Davitgaredja according to old cartographic sources

Author: Dali Nikolaishvili
Keywords: State border, Historiical maps, Davitgaredja, Georgia
Annotation:

As various historical atlases of Georgia compiled on the basis of different historical sources suggest, Davitgareja was a part of Caucasian Albania in the VI-I cc. BC. The situation slightly changed later, but the territory between the rivers Mtkvari and Iori (Karaia Valley in particular, the whole Davitgareja complex) was a part of Georgia for centuries. Surely, we do not have the maps of that period. Rather, the only source of the atlas by Vakhushti Bagrationi, which can be used to decide the question of affiliation of Davitgareja with Georgia. With the aim to study the transformations of the borders of Georgia, the maps published at the times of the Russian empire, including average- and large-scale general geographic maps were compared and analyzed. The contours of borders drawn on them (political, administrative) allow for retrospective of the borders of hat period. As per the Constitution of Georgia, the border of our country presents the administrative border of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia established by the legislative acts of the former USSR. This means that the Agreement on Regulating the Borders concluded between Georgian SSR and Azerbaijan SSR on July 5, 1921 is valid. The Agreement states that the political borders remained the same, i.e. as given in Aghstafa Agreement of June 12, 1920. This means that Davitgareja and its adjacent territories remained on the territory of Georgia. As per the Agreement, the demarcation line was agreed based on a 5-Verst map (modern scale: 1:210,000). An administrative line drawn between Borchalo and Kazakh Uyezds was fixed as a border between Georgia and Azerbaijan. On February 25, 1921, Russia annexed the Democratic Republic of Georgia and the Georgian-Azerbaijani border suffered a territorial loss, as well.

Lecture files:

Davitgaredja according to old cartographic sources [en]
დავითგარეჯა ძველი კარტოგრაფიული წყაროების მიხედვით [ka]