More than half of the Armenians living in Georgia inhabit in Javakhk (currently administratively divided into Samtskhe–Javakhk Province and Tsalka District of Kvemo Kartli Province). The administrative territorial redistributions, that took place in the Soviet Georgia after the Second World War, as well as large and small demographic shifts, that happened during the war and in after years, had a serious impact on both the administrative divisions and the demographic picture of the heavily Armenian-populated southern regions of the Georgian SSR. The Georgian (Cartvelian) element came to replace the Muslim element (Turk–Meskhetians) who were massively moved from the mentioned territories.

KeywordsGeorgia Javakhk Georgians Armenians population national composition census official data dynamics.

One of the most important events in the Armenian Highland at the turn of the 4th-3rd millennia BC is the spread of the Early Bronze Age Kura-Araxes culture towards the other parts of the highland and beyond. This phenomenon is known as “Kura-Araxes expansion”. The dating of the “expansion” at around 3000-2900 BC shows that it took place during the period of drastic climate change known as “5.2 ka BP climate event”.

Keywords Kura-Araxes culture expansion climate change palaeoenvironment mobility population movement depopulation.

Тhe 7th c. BC is considered as the period of formation and rise of the Median Empire. Meantime, economic crises, political instability, ethnic migrations, decline in military power, foreign invasions and, eventually, collapse of ancient state structures and depopulation were observed in the Armenian Highland and in Mesopotamia in the same period. These phenomena have usually occurred in the dramatic periods of the history of ancient Near East and, as a rule, were conditioned by climate change-related problems.

KeywordsMedian Empire Iranian Plateau Assyria Urartu palaeoenvironment climate changes crisis ethnic migrations depopulation.