CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) ContEurVIII2 | Page 23

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VIII (2) started to openly express its pretensions not only to Lori, but also to Akhalkalaki, and refused to take its army out. Under those circumstances, in December 1918, Armenian forces entered Lori and Borchalu. 2 Hovannisian (1971) asserts that after ten days of violent clashes, a British-brokered ceasefire was reached between the parties that urged the cessation of military actions, but it did not end the hostilities. A provisional agreement signed in January 1919 proclaimed Borchalu (Lori) a “neutral zone” under British supervision. The northern and southern parts of Lori were given to Georgia and Armenia, respectively, and mixed governance was established in the central region. Armenia was forced to return Akhalkalaki to Georgia. The 1918 war generated the problem of the Armenian-Georgian border demarcation 3 . Samkharadze (2012) states that the January 1919 agreement provided a final resolution of the conflict and delimitation of the border at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. However, the Paris Conference did not resolve this issue. After the establishment of Soviet rule in Georgia and the resistance carried out by the Armenian population of Lori, it was reunited with the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR). 4 The border issue between the Georgian and Armenian SSRs again remained unresolved and became a source of tension during the Soviet period. Up until now, the border has not been fully demarcated and delineated. 5 From time to time, the uncertainty becomes the cause of unpleasant, albeit minor incidents. Diverging Foreign Policy Vectors The South Caucasus has historically been subjected to Russian political, economic, and military domination. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian position was remarkably undermined and the United States along with European Union started to pursue the aim of filling the void of influence in the region by expressing their interest in the vast energy resources of the South Caucasus. Except for Armenia,                                                              2 Eric Lee, The Experiment: Georgia's Forgotten Revolution 1918-1921 (London, Zed Books Ltd, The Foundry, 2017). 3 Richard G. Hovannisian, The Republic of Armenia (Los Angeles, University of California Press, 1971). 4 Nika Samkharadze, “Georgian State Border – Past and Present”, Center for Social Science (CSS), (2012), 9-12, http://css.ge/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/nika_border_eng.pdf. 5 Artyom Tonoyan, “Rising Armenian-Georgia Tensions and the Possibility of a New Ethnic Conflict in the South Caucasus”, Demokratizatsiya 18, no. 4 (2010): 301-302. 23