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Georgia Close To "Circassian Genocide" Statement

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  • Georgia Close To "Circassian Genocide" Statement

    GEORGIA CLOSE TO "CIRCASSIAN GENOCIDE" STATEMENT
    By Nino Kharadze

    Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR)
    CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 592
    May 24 2011
    UK

    Some analysts warn that delving too deep into other people's history
    could create problems in the here and now.

    Georgia's parliament is moving closer to stating officially that
    Russia's expulsion of the Circassian people from their homeland in
    the 19th century was an act of genocide. If it does so, the move is
    certain to do more damage to an already troubled relationship with
    Moscow, which rejects this description of the historical events.

    Parliament began its consideration of the issue on May 13 by hearing an
    expert report by Merab Chukhua, a professor at Tbilisi's Javakhishvili
    State University. Chukhua recommended that legislators acknowledge that
    Russian imperial action against the Circassians qualified as genocide.

    He said the evidence available indicated that from 1763 to 1864, "the
    political and military leadership of the Russian Empire thoroughly
    planned and implemented ethnic cleansing of Circassian territories". A
    20 per cent loss in population over this period of conquest meant
    the term "genocide" was justified, he added.

    Chukhua said more than 90 per cent of Circassians were killed or
    expelled from their homeland, while Russians and Cossacks were
    systematically settled in these areas.

    Around five million Circassians now live outside the northwest
    Caucasus, mainly in Turkey, and only a million still live in what
    was their homeland until Russia began its southward expansion.

    Nugzar Tsiklauri, chairman of the parliamentary committee for diaspora
    and Caucasian affairs, said he and his colleagues would discuss the
    professor's findings and decide whether to submit them for a full
    debate in the legislature.

    Analysts believe the issue has come to the fore because of Georgian
    anger at Moscow's recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as
    sovereign states in 2008. Both entities have been de facto separate
    from Georgia since conflicts in the early Nineties.

    Also in the mix is the fact that the 2014 Winter Olympics will take
    place in Sochi, part of the Circassian's heartland before they were
    driven out from Black Sea coastal areas. Some Circassian organisations
    have protested against the games being located here. Sochi is also
    close to Russia's border with Abkhazia.

    Tsiklauri denied a direct connection between the winter games and
    the genocide debate, although Georgian deputy prime minister Giorgi
    Baramidze said in November that Russia did not deserve the Olympics
    because of its past policies in the North Caucasus.

    "I don't think the Olympic movement has much to do with the murder of
    hundreds of thousands of people in the North Caucasus, in Chechnya
    and elsewhere," he said. "Sochi, as you well know, is very close to
    the border with Georgia, and [Abkhazia] is under illegal occupation."

    Gigi Tevzadze, the rector of Ilia State University in Tbilisi, sees
    a direct connection between the two issues.

    "The fact that genocide occurred on the lands where they're holding
    the Olympcics could give people serious pause for thought," he said.

    Tevzadze added that a formal statement on Circassian genocide would
    improve Georgia's relationships with the peoples of the North Caucasus.

    Most analysts, however, warned politicians against provoking Russia.

    Even if the proposed genocide decision is right, they argue, it will
    not benefit Georgia politically.

    "Recognising the genocide isn't going to persuade the international
    community not to hold the Olympics in Sochi," Paata Zakareishvili,
    head of the Institute for the Study of Nationalism and Conflict, said.

    "Russia may well take retaliatory action, for example by accusing
    Georgia of organising acts of terrorism in the North Caucasus, or of
    inflaming the situation generally."

    Zakareishvili's comments were echoed by experts like Mamuka Areshidze,
    head of the Caucasus Centre for Strategic Studies, who said he opposed
    a formal genocide statement, even if 19th century history had to be
    considered as Georgia formulated its policy towards the North Caucasus.

    One result, Areshidze warned, would be that "other nations which
    believe they too are victims of genocide will appeal to Georgia -
    first and foremost the Armenians and the Meskhetian Muslims".

    The Meskhetians were removed wholesale from Soviet Georgia in the
    1940s, and are only now beginning to return, while Armenians have
    consistently pressed for Ottoman Turkish actions in 1915 to be
    recognised as a genocide.

    "It would be hard for us to explain to the Armenians why we won't
    recognise their genocide - yet then we would lose our strategic
    partners Turkey and Azerbaijan," Areshidze said.

    Backing the Circassian cause could also have serious effects in
    the already smouldering North Caucasus. The Circassians who still
    live there have struggled to unite as they live spread over several
    autonomous areas, shared with the Karachay, Balkar and other ethnic
    groups. A growth in nationalism and attempts to unify Circassian
    groups could lead to land disputes and bloodshed in the region.

    United States officials have already appealed for calm. In February,
    James Clapper, director of United States national intelligence,
    noted Georgia's attempts to engage in the North Caucasus.

    "Moscow's continued military presence in, and political-economic
    ties to, Georgia's separatist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,
    combined with Georgia's dissatisfaction with the status quo, account
    for some of the tensions," he told a Senate select committee hearing.

    "Georgia's public efforts to engage with various ethnic groups in
    the Russian North Caucasus have also contributed to these tensions."

    Nino Kharadze works for Radio Liberty in Georgia.

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