Georgia
Georgia's recorded history dates back more than 2,500 years.
Georgian, a South Caucasian (or "Kartvelian") language unrelated to
any other outside the immediate region, is one of the oldest living
languages in the world, and has its own distinctive alphabet.
Tbilisi, located in the picturesque Mtkvari River valley, is more
than 1,500 years old. In the early 4th century Georgia adopted
Christianity, the second nation in the world to do so officially.
Georgia has historically found itself on the margins of great
empires, and Georgians have lived together in a unified state for
only a small fraction of their existence as a people. Much of
Georgia's territory was fought over by Persian, Roman, Byzantine,
Arab, Mongol, and Turkish armies from at least the 1st century B.C.
through the 18th century. The zenith of Georgia's power as an
independent kingdom came in the 11th and 12th centuries, during the
reigns of King David the Builder and Queen Tamara, who still rank
among the most celebrated of all Georgian rulers. In 1783 the king
of Kartli (in eastern Georgia) signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with
the Russians, by which Russia agreed to take the kingdom as its
protectorate. In 1801, the Russian empire began the piecemeal
process of unifying and annexing Georgian territory, and for most of
the next two centuries (1801-1991) Georgia found itself ruled from
St. Petersburg and Moscow. Exposed to modern European ideas of
nationalism under Russian tutelage, Georgians like the writer Ilya
Chavchavadze began calling for greater Georgian independence. In the
wake of the collapse of tsarist rule and war with the Turks, the
first Republic of Georgia was established on May 26, 1918, and the
country enjoyed a brief period of independence under the Menshevik
president, Noe Zhordania. However, in March 1921, the Russian Red
Army re-occupied the country, and Georgia became a republic of the
Soviet Union. Several of the Soviet Union's most notorious leaders
in the 1920s and 1930s were Georgian, such as Joseph Stalin, Sergo
Orjonikidze, and Lavrenti Beria. In the postwar period, Georgia was
perceived as one of the wealthiest and most privileged of Soviet
republics, and many Russians treated the country's Black Sea coast
as a kind of Soviet Riviera. On April 9, 1991, the Supreme Council
of the Republic of Georgia declared independence from the U.S.S.R. |
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Beset by ethnic and civil strife from independence in 1991, Georgia
began to stabilize in 1995. The separatist conflicts in Georgia's
regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia remain unresolved, although
cease-fires are in effect. In Abkhazia, the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) maintains a peacekeeping force (in fact,
composed only of Russian forces), and the United Nations maintains
an Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), both of which monitor
compliance with the 1994 cease-fire agreement. In South Ossetia, the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has the
prime role in monitoring the 1992 cease-fire and facilitating
negotiations. A Joint Peacekeeping Force composed of Georgian,
Russian, and Ossetian troops patrols the region.
The Georgian Government stakes much of its future on the revival of
the ancient Silk Road as a Eurasian transportation corridor, using
Georgia's geography as a bridge for the transit of goods, including
oil and gas, between Europe and Asia. Georgians are renowned for
their hospitality and artistry in dance, theater, music, and design. |
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