“Native Javakhk, we’re with you”, “Put an end to Georgia’s provocation”, “Javakhk is not for sale”, “Nakhijevan … history repeats”, “Release Vahagn Chakhalyan”…these were some of the banners that a group of young people were carrying during the demonstration near the Michael Nalbandyan statue on October 20.
Some of the participants included Armenians from Javakhk and members of the youth wing of the “Armenian Aryan Association”. They were waiting to see representatives of Aram Karapetyan’s “New Times” party youth wing join them in the demonstration. In fact, Russian news agencies were talking about this with high enthusiasm.
What was the youth’s goal and who is Vahagn Chakhalyan?
Vahagn Chakhalyan is a citizen of Georgia and member of the “United Javakhk” party who was arrested on October 11 for illegally crossing the Armenian border. The youth is trying to release him from jail. I talked to some of the participants of the demonstration. Some said that they had arrested Chakhalyan for pressuring Armenians in Javakhk. As to why the Armenian officials arrested him, according to one of the young participants, is a result of the “Armenian-Georgian conspiracy”. So, the Armenian authorities arrested Chakhalyan with the purpose of lending a helping hand to Georgian authorities in pressuring the Armenians of Javakhk. Another young person said that Chakhalyan had legally crossed the border; the only thing was that when he showed his passport to the officials, they didn’t register it. But the youth doesn’t have any proof of that.
“Well, he was with five of his friends and they said that they hadn’t registered the passport,” said the other.
“When did they manage to check the stamp of the registration office and ask to see it?” said another.
According to them, hundreds of students cross the Armenian-Georgian border “just like Chakhalyan”.
“They should arrest them or release Vahagn Chakhalyan,” said some of the demonstration participants and added that Armenians from Georgia shouldn’t have any issues when entering Armenia. Before getting arrested, Chakhalyan was subjected to a beating by some unknown officials. According to the public relations department of the Armenian Police Department, the police department’s hospital located on Mashots street reported that they had received citizens of Georgia with several physical injuries, including Gurgen Shirinyan, 24, Vahagn, 25, and Armen Chakhalyan, 16 on October 10. The investigators say that on the same day at around 10:00 p.m., Gurgen Shirinyan, Vahagn and Armen Chakhalyan were beat with sharp objects during a fight near the #2/4 building located on Shirak street. The youth say that V. Chakhalyan’s arrest has to do with the beating on October 10 and the Georgian local government elections on October 5. They claim that during the elections, “United Javakhk” got 70% of votes, but there was electoral fraud and only 30% of votes was “registered” in favor of the party. The reason for this was because the Georgian authorities don’t want to see this Armenian organization worrying over issues concerning Armenians of Javakhk play a major role in Javakhk. If V. Chakhalyan was creating obstacles for the Georgian authorities to commit electoral fraud as part of their cunning politics concerning Javakhk, then why didn’t the Georgian authorities take measures and arrest him in Georgia and let him cross the border and have him get arrested in another country? In response to this question, the youth said that “nobody can say anything to Chakhalyan” in Javakhk. One of the youth said that V. Chakhalyan had so much power that he could stop the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalak railway circulating Armenia.
Recently, the “Javakhk” patriotic union president Shirak Torosyan announced that all Armenian parties of Javakhk, besides “United Javakhk”, had united as one with the party led by the Georgian president during the Georgian local government elections, while “United Javakhk” joined the oppositional “Industry will save Georgia” party. According to Torosyan, the losing side started to protest and demanded to review the results of the elections and beat the chief police of Akhalkalak during a public gathering. Sh. Torosyan says that the Georgian authorities, special services couldn’t imagine that the national parties of Javakhk could come out victorious. “This is an extraordinary event in the history of Javakhk- a mixture of national parties forming a majority in Javakhk”. The parties that achieved victory have announced that the first thing that they’re going to do is apply to the central authorities of Georgia with the favor of making Armenian the state language for residencies where there is a high Armenian population. They also plan to demand the decentralization of the local governments of Javakhk. So, what else does “United Javakhk” want? “The only thing left to say is that these parties are being pushed by the special services in order to be able to create an unstable situation in Javakhk. If they manage to do that and consider the elections as invalid, then they will start new elections and the authorities will balance everything so that no party will have a majority and never be able to raise an important issue,” said Sh. Torosyan.
In order to get a better picture of the situation at hand, I tried to get the answers to some questions from the “Strong Homeland” party based in Armenia, which is involved in solving issues concerning Armenians of Javakhk. The party representatives said that from the start, the national and patriotic parties had decided to participate in the Georgian local government elections as one group in order to have “Armenians by nationality and with a mentality” in the elected group; Armenians who can put issues concerning Javakhk in front of the Georgian authorities. However, “United Javakhk” isn’t trying to cooperate with other parties. It’s trying to find other ways to participate in the elections. The fact is that, as they say, “they have lost in the elections”,” said representatives of “Strong Homeland” and added that they don’t think that the ideology as a whole is lost because the candidates that won “will definitely do everything they can for Javakhk”. “Strong Homeland” believes that the “United Javakhk” party is personalizing everything instead of drawing their attention to the ideology.
Recently, fifteen Armenian National Assembly MPs demanded the release of “United Javakhk” member Vahagn Chakhalyan.
P.S. As a result of the “fraud” Georgian local government elections, which supposedly the Georgian authorities are to blame, 28-29 members of the officials elected in Javakhk are Armenians. Let’s agree that there is no way that the Georgian authorities could have committed electoral fraud. I don’t think that it’s necessary to say which country benefits from the instigation of tense relations between Georgia and Armenia.