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A CAUCASUS MENAGE A TROIS
by Giorgi Lomsadze
EurasiaNet
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/61559
July 20 2010
NY
Could the South Caucasus come full circle from pre-Soviet federation
to post-Soviet confederation?
Georgia this weekend suggested building near-confederative relations
with neighboring Azerbaijan to create a one-stop layover point for
Asia-Europe energy and cargo transits. Earlier on, Tbilisi made a
similar proposal to Armenia. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
believes that the future of the South Caucasus lies in the creation of
a single space to cope together with economic and political challenges.
The ongoing push for integration is reminiscent of the late 1910s
when the South Caucasus, an area better known for its penchant for
separatism than for integration, had its first fleeting exercise
in federalism.
With a capital in Tiflis (today's Tbilisi), the Trans-Caucasian
Democratic Federative Republic proclaimed its independence from Russia
in 1918, giving its members a brief chance to tackle together the
triple whammy of Ottomans, Bolsheviks and Tsarists.
The union soon collapsed and saw its members roll on the ground,
fighting, until the Bolsheviks scooped them up, one by one. The
break-up created "rivalries over territory and identity that would
return to haunt the new, post-Soviet countries some seventy years
later," wrote American historian Charles King in his book "The Ghost
of Freedom, a History of the Caucasus."
Now, a few wars and fits of ultra-nationalism later, Georgia has
rediscovered the merits of integration, but more than a few ongoing
differences stand in the way of the hoped-for post-Soviet reunion.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have their 22-year Karabakh complaint, while
Armenia and Georgia -- the one looking toward Moscow, the other toward
Washington -- are kept at odds over an eons-old rivalry for regional
cultural superiority.
For now, the chances look slim that cosmopolitan market logic can
prevail over these headwinds. But new friendships, like new fights,
have always been just a step away in the Caucasus.
From: A. Papazian
by Giorgi Lomsadze
EurasiaNet
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/61559
July 20 2010
NY
Could the South Caucasus come full circle from pre-Soviet federation
to post-Soviet confederation?
Georgia this weekend suggested building near-confederative relations
with neighboring Azerbaijan to create a one-stop layover point for
Asia-Europe energy and cargo transits. Earlier on, Tbilisi made a
similar proposal to Armenia. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili
believes that the future of the South Caucasus lies in the creation of
a single space to cope together with economic and political challenges.
The ongoing push for integration is reminiscent of the late 1910s
when the South Caucasus, an area better known for its penchant for
separatism than for integration, had its first fleeting exercise
in federalism.
With a capital in Tiflis (today's Tbilisi), the Trans-Caucasian
Democratic Federative Republic proclaimed its independence from Russia
in 1918, giving its members a brief chance to tackle together the
triple whammy of Ottomans, Bolsheviks and Tsarists.
The union soon collapsed and saw its members roll on the ground,
fighting, until the Bolsheviks scooped them up, one by one. The
break-up created "rivalries over territory and identity that would
return to haunt the new, post-Soviet countries some seventy years
later," wrote American historian Charles King in his book "The Ghost
of Freedom, a History of the Caucasus."
Now, a few wars and fits of ultra-nationalism later, Georgia has
rediscovered the merits of integration, but more than a few ongoing
differences stand in the way of the hoped-for post-Soviet reunion.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have their 22-year Karabakh complaint, while
Armenia and Georgia -- the one looking toward Moscow, the other toward
Washington -- are kept at odds over an eons-old rivalry for regional
cultural superiority.
For now, the chances look slim that cosmopolitan market logic can
prevail over these headwinds. But new friendships, like new fights,
have always been just a step away in the Caucasus.
From: A. Papazian