Abstract
Georgian state weakness at the time of the USSR’s collapse created an opportunity for ethnic republics to engage in ethnic mobilization and separation. That weakness, however, was such that it made bargaining over status difficult, and therefore less likely. The Georgian nationalism that helped spur its independence movement alienated its own ethnic minorities, especially the Abkhazians and Ossetians in their titular regions. Even before the full Soviet collapse, the South Ossetians moved toward secession. Abkhazia followed suit 2 years later. The subsequent wars were brutal and tinged with righteous anger on all sides, with each player protesting their own moral superiority in the lead-up and course of the bloodshed. Both wars were relatively short: fighting between Georgia and South Ossetia occurred sporadically from January 1991 to March 1992, with the bulk of violence occurring in spring 1991. The Abkhazian war lasted from August 1992 to July 1993. Both wars ended with a cease-fire, but without political resolution regarding the proper status of the regions as either part of the Georgian territory or as sovereign states. This ambiguous condition persisted for literally decades, such that the international community and the parties to the conflict created their own terminology to diplomatically describe the conditions. South Ossetia and Abkhazia were “de facto” independent states, although “de jure” part of Georgia.
The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.
Edmund Burke1
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Notes
Edmund Burke, “The True Policy of Great Britain towards Her American Colonies,” in English Prose, ed. Henry Craik (London: Macmillan, 1911), 379.
Ronald Grigor Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994).
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There is some debate regarding the ancient heritage of the Ossetians. George Hewitt, a specialist in Caucasian languages and literatures, offers a history that brings the Ossetians to the North Caucasus in the sixth century BC, citing the Ossetian claim to be related to the Iranian Scythians: George Hewitt, “Conflict in the Caucasus,” Asian Affairs 32, no. 2 (2001): 196–97.
Kaufman finds the Ossetian claim of relations to the Sarmatians to be more compelling. Stuart J. Kaufman, Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001), 97.
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Thanks to Tim Blauvelt for this reminder. See also David Lake and Donald Rothchild, “Containing Fear: The Origins and Management of Ethnic Conflict.” International Security 21, no. 2 (1996): 41–75.
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Tamaz Nadareishvili, Conspiracy against Georgia (Tbilisi: 2000).
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See, for example, Charles King, “The Benefits of Ethnic War: Understanding Eurasia’s Unrecognized States,” World Politics 53, no. 4 (2001): 524–52;
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Dov Lynch, Engaging Eurasia’s Separatist States: Unresolved Conflicts and De Facto States (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace Press, 2004), 63.
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Barbara Geddes, Politician’s Dilemma: Building State Capacity in Latin America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994).
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© 2009 Julie A. George
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George, J.A. (2009). Georgia Fragmented, 1990–2003. In: The Politics of Ethnic Separatism in Russia and Georgia. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230102323_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230102323_4
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