Part 5.

Armenian Marxist, socialist and at the same time revolutionary party of nationalist type - Revolutionary Federation of Armenians, or otherwise - Dashnak Socialist Party - "Dashnaktsutyun" (Arm. Հայ Յեղափոխական Դաշնակցութիւն (Հ.Յ.Դ. ), was founded not in "Turkey" or "Persia" or "Russian Armenia" or anywhere else in Europe, but in Georgia, in its capital, Tbilisi, in the summer of 1890 by representatives of the Armenian nationality from various revolutionary circles - the democrat Christopher Mikayelyan (Քրիստափոր Միքայելյան) (nickname Ellen) (1866-1905), Stephan Zoryan (Զորյան Գրիգորի Ստեփան) (pseudonym Rostom) (1867-1919) and the anarchist Simon Zavarian (Սիմոն Զավարյան) (pseudonym Anton) (1866-1913).

Soon Armenian so-called "volunteer detachments" were created, which were punitive military formations of the "Dashnaktsutyun" party. Their main aim and purpose was to "cleanse" the Transcaucasian and Anatolian territories of the non-Armenian population, i.e. to persecute, repress and democide them extensively.

The armed expansion of the Dashnaks into Transcaucasia - in the middle of the three seas... began. The map of "Great Armenia" was drawn in the middle of these three seas, and of course the Lore-Bambaki and Akhaltsikhe-Akhalkalaki regions of Georgia were included in it.

If we look at the "Historical Map" of the so-called "Historical Armenia", we find an even more surprising picture. The northern borders of the "Great Armenia" we are interested in include the whole of Kvemo and Zemo Kartli, Trialeti, Outer Kakheti and Shua Kartli - in fact, the entire right bank of the Georgian Mtkvari river basin. This was only the northern part of "Greater Armenia", the restoration of which was planned by the leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation - Dashnaktsutyun party.

We will not pay special attention to the north-western territories of "Greater Armenia", i.e. the so-called "Little Armenia", but we will note that it included the original Georgian lands - the whole of Tao-Klarjeti and historical Speri, as well as a part of Lazeti. Since the end of the XIX century, the Dashnaks considered the largest settlement of Eastern Anatolia, the centre of political activity of the Armenians of Turkey, the city of Arzrum, historical Theodosiopolis, to be the capital of this ephemeral state. The ancient name of Arzrum was Karinia, which was the property of the Armenian Arshakids and, after the division of the Armenian kingdom into two parts in 387, the residence of the last rulers of Western Armenia.

The Georgians called Theodosiopolis the city of Karnu. As for the second city of the Armenians, Yerevan, it is worth noting that the population of Yerevan (Revan, Iravan, Erivan), the former royal centre founded by Shah Abbas, was only 10,000 in the 1930s and 20,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. It is clear that compared to the 300,000 inhabitants of Tbilisi, "that great capital of the Caucasus", Yerevan was a small, dusty and miserable city that the Armenians of Tbilisi never considered worthy of attention. It is interesting to note that after the annexation of the Yerevan Khanate to Russia in 1832, Armenians made up only 24.4 per cent of the population of Yerevan, while Muslims made up 75.6 per cent.

The above demographic data show that four years after its annexation to Russia, Yerevan is still a Muslim city. Obviously, Armenians do not want to hear and acknowledge this historical fact.

From the book "Armenian-Georgian War" by Archil Chachkhiani

To be continued...