Issues of Georgian-Turkish Relations in the Publicistic Writings of Kita Abashidze

Abstract

The prominent Georgian public figure and critic Kita (Ivane) Abashidze (1870-1917) published in 1915-1916 a series of articles devoted to neighboring peoples in the newspaper Megobari (“Friend”), later renamed Chveni Megobari (“Our Friend”), the press organ of the Kutaisi organization of the Georgian Socialist-Federalist Party.
Initially he published ten articles entitled We and the Armenians and two entitled We and the Tatars. In our opinion, the publication of these articles was conditioned by two circumstances: First, in 1914 a book by the Armenian author B. Ishkhanyan was published in Tbilisi under the title The Economic and Social Foundations of the Hostility Between Georgians and Armenians, in which Georgian-Armenian relations are presented in an extremely biased and one-sided manner. Second, the Viceroy of the Caucasus, Vorontsov-Dashkov (1905-1915), who pursued a pro-Armenian policy, was recalled from the region.
In his publications, the author addressed several important issues concerning Georgian- Armenian relations. Among them was the Armenian aspiration toward hegemony in Transcaucasia, which, according to the author, was facilitated by the Russian administration in the Caucasus—allegedly bribed and influenced by the Armenian bourgeoisie—under the leadership of the Viceroy Vorontsov-Dashkov.
In his articles, K. Abashidze strongly opposed these Armenian aspirations. His polemic with Armenian nationalist circles led Kita Abashidze to articulate the position of Georgian society toward other neighboring peoples and to clarify their attitudes on matters that had become the subject of dispute and controversy. As noted above, two of his articles (We and the Tatars) were devoted to relations with the Tatars (i.e., Azerbaijanis) and were published in the newspaper Chveni Megobari.