The Ossetians in Georgia are a group of ethnic Ossetians, settling mainly the central Georgia, the region of Shida Kartli and the district of Borjomi. [1]
The Ossetians in Georgia are a group of ethnic Ossetians, settling mainly the central Georgia, the region of Shida Kartli and the district of Borjomi. [1]
Ossetian migration to the Georgian regions began in the 13th and 14th centuries and is believed to be connected to the fall of Kingdom of Alania in the North Caucasus to the Mongols and later to Timur's armies. They retreated into the mountains of the central Caucasus and gradually started moving south, across the Caucasus Mountains into the Kingdom of Georgia. [2] [4] In the 17th century, under pressure from the Kabardian princes, Ossetians started a second wave of migration from the North Caucasus to the Kingdom of Kartli. [5]
In 1801, the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti was annexed into the Russian Empire. In 19th century, the Ossetians also settled the historical Georgian Trialeti province. [6]
Following the breakdown of the Tsarist regime in Russia, Ossetians allied with the Russian Bolsheviks, fighting a war against the newly independent Menshevik Georgia. Initially Georgia was successful, but in 1921, the Red Army invaded and conquered the country. In 1922 South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was established within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (SOAO) by the Soviet administration under pressure from Kavburo (the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party). [7] It is believed that the SAOA was established by central Soviet government in exchange for Ossetian loyalty and support of Russian Bolsheviks in their fight against Georgian Mensheviks. [8] This area had never been a separate entity prior to the Russian invasion. [9] [10] The drawing of administrative boundaries of the South Ossetian AO was quite a complicated process. Many Georgian villages were included within the South Ossetian AO despite numerous protests by the Georgian population. While the city of Tskhinvali did not have a majority Ossetian population, it was made the capital of the South Ossetian AO. [11] [12] In 1922, the recently created South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast claimed the villages, mainly settled by Ossetians in Trialeti as its exclave - to no avail, however. [13] [14]
Georgia is a transcontinental country located in Eastern Europe and West Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the north and northeast, Turkey to the southwest, Armenia to the south, and by Azerbaijan to the southeast. The country covers an area of 69,700 square kilometres (26,900 sq mi), and has a population of 3.7 million people. Tbilisi is its capital and largest city, home to roughly a third of the Georgian population.
The Ossetians, also known as Ossetes, Ossets, and Alans, are an Eastern Iranic ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia, a region situated across the northern and southern sides of the Caucasus Mountains. They natively speak Ossetic, an Eastern Iranian language of the Indo-European language family, with most also being fluent in Russian as a second language.
South Ossetia, officially the Republic of South Ossetia or the State of Alania, is a partially recognised landlocked state in the South Caucasus. It has an officially stated population of just over 56,500 people (2022), who live in an area of 3,900 square kilometres (1,500 sq mi), with 33,000 living in the capital city, Tskhinvali.
Shida Kartli is a landlocked administrative region (Mkhare) in eastern Georgia. It comprises a central part of the historical-geographic province of Shida Kartli. With an area of 5,729 square kilometres (2,212 sq mi), Shida Kartli is the 8th largest Georgian region by land area. With 284,081 inhabitants, it is Georgia's seventh-most-populous region. Shida Kartli's capital and largest city, Gori, is the 5th largest city in Georgia.
Tskhinvali or Tskhinval is the capital of the disputed de facto independent Republic of South Ossetia, internationally considered part of Shida Kartli, Georgia .Tskhinvali Region, known historically as Samachablo, was always part of the Georgian state as a single military and administrative entity. It is located on the Great Liakhvi River approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi) northwest of the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
The Abkhazia conflict is a territorial dispute over Abkhazia, a region on the eastern coast of the Black Sea in the South Caucasus, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. The conflict involves Georgia, Russian Federation and Russian-backed self-proclaimed Republic of Abkhazia, internationally recognised only by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria; Georgia and all other United Nations members consider Abkhazia a sovereign territory of Georgia. However, as of 2023, Georgia lacks de facto control over the territory.
Samtskhe–Javakheti is a region (mkhare) in southern Georgia with a population of 147.400 (2023) and an area of 6,413 km2 (2,476 sq mi). The region has Akhaltsikhe as its administrative center, while Besik Amiranashvili is governor of the region since August 2018. Samtskhe–Javakheti is compiled of the historical Georgian provinces Meskheti, Javakheti and Tori.
The Georgian–Ossetian conflict is an ethno-political conflict over Georgia's former autonomous region of South Ossetia, which evolved in 1989 and developed into a war. Despite a declared ceasefire and numerous peace efforts, the conflict remained unresolved. In August 2008, military tensions and clashes between Georgia and South Ossetian separatists erupted into the Russo-Georgian War. Since then, South Ossetia has been under Russian occupation.
The South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was an autonomous oblast of the Soviet Union created within the Georgian SSR on April 20, 1922. Its autonomy was revoked on December 11, 1990 by the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR, leading to the First South Ossetian War. Currently, its territory is controlled by the breakaway Republic of South Ossetia.
Dvaleti was a historical and ethnographic region in medieval Georgia. Territory in the central part of the Greater Caucasus Mountains, between Mamison Pass and Darial Gorge was associated with Dvaleti. According to Vakhusthi Bagrationi territory of Dvaleti included several gorges, namely: Kasris-Kkhevi, Zramaga, Zhghele, Nara Gorge, Zrogo, and Zakha. Some authors also mentioned Trusso Gorge and Magrandvaleti as being part of Dvaleti, while others disagree. Dvaleti was integral part of the Georgian Kingdoms from the 4th to 3rd century BC onward. After the Russian annexation of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, in 1859 Dvaleti was excluded from the Tiflis Governorate and incorporated into the Terek Oblast. On modern maps historical region Dvaleti can be found in the south of North Ossetia–Alania, Russian Federation.
The Dvals were a ethnographic group of Georgians. their lands lying on both sides of the central Greater Caucasus mountains, somewhere between the Darial and Mamison gorges. This historic territory mostly covers the north of Kartli, parts of the Racha and Khevi regions in Georgia and south of Ossetia in Russia.
The Georgian–Ossetian conflict of 1918–1920 were a series of uprisings, which took place in the Ossetian-inhabited areas of what is now South Ossetia, a breakaway republic in Georgia, against the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic and then the Menshevik-dominated Democratic Republic of Georgia which claimed several thousand lives and left painful memories among the Georgian and Ossetian communities of the region.
The 1991–1992 South Ossetia War was fought between Georgian government forces and ethnic Georgian militias on one side and the forces of South Ossetian separatists and Russia on the other. The war ended with a Dagomys Agreement, signed on 24 June 1992, which established a joint peacekeeping force and left South Ossetia divided between the rival authorities.
The Sukhumi riot was a riot in Sukhumi, Abkhaz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, Soviet Union, in July 1989, triggered by an increasing inter-ethnic tensions between the Abkhaz and Georgian communities and followed by several days of street fighting and civil unrest in Sukhumi and throughout Abkhazia.
The country of Georgia became part of the Russian Empire in the 19th century. Throughout the early modern period, the Muslim Ottoman and Persian empires had fought over various fragmented Georgian kingdoms and principalities; by the 18th century, Russia emerged as the new imperial power in the region. Since Russia was an Orthodox Christian state like Georgia, the Georgians increasingly sought Russian help. In 1783, Heraclius II of the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti forged an alliance with the Russian Empire, whereby the kingdom became a Russian protectorate and abjured any dependence on its suzerain Persia. The Russo-Georgian alliance, however, backfired as Russia was unwilling to fulfill the terms of the treaty, proceeding to annex the troubled kingdom in 1801, and reducing it to the status of a Russian region. In 1810, the western Georgian kingdom of Imereti was annexed as well. Russian rule over Georgia was eventually acknowledged in various peace treaties with Persia and the Ottomans, and the remaining Georgian territories were absorbed by the Russian Empire in a piecemeal fashion in the course of the 19th century.
This article describes the background of the Russo-Georgian War.
South Ossetia is an autonomous region in Georgia, approximately 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level on the slopes of the Greater Caucasus. Although it declared independence in 2008, only a few countries acknowledge it. The region is inhabited by Ossetians, an Iranian ethnic group. According to Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Syria and Nauru, it is one of the world's newest independent states. All other states and international organisations consider South Ossetia an autonomous region of Georgia, functioning as a de facto state for twenty years after declaring independence and conducting a successful armed rebellion. Its Georgian inhabitants have been displaced. South Ossetia has been a source of tension for a number of years, with Georgia and Russia's political differences impeding peaceful independence and breeding a turbulent series of events which undermine the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Eredvi basilica of Saint George is an early 10th-century Georgian Orthodox church in the village of Eredvi in the Shida Kartli region, currently in the disputed territory of South Ossetia. It was constructed by the architect Tevdore Taplaisdze, who laid foundation of the church in 906 as related in a Georgian inscription on the building. The church is a three-nave basilica, which, despite later reconstructions, has largely preserved its original architectural features. The church is inscribed on the list of the Immovable Cultural Monuments of National Significance of Georgia. After the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, the Georgians lost access to the church and services there were restricted by the South Ossetian authorities.
The Georgia–South Ossetia separation line is a de facto boundary set up in aftermath of the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War and Russo-Georgian War, which separates the self-declared Republic of South Ossetia from the territory controlled by the Government of Georgia. South Ossetia, and those states that recognise its independence, view the line as an international border separating two sovereign states, whereas the Georgian government views it as an occupation line in accordance with the Georgian "Law on Occupied Territories of Georgia". The Constitution of Georgia does not recognize South Ossetia as having any special status within Georgia, therefore the line does not correspond to any Georgian administrative area, with the territory claimed by the Republic of South Ossetia shared out amongst several Georgian Mkhares: Shida Kartli, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti and Mtskheta-Mtianeti.
The Rebellion in Tskhinvali was military uprising by Ossetians against the Democratic Republic of Georgia in the city of Tskhinvali in March 1918. The uprising ended with failure.
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