The region known to Armenians as Javakhk has long been tied to the
Kingdom of Armenia with an Armenian presence there being recorded for millennia. Many of the Armenians in the region today immigrated from
Erzurum Vilayet in the Ottoman Empire after the area became part of Russia in 1829 while most of the Muslims (
Meskhetian Turks and
Adjarians) in the region emigrated to the Ottoman Empire. More Armenians came to region later on as a result of Turkish massacres and the
Armenian genocide.
Russian Empire driven policy aimed to settle the Christian Armenians at the border of the
Ottoman Empire, since they were enjoying the status of a reliable ally in contrast to the Muslim population. Ethnic Armenians are chiefly concentrated in
Akhalkalaki and
Ninotsminda districts. At the beginning of 1918 in Akhalkalaki region had 120,000 population, from which
Armenians were 89,000 (74%),
Meskhetian Turks were 8,000 (7%), representatives of other nationalities 23,000 (19%) During this period in Ahalkalak district there were 111 villages from which 66 were Armenian, 24 Turkish, 9
Russian, 10
Georgian (including former Armenian villages Vargav and Hzabavra, the population of which had assimilated with Georgians), and one village with the Armenian-Georgian mixed population. In 1944 the government of the
Soviet Union exiled the
Meskhetian Turkish population of
Meskheti (approximately 100,000 person) to
Central Asia (
Kazakhstan and
Uzbekistan). The five villages of Sagamo, Khavet, Erindja, Davnia, and Karsep in the Akhalkalaki district and the Bogdanovka areas were settled by Armenians. During
Zviad Gamsakhurdia's presidency (1991), Javakheti remained
de facto semi-independent and only in November 1991 the Tbilisi-appointed governor was able to take power. The issue of Javakheti was in the 1990s "clearly been perceived as the most dangerous potential ethnic conflict in Georgia", however, no actual armed conflict ever occurred. An incident took place in Akhalkalaki district on 14 August 1998. The Georgian military units were to hold exercises with the Russians in Akhalkalaki, and the local Armenian population was not told about it. The Georgians units entered the Armenian-populated areas and met some 25 Armenians, who "believed that the Georgian army was coming to deport Armenians from their homes". The group of Armenians were armed and allegedly had
mortars and other artillery. The Georgian units eventually left, avoiding a possible clash with the armed men. According to the Georgian national security ministry was the incident was a provocation organized by the
Javakhk organization. Vahagn Chakhalyan, the leader of United Javakhk, was arrested in 2008. Chakhalyan was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in 2009 for "acquisition and possession of firearms and ammunition, organizing a group action which grossly disrupted public order, hooliganism committed against a government representative." Chakhalyan was released from prison in January 2013 under amnesty law after
Bidzina Ivanishvili and his Georgia Dream coalition came to power in Georgia. ==Demographics==