Georgia for Georgians

Georgia for Georgians is a political slogan and ethno-nationalist doctrine that was popularised by Zviad Gamsakhurdia, the first President of the Republic of Georgia, and his supporters.cite web | last = Chervonnaya | first = Svetlana | title = The Problem of the Repatriation of the Meskhet-Turks | publisher = Minority Electronic Resources | url = http://www.minelres.lv/min/meskh/FUEN_Meskh.htm | accessdate = 2008-09-13] cite news | last = Eckel | first = Mike | title = War frays a patchwork of Georgians, Ossetians | location = Khetagurovo | publisher = Associated Press | date = 24 August 2008 | url = http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iobcUnLxYL-ESqSpZGJzgHuQ9B6wD92OMAC01 | accessdate = 2008-09-13]

For ethnic Georgians, the slogan represents their independence, whilst for non-Georgian citizens of Georgia it represents the diminishing of their political and cultural rights within the Georgian state,cite news | last = Iltis | first = Tony | title = Nationalism, revolution and war in the Caucasus | publisher = Green Left Weekly | date = 23 August 2008 | url = http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/764/39436 | accessdate = 2008-09-13] creating an environment whereby the minority groups in Georgia are made to feel privileged that they are allowed to live on Georgian territory, [cite conference | first = Anna | last = Matveeva | year = 2004 | month = October | title = Minorities in the South Caucasus | conference = Sub-regional Seminar - Minority Rights: Cultural Diversity and Development in Central Asia | publisher = Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights | location = Bishkek | pages = 2-16 | url = http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/minorities/docs/WP3.doc | accessdate = 2008-09-13] and a pretext for ethnic cleansing in regions such as Abkhazia and South Ossetia,cite news | last = Clark | first = Andrew | title = Lunch with the FT: Valery Gergiev | publisher = Financial Times | date = 5 September 2008| url = http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9880da60-7ad9-11dd-adbe-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 | accessdate =2008-09-13 ] and is in part responsible for conflicts which permeate Georgia today.cite book|last=Sriram|first=Chandra Lekha|coauthors=Wermester, Karin; International Peace Academy|others=Matveeva, Anna|title=From Promise to Practice|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=kDVQwN-qBAcC|accessdate=2008-09-14
year=2003|publisher=Lynne Rienner Publishers|location= Boulder, Colorado|isbn=9781588261120|oclc=50868195|pages=pp. 72|chapter=Javakheti, Georgia: Why Conflict Prevention?|chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=kDVQwN-qBAcC&printsec=copyright#PPA163,M1]

Whilst made popular by Gamsakhurdia, it has been suggested by pro-Russian Georgian politican-in-exile Igor Giorgadze and pro-Kremlin analyst Andranik Migranyan, the doctrine has continued to be used by the political establishment in Georgia under Mikheil Saakashvili.cite news | last = Giorgadze | first = Igor | title = Georgia should be the Switzerland of the Caucasus | publisher = Taipei Times | date = 3 October 2006 | url = http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2006/10/03/2003330263 | accessdate = 2008-09-13 ] cite journal|last=Migranyan|first=Andranik|title=Georgia Propelling Its Disintegration|journal=Russia in Global Affairs|volume=4|issue=October-December 2004|pages=125|publisher=Globus Publishing House|location=Moscow|url=http://www.eng.globalaffairs.ru/docs/2004_english4.pdf|accessdate=2008-09-14 ]

Gamsakhurdia era

Whilst both Gia Chanturia and Merab Kostava have been credited with its authorship, the slogan first appeared in April 1989 when political rallies were held in Tbilisi in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic against Soviet rule.ru iconcite news|title=Диссидентство с разными лицами или почему Саакашвили не Дубчек?|publisher=Hayinfo|date=22 August 2008|url=http://www.hayinfo.ru/ru/analytics/policy/35381.html|accessdate=2008-09-15] Accompanied by other slogans such as "The Soviet Union is the Prison of Nations" and "Long Live a Free, Democratic Georgia", "Georgia for Georgians" was the most famous, and worked to attract large crowds to the nationalist demonstrations.cite book|last=Kaufman|first=Stuart J.|title=Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=2Plw98pTk5wC|accessdate=2008-09-15|year=2001|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca, New York; London|isbn=9780801487361|pages=pp 101–102|chapter=Georgia and the Fears of Majorities|chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=2Plw98pTk5wC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA85,M1] Widely attributed in usage to Gamsakhurdia, Konstantine Gamsakhurdia maintains that his father never used the term, and claims the Ossetia issue was not about nationality but politics.cite news | last = Rimple | first = Paul | title = Georgia buries a president, but not the past | publisher = EurasiaNet | date = 2 April 2007 | url = http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav040207.shtml | accessdate =2008-09-13 ]

On 26 May 1991, Gamsakhurdia was elected President of Georgia with 86% of the vote, after campaigning on a platform of Georgian nationalism, "Georgia for Georgians" - under which mixed marriages would be discouraged, citizenship restricted to people who could prove residence prior to Russia's annexation of Georgia in 1801, property rights would be limited to people who voted for national independence in a referendum in April, and "Georgia for Christian Georgians" was promoted despite the separation of church and state.cite news | last = Barry | first = Ellen | title = Soviet Union’s Fall Unraveled Enclave in Georgia | location = Tskhinvali | publisher = New York Times | date = 6 September 2008 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/world/europe/07alborova.html | accessdate = 2008-09-13] [cite book|last=Hughes|first=James|coauthors=Sasse, Gwendolyn|others=Duffy Toft, Monica|title=Ethnicity and Territory in the Former Soviet Union|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=7vjb-0eZ-wcC|accessdate=2008-09-14|edition=1st edition|date=2001-11-01|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9780714652269|pages=pp. 133|chapter=Multinationality, Regional Institutions, State-Building, and the Failed Transition in Georgia|chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=7vjb-0eZ-wcC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA123,M1] cite book|last=Goltz|first=Thomas|title=Georgia Diary: A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=4_-g7LPJ8eYC|accessdate=2008-10-01|year=2006|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|location=Armonk, New York|isbn=9780765617101|oclc=63187439|pages=pp. 48–55|chapter=The Silver Fox|chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=4_-g7LPJ8eYC&pg=PA43&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=0_0&sig=ACfU3U3gcjBMFV6_V_93-iSvT1lVYRE51Q] Gamsakhurdia based his ethnic policy on distinguishing between those he labeled "indigenous" and "settlers", which led Andrey Sakharov to call Georgia the "little empire". The more than 1.5 million ethnic minorities who lived in Georgia were to considered to be the major threat to the Georgian people, which also resulted in anti-Islamic propaganda being published in the media.

Effect on Ossetians

At a political rally in 1989 in the village of Eredvi, Gamsakhurdia described the Ossetian people as "trash that has to be swept out through a tunnel",cite news | last = Markedonov | first = Sergey | title = Don't write Russia off yet! | publisher = Prague Watchdog | date = 29 August 2008 | url = http://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000004-000003-000131&lang=1 | accessdate = 2008-09-13 ] and in 1991 told foreign reporters that Georgia's Ossetians were unwanted "guests" who should "go back" to North Ossetia.cite news | last = Brooke | first = James | title = As Centralized Rule Wanes, Ethnic Tension Rises Anew in Soviet Georgia | publisher = New York Times | date = 2 October 1991 | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE2D7123CF931A35753C1A967958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print | accessdate = 2008-09-13] This policy resulted in the decision of the South Ossetian parliament in 1989 to declare its intent to unite with North Ossetia as part of the Russian Federation, resulting in the revocation of South Ossetia's autonomy and the renaming of the region by the Georgian authorities to Shida Kartli (literally "Interior Georgia").cite news|last=Abayev|first=Vasso|title=Tragedy of South Ossetia. Excess of genocide|location=Moscow|publisher=South Ossetian part of the Joint Control Commission on the Georgian-Ossetian Conflict Resolution|date=20 May 1991|url = http://sojcc.ru/eng_news/295.html|accessdate=2008-09-15]

Effect on Abkhazians

The policy was the catalyst which led to Chairman of the Abkhaz Supreme Soviet Vladislav Ardzinba to declare "Abkhazia is for Abkhazians", provoking the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia.

Effect on other nationalities

The Meskhetian Turks who during the Great Patriotic War were deported by Stalin to Central Asia, were unable to return to Georgia under the "Georgia for Georgians" policy. Azeris, numbering 600,000, received no representation in the Georgian parliament, and were forced to move from the land on which they had lived for centuries.cite book|last=Bourdeaux|first=Michael|others=Kurbanov, Rafik Osman-Ogly; Kurbanov, Erjan Rafik-Ogly|title=The Politics of Religion in Russia and the New States of Eurasia|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=l7NksOAvOqUC|year=1995|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|location=Armonk, New York|isbn=1563243571|oclc=31330558|pages=236–237|chapter=Religion and Politics in the Caucasus|chapterurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=l7NksOAvOqUC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PRA1-PA229,M1] dubious|date=September 2008

References