the outside world since its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey remain closed.



However, a number of recent bilateral problems have marred their close ties. On June 19, for example, Torosian was barred from entering Georgia without explanation. Torosian connects the refusal to allow him across the border to his agitation on behalf of Armenians in Samtskhe-Javakheti, where almost all the population are ethnic Armenians, and whose rights have become a political issue in Armenia.



President Serzh Sarkisian raised the issue of Georgia’s Armenian population in an address to diplomats on September 1, saying his government needed to support their compatriots abroad.



“I think, that steps towards recognising Armenian as a regional language of Georgia, the registration of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the preservation of Armenian monuments in Georgia would only help the strengtherning of Armenian-Georgian relations, and a deepened atmosphere of mutual trust. We must be delicate in all these questions, but at the same time, consistent and principled,” he said.



While the politicians discussed, however, the villagers of Bavra like Valerik Margarian, were contemplating a winter without livestock.



“I have four cows and three sheep, and if I cannot gather hay to feed my stock this winter, then I will have to slaughter them, and then what will I live on?” Margarian said.



Naira Melkumian and Yeranuhi Soghoian are freelance journalists in Yerevan and Gyumri respectively. Nana Mamagulishvili is news editor of the Fortuna radio station in Tbilisi.