Georgia for Armenians?
The word “multinational” is often applied to Georgia, where the number of different nationalities reaches 120 and makes up 18 percent of Georgia’s 5,450,000 population. But trends show that it is becoming more homogeneous; in 1989, 32 percent of the population was non-Georgian. Although their numbers are in decline, Armenians are Georgia’s largest minority, at 8.1 percent. (Russians make 6.3 percent; Azeris, 5.7. Other groups include xxxs and Greeks. Source: World Fact Book.) Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania’s mother is Armenian and many Armenians claim that the Georgian president is in fact Armenian, from a family that had been “Sahakian”, but adopted the “shvili” suffix like many other immigrants. (Saakashvili has not publicly commented on the claim.).
According to official data there are 248,929 Armenians in Georgia. Armenians, however, say that the number reaches 400,000 and that 160,000 live in Javakhk with 120,000 Armenians in Tbilisi. About 50-60,000 are said to live in Abkhazia. Once strong and influential, today Armenians feel unsure about their future in Georgia. In 1991 Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first president of independent Georgia, sparked separatism toward national minorities in the republic with his “hosts and guests” doctrine. Posters in the country hailed “Georgia for Georgians.” Gamsakhurdia, whose policy mainly concentrated on cleansing the country from “non-Georgians”, was ousted in 1993.
Gamsakhurdia’s presidential term, though short, was significant for the Armenian community. Many left during the period, when they felt the sting of ethnic prejudice and its effect on chances to thrive in a society predisposed against outsiders. More than a decade later, the legacy of discrimination still influences Armenian life in Georgia. The biggest concern Armenians have in Georgia is assimilation. They say the best chance to have success in Georgia is to change the Armenian surname suffix to “shvili” or “dze.” An Armenian student of the State University in Tbilisi says she was told she should change her name before applying for her PhD diploma.
“The truth is that even after succeeding in getting a PhD, there is no chance to get a well-paying job with an Armenian name,” the student says. If Armenians now feel like second-class citizens, it has not always been so. According to an 1821 census, Armenians far outnumbered Georgians in the capital at that time. In Tbilisi, Armenians will show many architectural pearls constructed by prominent Armenian architects of the last centuries. Mansions built by influential Armenians of long ago are among the most attractive buildings in Tbilisi. In the 18th and 19th centuries, rich Armenian merchants, xxxelers and oil industrialists invested heavily in business and helped build cultural centers and schools. Today in “Old Tbilisi”, the Caravanserais, the popular trade centers of the 18th and 19th centuries owned by Armenians are being renovated – turned into modern salons, boutiques, restaurants. And the gentrification is also removing traces of the district’s Armenian past, as signs that once said “Bari Galust” (welcome) are being covered over by new, non-ethnic, facades.
-The Armenian General Benevolent Union