Breakaway regions
Georgia is a relatively small country. It is the size of West Virginia with 5 million people. But size does not matter. The place is as complicated and as intricate and as messed-up as the entire former Russian Imperium altogether. Its location is one reason for this. It sits on the crucial land-bridge joining the Russian north with the Persian and Turkish south. Historically, this land-bridge has been marched over in countless wars, struggles, invasions, whatever. And every invasion, every war, every conqueror left its mark on the look and feel of Georgia.
There are those stories (which have nothing to do with Georgia, but bear with me) about ancient ruins in Afghanistan which, of course, due to the almost constant state of war in that country for the last thirty years, have never been fully excavated, but amazing initial discoveries were made. For example: ancient Hellenistic coins and artifacts were found in ancient ruins all over Afghanistan, which meant that Alexander the Great actually had moved farther east than anyone had ever realized. These coins from ancient Greece were proof positive of Alexander’s presence in the region. Which made his travels even more astounding, if you look at the distance he had to move. There are also, in the ancient ruins, buildings with Hellenistic features, columns and porticoes, etc. The ancient war leaving its mark.
Georgia is also filled with legacies like that. Evidence of their history in the architecture, the street names, the ancient churches. Georgia has a long and complicated history with Turkey, with Persia. Both countries have left indelible marks on what Georgia looks like. “Georgia for Georgians” is all well and good, but one cannot deny that the history here is extremely multicultural. And always has been.
One of the weirdest and most complicated things about Georgia is all of the “breakaway regions” and “autonomous regions” it has. In such a small country, this is quite bizarre. There are people basically who live in one specific TOWN who say, “We do not like Georgia. Our ancestors were originally from OogaBoogaBoo so we now call our town OogaBoogavian.”
Shevardnadze certainly has his work cut out for him.
There’s the region called Abkhazia, in Northwestern Georgia, which has declared itself autonomous from Georgia. Again, it really doesn’t matter if Abkhazia announces to the whole world: “Hi, there. We are our OWN THING now.” If the world doesn’t recognize this, then nothing will change. Maps will stay the same. There are many countries out there right now who have declared themselves to the world, and the world turns away. “Nope. You are not legitimate. We won’t give you the time of day.” Afghanistan under the Taliban was one example. Burma (or is it Myanmar??) is another.
So Abkhazia. What is their deal? Here’s what I get from the little I have read: Abkhazia is one of the most beautiful places on the planet (apparently). They have dreams of turning themselves into a resort: they are right on the Black Sea so the whole place has a very Mediterranean feel, with a Mediterranean climate. And a ton of natural beauty. As long as they are attached to Georgia, and are somehow beholden to a government (a government which has not yet completely gained control of the country, a government which cannot hold back the forces of corruption and cynicism), they will be stuck. Trapped. Their dream is to liberate themselves from Georgia and go on and become the Riviera of the Caucasus.
Georgia of course recognizes the potential gold mine that is Abkhazia. It could be a cash cow for the country if they ever got their act together. Right now, no tourist in their right mind is going to come to Georgia for a vacation. It is still too dangerous and chaotic. Once those problems are resolved and order starts to occur naturally in the country, then they can build up Abkhazia, and let the money start rolling in.
Abkhazia wants none of this. In 1990, 100,000 Abkhazians declared their intention to separate from Georgia and form their own state. Georgia basically said, in the midst of the civil war, “In your DREAMS. You ain’t goin’ NOWHERE.” Russia got involved, on the side of the separatists, which made things tremendously worse. Russia backed up the rebellion, supplying arms and support. Full-out war ensued, leading to 10,000 deaths. Additionally, there was a lot of ethnic cleansing going on. The Abkhazians set out to cleanse their region of ethnic Georgians. 200,000 Georgians were killed or displaced. The country was suddenly filled with internal refugees, wandering around, trying to figure out where to go next. Gamsakhurdia was president at the time. The refugees were kept from leaving Abkhazia by the main road due to Gamsakhurdia’s road blocks. He had cordoned off “Abkhazia”. The thousands and thousands of people, fleeing for their lives, had to detour through the Caucasus mountains, which are not gentle rolling hills. It is a mountain range. A daunting mountain range. Thousands of Georgians died in this attempt.
The ethnicity of the Abkhazians is ancient and Caucasian, but their tribe is older and stronger than most. They were the last to be conquered by the Russians. There had actually been plans before Stalin’s death to exile the entire Abkhazian population to Siberia because they were such troublemakers, and so hard to govern and subdue.
Then there’s another small breakaway region which is known by two different names, but the official one is Ajaria. The population here is mainly Muslim, but they do speak a Georgian dialect. They feel very connected to Turkey, which is right over the border. Lenin created Ajaria in 1921, using the whole different religion thing as the perfect opportunity to divide and conquer. The people who live here, as Muslims, do not want to be part of such a firmly and faithfully Orthodox Christian country as Georgia. They insist on their autonomy. Whatever, people. Turkey, right next door, with a long hostile relationship with Georgia, supports this breakaway province, and undermines Georgia’s attempts to make everything right.
Ajaria basically consists of one town and the area surrounding the town: Batumi. Batumi has an interesting history. It sits smack at the point where the Anatolian (Turkish) plateau meets the Caucasus mountains. It is so amazing to me how geography determines history in many ways. In ancient times, Batumi was a port on the Black Sea. It was either a Roman, a Byzantine, or a Persian port, depending on the year. Batumi was a jewel to be captured. Whoever controlled Batumi controlled the traffic on the Black Sea. So it kept changing hands throughout history, until it fell under the Ottoman Empire’s shadow. Centuries of Ottoman rule pass for Batumi. In 1877 the Russians captured Batumi. In 1918, the Turks retook Batumi. After the armistice, 15,000 British troops replaced the Turks. Within two years, the Bolsheviks grabbed control again, and the British left.
Batumi’s border was snapped shut for DECADES. Incomprehensible. This once cosmopolitan seaport, host to every culture, open to the Black Sea, in the land of the Golden Fleece, closed down. Like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory: nobody every goes in, and nobody ever comes out. Batumi, a teeny city, was trapped and squished between two massive regional superpowers: NATO-member Turkey on one side, and Communist Soviet Union on the other.
But in recent years, Ajaria is no longer called Ajaria, it is now called Aslanistan. Here’s why: The region is now run by a warlord (a kind of cuddly benign warlord, but a warlord nonetheless) named Aslan Abashidze. Hence, “Aslanistan”. This would be like Rudy Guiliani saying, “Manhattan is no longer Manhattan. It is now GuilianiLand. ” Or “New York City, from this day forth, will be called RudyStan.” Abashidze is a criminal. An extortionist, a bully. He has set up “customs” offices all along the border with Turkey, which basically bribes everybody coming in or going out. It is an openly and blatantly criminal enterprise and it’s how Abashidze subsidizes his power over the region.
Also, and here’s where it gets dangerous and ominous: Aslan is a Muslim. Of course. He has packed his bureaucracy with Muslim officials. He has filled Batumi with new mosques. A mosque on every corner. He wants to institutionalize the difference between Ajaria and Georgia. He wants nothing to do with the infidel country surrounding him on every side. Robert Kaplan (of course) says the following about Abashidze’s obsession with having more mosques than churches:
In the ex-Soviet Caucasus, where religion was less a factor in ethnic identity than in the Balkans, this was a clear case of a modern politician inventing hatreds retrospectively. Abashidze was a small man with a large ego and a noble surname: his grandfather Mehmet had played a key role in brokering the agreement between Lenin and Ataturk that settled the border here. Aslan, as he was called, liked to receive visiting dignitaries in the new tennis courts he had built, which were the pride of his warlord fiefdom … His offices were generic Communist style: massive white-marble hallways and dark red carpets that dwarfed a metal detector and a small cheap table. Around the latter stood a group of tough-looking young Georgians, who carried cell phones and sidearms and rubbed their unshaven cheeks as they inspected my Atlantic Monthly business card. Outside the office was a militiaman, also unshaven. His shoes were worn down to the soles, his uniform was missing buttons, and he was wearing one of those grandiose visored caps favored by the Soviet military. His breath stank, and he asked me for a cigarette. The official face of government here was uncivil, untamed.
And last but not least we have Ossetia. Ossetia is a region of north-central Georgia. Ossetes are a hodge-podge. They are both Muslims and Orthodox Christians. They speak a language akin to Persian. Their religious diversity helped keep them neutral in czarist Russia’s campaigns and pogroms against purely Muslim people: (the Chechens, the Ingush, the Dagestanis). Ossetia is also in a very important strategic position. It straddles the north and south slopes of the High Caucasus, halfway in between the Black and the Caspian seas.
Muslim/Christian Ossetia emerged as an ally (it’s amazing how these things work) to the atheistic Soviet Union. Both Lenin and Stalin adopted the Ossetes as favored people, not to be messed with or deported or slaughtered. Good of them, huh? So kind, so generous. They were given an autonomous republic on the northern slopes of the mountains, and also an autonomous region within Georgia. The Ingush, on the other hand, were deported, en masse, in 1944. The entire population of Ingush were dispersed and banished into exile. Killed, imprisoned, shot, whatever. In 1950, the Ingush who had survived all of that came back to Ossetia, their former home, to find all of the land taken up by the Ossetes. This (as I am sure you can imagine) ended up causing enormous problems. It still causes problems to this day.
The Soviet Union collapsed. Spectacularly. Civil war broke out in Ossetia. In North Ossetia, ethnic war exploded between Ossetes and Ingush, now sworn and bitter enemies. In 1992, the Northern Ossetes expelled thousands of Ingush, adding to the number of war refugees staggering through the country. In 1993, South Ossetia declared its intention to leave Georgia and join North Ossetia in a new “Greater Ossetia.”
Warning: any time any country wants to call itself “Greater” anything, you can be sure that ethnic cleansing will follow.
Which is just what happened. War broke out. 30,000 ethnic Georgians were expelled forcibly from Ossetia. None of this has been resolved or cleaned up, but Ossetia does declare itself independent from Georgia and to get in and out you have to pay a fee. (Which is a complete racket. We are talking about drunken staggering homeless soldiers, hailing cars to stop, and then forcing the people in the cars to hand over their wallets.)
In everything I have read about the current situation in Ossetia, I have heard nothing good. As a matter of fact, the term “low circle of hell” was used a couple of times. It is a kiosk economy. There is no government, no one is in charge of anything, there are no services, there is no infrastructure, everything is falling apart.
If I’ve missed any other “breakaway regions” in Georgia, please let me know. These are the ones I am aware of.
A highly volatile situation. To be watched closely.
