Opinion: Zurabishvili`s comments on Lori`s ownership viewed as a  response to Javakheti Armenians` election loss

ArmInfo. The statements made by Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili regarding Lori's ownership  are views as  a retaliatory action against the Javakheti Armenians for their loss in the elections. This is the opinion expressed by Vahe Sargsyan, the editor-in-chief of the Erkir.am website, in response to the Georgian President's claim that Armenian Lori "actually belongs to Georgia.

Sargsyan mentioned that the issue of the ownership of historical Lori  (Tashir-Dzoraget Kingdom) has always been a sensitive topic in  Armenian-Georgian relations and there is nothing new about it.  "The  discussion focused on relations between Armenia and Georgia, rather  than the Republic of Armenia and Georgia. In other words, the topic  fell under the purview of Armenian and Georgian historians, religious  and church circles, socio-political figures, and cultural figures.  Georgians consistently claimed that Lori (in their terminology, Lore)  belonged to them, and Stalin, at the beginning of the plenary session  of the Caucasus Bureau in 1921, treacherously ceded it to the  Armenian SSR. The Armenian perspective, however, is quite the  opposite: Lori (the kingdom of Tashir-Dzoraget) was Armenian and  belonged to the Armenians," he noted. Meanwhile, the Dashnaktsakan  questioned why the President of Georgia suddenly shifted from being a  president to promoting a tourist company and at the same time  "reopening old wounds" (as stated by the Ambassador of the First  Republic of Armenia to Georgia Arshak Jamalyan)? 

"The President of Georgia highlights various historical and  architectural monuments that are significant examples of Chalcedonian  culture, and states with trepidation: "Historical Georgia!!! A unique  culture, unfortunately, left in Lora. Let's remember how far we were,  let's respect the eternal, mysterious, great Georgia."", Sargsyan  mentioned the content of Zurabishvili's recording.  In this vein, he  added  that "the goal of the opposition president of Georgia, who is  a puppet of the West, is quite obvious."

Dashnaktsakan is certain that in this way Zurabashvili, firstly, is  seeking revenge on the Armenian people for the shameful defeat  suffered in the Javakhk regions, as well as for the congratulations  extended by the RA authorities to the newly elected government of  Georgia.  Secondly, he believes, she is trying to turn the  Armenian-Georgian "old wounds" into an official topic of dispute  between Armenia and Georgia. Sargsyan is sure that, not satisfied  with attempts to provoke tension and confrontation within Georgia,  Zurabishvili is trying just as unsuccessfully to "export" this  tension into interstate relations between Armenia and Georgia.

"To prevent the above, it is important to view the aforementioned  statement as a petty dirty trick of an adventurer in the position of  President of Georgia, representing nothing significant. Just the swan  song of a person coordinating a network of Western agents," the  Dashnaktsakan concluded.  Earlier, the President of Georgia called  the falsifications in the parliamentary elections of the country "an  Armenian carousel".