Onnik Krikorian: "Nationalists agitate for Samtskhe-Javakheti"

"Following the arrest of two ethnic Armenians in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region of the Republic of Georgia, nationalist groups in Armenia plan to hold a demonstration outside the Georgian Embassy in Yerevan on Wednesday. While it is unlikely to be well attended, the activity of such nationalist groups has sharply increased since the short war between Georgia and Russia last August. Chances are that this is no coincidence.
Having openly considered the possibility to use the short conflict over South Ossetia to push for separation from Georgia, nationalist think tanks and analytical centers make no secret of their desire to frustrate good relations with Armenia's neighbor and are more noticeable than ever before. "


Onnik Krikorian is a freelance photojournalist and writer from the United Kingdom based in Yerevan, Armenia.

Read the full article on Frontline.


Poster on the way to Garni temple, national monument and important tourist attraction. The map is titled: Colchide, Iberie et albanie. Kolchis refers to the ancient name of West Georgia, known to the Greeks (Golden Vleece, Prometheus), Albania roughly to present Dagestan and Azerbaijan, Iberie to Armenia and most eastern parts of Georgia.

English Wikipedia explains the term "Iberia":
The theme of Iberia (Greek: θέμα 'Ιβηρίας) was an administrative and military unit – theme – within the Byzantine Empire carved by the Byzantine Emperors out of several Armenian and Georgian lands in the eleventh century. It was formed as a result of Emperor Basil II’s annexation of a portion of the Georgian Bagratid domains (1000-1021) and later aggrandized at the expense of several Armenian kingdoms acquired by the Byzantines in a piecemeal fashion in the course of the eleventh century. The population of the theme was multiethnic with the Armenian majority, including a sizable Armenian community of Chalcedonic rite to which the contemporary Byzantines expanded, as a denominational name, the ethnonym "Iberian", a Graeco-Roman designation of Georgians. The theme ceased to exist in 1074 AD as a result of the Seljuk invasions." (Link to Wikipedia)


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