Georgian frontier guards do not allow the residents of the border village of Bavra to use their own common lands. Talking to NEWS.am, Head of the village community Kuryun Sumbulyan reported that the villagers have not been allowed to enter an area of 300 hectares of common lands just on the borderline since this May. The Georgian side must be thinking of going 400 meters into the interior of Armenia, into the common lands of the village of Bavra. The villagers have land property certificates issued by the RA State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre. The certificates were issued from 1992 to 2004.

Sumbulyan pointed out that the villagers are mostly engaged in livestock-farming, using the lands for growing fodder.

“We have 1,500 head of cattle. If we are not allowed to use the land, we will have to slaughter some of them,” Sumbulyan said. He also pointed out that he had a preliminary arrangement about the use of the lands. That is, the Georgian side will allow the villagers to use the land provided they, as well as the equipment, go through the checkpoint and return the same way after work. Sumbulyan said that he has to go to Akhltskha, the regional center, to meet with the command of the Georgian frontier guards to arrange about the access to the lands. In their turn, the Armenian frontier guards do not allow the villagers to enter the area to prevent complications: the Georgian frontier guards can arrest villagers and hold them responsible.

Sumbulyan said that the Georgian side has been pursuing this policy of seizing strips of land since 1929, when a small parcel of land was “cut off” from Old Bavra, which enabled Georgia to turn the straight borderline into a curve later.

“Georgia has a practice of marking its borders with forest plantations. Thus they have been going into the interior of our community, seizing parcels of land now here now there,” Sumbulyan said. He showed the strips of land on both sides of the road, which were “made Georgian” by means of forest plantations. He stressed with regret that he has not so far received any clear answers either from the Armenian State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre or from the relevant departments of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

It should be noted that there is legal uncertainty about this part of the Armenian-Georgian border, but Sumbulyan is determined to get the lands back for the community – not only the 300 hectares, which have actually been lost this year, but also the lands that passed to Georgia during the Soviet times. Sumbulyan thinks demarcation should be based on the landscape principle in such cases: a watershed can serve as a dividing line or, if any water basins lack, the land must be demarcated with the flow of precipitated water down the opposite slopes considered.

However, the Georgian side is going into the interior by planting woods. The boundary initially runs along the outer edge of the forest, but, in the course of time, the Georgian side starts laying claims to the entire territory occupied by the forest.

The present situation raises the following questions: are the Bavra common lands really part of the Georgian territory? If so, how could the RA State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre issue land property certificates to the Armenian citizens? According to the information at our disposal, it is a question of 1,500sq. meters of lands.