Posted on 08/12/2008 5:30:45 PM PDT by Enchante
TBILISI, Georgia - Georgia's president said early Wednesday that he agreed to the "general principals" [sic] of a plan for ending fighting with Russian troops in his country.
The cease-fire plan brokered by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France calls for both Russian and Georgian troops to return to their positions before fighting erupted around the breakaway province of South Ossetia last week.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Looks like the thing may be getting settled right now..... if nothing breaks apart in the “peace process”
Good job Sarko!! (I think, devil is in the details)
Just think where they would be if it weren’t for obama. s/
The entente powers eventually recognized the three republics (NOTE: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) in
January 1920, but no troops would be committed to defending them against a Bolshevik
invasion, which was not late in coming – Bolshevik forces took over Baku in late April of
the same year, and moved westward toward Georgia. At this point, however, the recently
constituted Georgian army was able to push back the Red Army, even staging a counter-
offensive that temporarily halted Bolshevik designs on Georgia. In fact, Georgian
resistance was instrumental in obtaining the signature a treaty on 7 May 1920 between the
Georgian Menshevik government and the Russian Bolsheviks. This treaty granted Georgia
recognition, and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
24
Yet it was soon clear that the Bolsheviks never intended to let Georgia remain independent.
Pressure mounted against the Menshevik government to succumb to the
Bolshevik forces in Tiflis, to follow the example of Azerbaijan and simply allow the
Sovietization of Georgia without a fight. However, the Georgian government refused to
give up, in fact putting up stiff resistance when the Red Army eventually attacked Georgia
in early 1920. In late February, though, the Bolshevik army broke through the Georgian
defenses, and the Menshevik government fled Tiflis for Batumi on 25 February 1921.
21 Kazemzadeh, p. 115, citing G.V. Khachapuridze, Bolsheviki Gruzii v boiakh za pobedu sovetskoi vlasti,
Leningrad: Gosudarstvennoe Izdatelstvo Politicheskoy Literatury, 1947.
22 Suny, p. 193.
23 Kazemzadeh, pp. 227-229.
24 Kazemzadeh, p. 296-299.
6.3.2. Inter-Ethnic Relations in Independent Georgia
During its brief tenure, the Menshevik government came across significant problems with
ethnic minorities. There were difficulties with regard to the Abkhaz, Ossetian, and Ajarian
minorities, and a major conflict with Armenia over Armenian-inhabited territories within
Georgian territory.
25 Already in the Winter of 1918, an uprising took place in today’s
South Ossetia. This uprising was crushed by the Menshevik government’s People’s
Guard, generating resentment among Ossetians against the Tiflis government; by the
same token, this also open the way for Bolshevik inroads into the Ossetian areas. Again,
ideology and ethnicity became linked, Mensheviks being equated with Georgians. In 1920,
a much larger Ossetian uprising took place, which was supported by the Bolshevik
Regional Committee, which had gathered a military force in Vladikavkaz, today the capital
of North Ossetia. As this Ossetian force moved southward, it expelled the Georgian
forces and actually integrated Ossetia with Soviet Russia. In Ossetian eyes, this period is
recalled as a time of Georgian oppression, and Ossetian historiography cites over 5,000
dead and many more wounded due to Georgian brutality. The Georgians, on the other
hand, see the episode in the light of Russia’s first inroads into Georgia, the use of
minorities within Georgia as a tool to weaken the country, which is viewed as a recurrent
feature of Moscow’s policy against Georgia ever since.
26
In the Spring of the same year, a peasant revolt took place in Abkhazia and Mingrelia,
which was also suppressed by the People’s Guard. However, subsequent relations
between the Menshevik government and Abkhazia are more complex. It should be noted
at the outset that the Menshevik government, though intent on creating a unitary
Georgian state, did foresee a certain level of self-rule for Abkhazia. Article 107 of the
Constitution of the Georgian Republic stated that “Abkhasie (district of Soukhoum),
Georgia Musulmane (district of Batum), and Zakhathala (district of Zakhathala), which
are integral parts of the Georgian Republic, enjoy an autonomy in the administration of
their affairs.”27 Whereas no mention was made of Ossetia, the two areas later enjoying the
status of Autonomous Republics, Ajaria and Abkhazia, were recognized already by the
Menshevik government. Archival material also shows that even as they counteracted
protagonists of separatism, especially pro-Turkish landlords and pro-Soviet Bolsheviks in
Abkhazia, the Menshevik government consistently viewed Abkhazia as a part of Georgia
but enjoying autonomy within it, and did vest powers in Abkhaz representatives – though
it picked the ones it viewed are reliable and loyal to Tbilisi.
28 Zaqatala, however, became a
part of Azerbaijan after the Sovietization of the Caucasus.
25 On the economic conditions in Abkhazia both before the revolution and in the early Soviet period,
see A. A. Abshilava, Istorii Promyshlennosti Abkhazskoi ASSR, Sukhumi: Abkhazskii institut iazika,
literatury i istorii im. D. I. Gulia, 1969.
26 For a Georgian account of the episode, see Avtandil Menteshashvili, ‘An Assessement of the 1920
Uprising in South Ossetia’, in Some National and Ethnic Problems in Georgia, Tbilisi, 1992. A larger work is
the same author’s Iz Istorii Vzaimootnosheniy Gruzinskogo, Abkhazskogo i Osetinskogo Narodov (1918-1920
gg.)¸Tbilisi 1990.
27 Constantin Kandelaki, The Georgian Question before the Free World (Acts-Documents-Evidence), Paris 1953.
28 Avtandil Menteshashvili, ‘Georgian-Abkhaz Relations in 1918-1921’, in Menteshashvili, Some
National and Ethnic Problems in Georgia, Tbilisi, n.d., cites at length material containing Menshevik
I predict this is a ruse, prepare for Georgia to be crushed.
The Russians will say on the initial refusal of Georgia to their terms, we tried and they didn’t want peace.
After all, this is the Russian way.
If anyone thinks this is over, you will be sorely mistaken.
Think about it, how can they allow outsiders to pick over their actions in Georgia, there is too much terrible evidence.
Raping Women, etc.. Georgia is done. They are using this to reduce the resistance as much as possible on their way to the capital.
You wait, they will have the President of Georgia in Moscow within a month if he doesn’t commit suicide. And if you think he is going to the US Embassy, the Russians are making sure he doesn’t get there.
If I was them, get ready to defend yourself rather than patting yourselves on the back.
The Russians are quietly laughing to themselves.
I hate them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.