Georgian Stance by Tom Trier

Tom Trier, senior research associate for the European Centre for Minority Issues and its regional director in the Caucasus was interviewed by Sergey Markedonov (Caucasus Times) on the subject of the publication: Under Siege: Inter-Ethnic Relations in Abkhazia Authors/Editors: Tom Trier, Hedvig Lohm and David Szakonyi (Publisher: London: Hurst & Co., 2010).

As a Regional Representative for the Caucasus with a background in social anthropology, Tom Trier specialises in ethno-national and migration issues in Eastern Europe and the CIS, particularly in the Caucasus region. Though Tom Trier was deployed in Tbilisi as Regional Representative for the Caucasus, it is hard to imagine a European expert living in Georgia who, under the guise of research, could express such a one-sided attitude to the Abkhazian question. One of his biased assertions (viz. the “privileged status of the Abkhazians”) can only be understood if we assume it to be of Georgian origin.

One cannot but accord Georgia’s propaganda machine due respect, for, as in so many other cases one could cite, Tier simply took its output on trust, not even bothering to seek any proof of the accuracy of his Georgian sources.

Even so, some information could have been found in Georgia, had the author made the effort to acquaint himself with the researches of some Georgian political experts in Tbilisi.

Paata Zakareishvili, the Chairman of the Georgian NGO Institute of Nationalism and Conflict Studies, describing Georgian reluctance both to admit past mistakes and to seal a dignified peace with the Abkhazian people as a dangerous symptom of Georgian malaise, has clearly stated that the bid for independence was triggered by Georgian xenophobia and intolerance. “Either through reluctance or incompetence, the government in Tbilisi proved incapable of driving a wedge between its separatist leaders and the population at large. It then proceeded to adopt short-sighted and even criminal policies towards the Abkhazian people, forging a new solidarity among the breakaway factions."                                                  
                                                                                           
Revaz Gachechiladze in his research entitled Geographical Background to a Settlement of the Conflict in Abkhazia described the growth of the ‘Georgian’ population in Abkhazia since the end of the 19th century as the rapid consolidation of the Georgian nation and an increase in its national consciousness. The area of Georgian settlement was constantly expanding, and they were becoming the direct competitors to the Russians in this sector along the Black Sea coast.

Georgian journalist and human rights activist, Sozar Subeliani, who served as Ombudsman of Georgia from 2004 to 2009, thinks that the rise and fall of the Georgian nationalist movement  were equally swift. Many political observers contend that this phenomenon was deliberately engineered by the Soviet regime in a bid to manipulate the independence-process. In his research entitled The rise and fall of Georgian nationalism, he quoted Ramaz Sakhvarelidze, a psychologist and former prime minister, as saying that "The Russian government plotted to give the nationalist movement an ethnic rather than a political flavour - an emotional, aggressive nationalism that was not conducive to forming solid state structures." He also refers to political commentator Nodar Dzhibladze, who thinks that Georgia needs a nationalist ideology to establish its identity and its position on the international map.
                                                                                                                                                 
Furthermore, Subeliani quoted ex-President Eduard Shevardnadze as saying that they were working to establish an independent and democratic Georgian state with geo-political and international integrity and that their opponents had to prove that they could improve on their policies or introduce a more acceptable political direction and that he knew no politicians capable of achieving this. Subeliani termed as paradoxical the fact that  Shevardnadze seemed to embody the nationalist ideology to a far greater extent than those who accuse him of betraying the national interests.
                                                                                                     
Gia Tarkhan-Mouravi, of the Institute for Policy Studies, considers that the demand for exclusive rights to a specific territory by one ethnic group or another is often linked to the demand for "autochthonous" status, while only "guest"-status is attributed to other groups. Such claims are generally based on an arbitrary use of historical facts. Some Georgian scholars have argued, for instance, that the Abkhazians came to Abkhazia from the North Caucasian mountains only relatively recently.

Worth recalling in this regard is the Report No 34. Department of Peace and Conflict Research. Uppsala University On Conditions for Durable Inter-State Boundary Agreements

Territory is equally important for social units, such as the "nation". Concepts such as "nation-state" and "state-nation" point to two types of relationship between the state as a political unit and the nation as a social unit. The territory "bridges" these two concepts, since the state as well as the nation include territory as a defining property. There is no non-territorial "state" and definitions of a "nation" usually include a reference to territory. The "nation" is an identity - shaping unit, as is "family". Both need a territory- a certain geographical area, or a home- in order to function as identity-giving. Here, focus is on the situation where a certain disputed area contains values, for one or both parties, that relate to the identity of the party or of a group within each party.