The anniversary of the "tragic events in the Ottoman Empire" is approaching. This is not the wording of the author – Georgian officials indicate those historical events like this word by word. And this is already a tradition, from the time of Eduard Shevardnadze, who first used this formula during his visit to Armenia, when he visited the memorial to the victims of those events. We cannot say that the Georgian media are filled these days with arguments about how Armenians, citizens of Georgia, are planning to mark the anniversary of the tragedy and what impact it may have. Nevertheless, information with alarmist notes about some 'cooking', and many thousands of processions are expected, and even something worse slips into the Georgian newspapers and news agencies
However, Tbilisi City Hall told Vestnik Kavkaza that no allegations of mass actions have been reported. According to Georgian legislation, organizers do not need special permission for such actions, but they are required to notify the municipal authorities several weeks in advance to prevent roads being blocked, so the police can manage to assess alternatives and security measures. However, it is possible that such a notification shall also be made if the Armenian community decides to mark any public events in the area of Avlabar (the Armenian quarter of Tbilisi). But so far nothing has been heard about it.
It should be noted that the leaders of the Armenian community, which has always acted correctly in this regard, without causing any problems to the authorities, have no interest in excessively highlighting the theme of "Armenian Genocide in Turkey," taking into account the strategic importance of the relations with Ankara and Baku for Tbilisi, where they always carefully follow how their partner countries relate to this topic.
The caution of Tbilisi is not a tactical approach but a strategy, originating since 1988. I remember in April of that year Avlabaries tried to arrange a mass rally on a square, which with bitter irony then bore the name '26 Baku Commissars Square'. However, the police of the Georgian SSR rigidly suppressed the attempt, and then-Interior Minister Shota Gorgodze appeared on television in an unprecedented manner for those times, calling on all citizens "to refrain from provocations." Now that area as well as the subway station in it is named 'Avlabari'. It was renamed during the rule of the first president and a former dissident of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who did not tolerate anything Soviet or communist. By the way, the only functioning Armenian Church in Tbilisi is situated in the same district.
In subsequent years, there were no significant demonstrations. Tbilisi Armenians and their leaders are sensitive to the request of the Georgian authorities "not to inflame passions." However, there have been attempts to raise the issue in the legislature. A few years ago, the then-speaker of parliament Nino Burjanadze, representing Javakheti at the request of the deputies (Javakhk is a region with a predominantly Armenian population), on April 24 called on her colleagues to observe a “minute of silence in memory of those who were killed in the Ottoman Empire." In this case, the Armenian deputies used the term "genocide," so the Azerbaijani deputies representing the region of Kvemo Kartli (Borchali) with a many thousand-strong Azerbaijani population, expressed strong protests and the mourning gesture of Burjanadze was collapsed.
There is a perception in the expert community that Nino Burjanadze was and is always accepted coldly in Baku. Georgian politicians of all generations finely caught that moment trying to maintain the "golden mean." Especially considering that there exists a public consensus. Tbilisi is home to hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis and Armenians, but for the past 30 years there have been no incidents on ethnic grounds. And we are talking about megacities where the lives and professional destinies of people often overlap. But there was no such occasion when, for example, an Azerbaijani passenger quarreled with an Armenian taxi driver, or students had a fight "on an ethnic basis" in the courtyard of Tbilisi State University. Although many of them often communicate, have contact, and so on.
Apparently, there is a beneficial role played not only by "social consensus," but by Tbilisi tradition. Tbilisi quite frankly is proud of the Georgian capital being for centuries inhabited side by side by people of many nationalities, sharing bread, joys and sorrows. And the fact that the Armenian Church is adjacent to a mosque is not a propaganda cliché but a geographical and architectural fact.
Let's hope that this tradition will enable Tbilisi residents to calmly meet the tragic date with the inherent dignity of both peoples and the whole multinational people of Georgia.
