War and Revolution in the Caucasus

Georgia Ablaze

Stephen F. Jones

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780415565271
• eBook ISBN: 9781317987628
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: International Relations
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The South Caucasus has traditionally been a playground of contesting empires. This region, on the edge of Europe, is associated in Western minds with ethnic conflict and geopolitical struggles in August 2008. Yet, another war broke out in this distant European periphery as Russia and Georgia clashed over the secessionist territory of South Ossetia. The war had global ramifications culminating in deepening tensions between Russia on the one hand, and Europe and the USA on the other. Speculation on the causes and consequences of the war focused on Great Power rivalries and a new Great Game, on oil pipeline routes, and Russian imperial aspirations.

This book takes a different tack which focuses on the domestic roots of the August 2008 war. Collectively the authors in this volume present a new multidimensional context for the war. They analyse historical relations between national minorities in the region, look at the link between democratic development, state-building, and war, and explore the role of leadership and public opinion. Digging beneath often simplistic geopolitical explanations, the authors give the national minorities and Georgians themselves, the voice that is often forgotten by Western analysts.

This book was based on a special issue of Central Asian Survey.

Index

Page numbers in Italics represent tables.

Page numbers in Bold represent figures.

Abashidze, A. 35, 50, 127; corrupt and authoritarian 51; corruption and power mongering 56

Abkhaz 10, 13, 18

Abkhazia: armed conflict 125, 142–3; associate status 17; Constitution (1921) 10; economic blockade 33; expansion of population 17; expulsion of Muslims (1877) 9; Georgian population 20; Georgian settlers 17; incorporation (1864) 9; map of ix; pro-Russian elites 145; public opinion 1, 5; recurrent protests (1931-1989) 18; Russia as protector 18; Russian language 14; Russian military support 44; shadow sovereignty 20; Soviet regime 13–15; Sukhum/i violence 30; under Shevardnadze 32–3; Upper Kodori Gorge 36, 37, 146

Abkhazia and South Ossetia: de facto states 56–7, 65, 81; officially recognized as states by Russia 64, 74, 147; use of force in conflicts 103

Abkhazian diaspora: return of 148

Abkhazian independence 148

Abkhazian National Soviet 10

Abkhazian state television 142

Abkhazian State University 18

Abkhazians: Russian passports 33

Achara 50; autonomous status 50; Constitution (1921) 10; drug smuggling 128; under control of Tbilisi xiv

Acharan autonomy 51–2

Acharan autonomy law (2004) 50

Acharan elections 50, 51

Acharan legal code 51

Acharans: separate category from Georgians 50

AES Silk Road 110

agriculture 12

Akhalkalaki: Russian military base 4, 53–4

Akuab, A. 142

Algeria: Arabization 16

Amnesty International 20

Amza-Natia Hewitt, G. 148

anti-corruption reforms 48, 49, 50, 53; confiscated financial resources 131; and South Ossetians 58

anti-democratic developments: Georgia 106

Arabization: Algeria 16

Armenia 110

Armenian minorities 20

Armenian population: Javakheti region 33

Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict 21

Ascherson, N. 145–6, 148

assimilados 11, 13, 15

associate status: Abkhazia 17

atheism 16

Azeri m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Notes on contributors
• Abstracts
• Preface Georgia on everybody’s mind: the aftermath of war
• Introduction Georgia’s domestic front
• ‘David and Goliath’ and ‘Georgians in the Kremlin’: a post-colonial perspective on conflict in post-Soviet Georgia
• Managing ethnic diversity in Georgia: one step forward, two steps back
• The dangers of reform: state building and national minorities in Georgia
• The August 2008 war in Georgia: from ethnic conflict to border wars
• Compromising democracy: state building in Saakashvili’s Georgia
• Saakashvili in the public eye: what public opinion polls tell us
• Georgia’s economy: post-revolutionary development and post-war difficulties
• Corruption and organized crime in Georgia before and after the ‘Rose Revolution’
• The view from Abkhazia of South Ossetia ablaze
• Index