Throughout the summer I once again made frequent visits to the Marneuli Municipality of the Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia, this time to work on a report on the many cases of ethnic Armenian-Azerbaijani villages there. Not only do these unique examples of co-inhabitation exist but they do so in a mainly ethnic Azerbaijani part of Georgia that also serves as one of Armenia’s few outlets for trade and transportation as well as its connection to Tbilisi.
Sadly, despite visiting those villages numerous times since 2010 or so, I nonetheless missed a festival held in one – Khojorni – that was staged precisely to celebrate the cosmopolitan nature of the district. Until this year’s report is out, written in collaboration with a colleague from Azerbaijan, you can read my short piece about the festival for the Caspian Post here and there’s an excerpt below. I also intend to write more on this in the coming days and weeks.
Meanwhile, there’s also a piece I wrote for Stratfor on two of those villages in 2017 here.
Nestled in the hills and forests of Georgia just a kilometre from the country’s border with Armenia, the residents of Khojorni, a small village numbering just 635, held on 18 November the first of what it hopes will be an annual multicultural festival, Under One Sky. Though such events are not uncommon throughout the country, what made this one special was that the population comprises one made up of ethnic Armenians and Azerbaijanis.
Lali Margiani, one of the teachers at the local school told the Tbilisi-based Aliq Media that the idea for the festival had been around for years, but plans to stage it had been frustrated by the recent pandemic. According to Margiani, the festival was important to demonstrate that it is “possible to live under one sky without conflict,” and to offer yet another narrative of “coexistence and unity.” Several other villages in the area are also co-inhabited by the two ethnic groups.
“During the years I have lived here, I have not encountered any conflict in this village,” 77-year-old Terlan Suleymanova, a Khojorni resident, told me on one of my many visits for over more than a decade in 2021. “People have always treated each other well, visited each other’s houses, and congratulated each other on their birthdays. We have always had a good relationship. At school, our relationship was even better.”
[…]
In recent weeks, both Baku and Tbilisi again outlined the potential role that Georgia could play in hosting talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan as other platforms continue to falter. They point out that for many ethnic Armenian and Azerbaijani citizens of Georgia there is no conflict among them, especially in locations where the two live in close proximity. This is a remarkable reality that speaks volumes given that found elsewhere. The Khojorni festival hammered that home.
“Dancing together […] under the same sky, Armenians and Azerbaijanis and… me. One Georgian!,” exclaimed Margiani on Facebook the following day.
The full Caspian Post article can be read here. My 2013 RFE/RL photo story is here and my 2017 piece for Stratfor is here.
