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The Eurasian Politician - December 2003
By:
Anssi Kullberg, 1 Dec. 2003
(French translation)
Sakartvelos gagimardzos! Once for a long time Europe got to re-experience a breath of the spirit of the velvet revolutions of 1989-1992, when the power was changed without bloodshed in the South Caucasian republic of Georgia on 22-23 November. The former KGB general and Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze got to taste his own medicine. In early 1990s, he usurped power in Georgia in a cruel and bloody Russian-backed coup d'état, overthrowing the democratically elected President Zviad Gamsakhurdia, government, and parliament, and throwing the country into a civil war that ruined its economy and stability.
Georgia is an ancient country with mixed European-Oriental history, and home to one of the first Christian kingdoms of the world (the other one was Armenia, another Caucasian country). Georgia was a solidly linked part of Mediterranean-centered Europe, ancient Christendom and the wealthy Orient for hundreds of years before the first "Russians", in present Ukraine, converted into Christianity. Marco Polo described civilization and wealth in Georgia, located in the beginning of the Silk Road, while at the same time the "Realm of Darkness", under which name the distant land north of the Caucasus Mountains was known, was abode of vague and alarming rumors only.
Georgians speak several Caucasian languages and use their own alphabet. The main language, Kartuli, is related to the languages of the Chechens, Avars and Circassians, to name just some, but also the dialects spoken in Western Georgia - Megrelia, Svanetia and Imeretia - significantly differ from Kartuli.
Many things are unique in this fascinating mountain country, which is characterized by majestic gorges and river valleys, and which varies from the warm coasts of the Black Sea to some dry steppe landscape in the far east, and the desolate highlands of the High Caucasus. Georgians, like many mountain peoples, are proud and tradition-loving people, and they have always been a European frontier nation between the great empires in the neighborhood: Persians, Turks and Russians.
However, Georgia has also traditionally been a bridge land of civilizations and even an oasis of tolerance, since for ages, Christians, Muslims and Jews have been able to coexist in Georgia. Georgia, which was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1801, was freer than the rest of the empire even in the czarist and Soviet periods, housing many dissidents exiled from Moscow or St. Petersburg. Nowadays Georgia still struggles to continue her role as a balancing and bridging land between east and west, north and south, Turkey and Russia, Europe and the Middle East.
Georgians feel great sympathies for their North Caucasian brother nations who still struggle for their freedom, thereby concretely proving that the Caucasus conflicts are not about a clash of religions, but the situation is exactly the same as for centuries: the Russian Empire against the independence of Caucasian nations. Housing Chechen refugees and especially offering a relatively free channel for the flow of information in and out of the Caucasus have greatly irritated Russia, for whom Georgia is a pain in the ass of its imperial hegemony. Therefore Russia has repeatedly sought to destabilize Georgia, to hinder her being released and taking a course towards the West.
Russia has occupied the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have become open air museums of Stalinism as well as modern centers of international weapons trade and terrorism. Although Russia, in the OSCE Istanbul Treaty in 1999, has bound herself to remove all its troops and military bases from Georgia's territory by July 2001, only one base (Vaziani) has been handed over to the Georgians, and even that one completely sabotaged. Russia still refuses to remove her troops from Georgia. Several times last year, only a discreet US intervention has prevented Russia from invading Georgia.
When the parliamentary election this autumn proved entirely rigged, most foreign media observers were quite indifferent. It was commonly thought that again the old regime, in Moscow's guidance, secures its positions. Soon it would be forgotten and quietly accepted in the West. All elections have regularly been rigged in all of the former Soviet Union, with the exception of the Baltic countries. Recently in Georgia's wealthier neighbor, Azerbaijan, power was shifted from Shevardnadze's colleague, the former KGB general Heydar Aliyev, to his businessman son Ilham. Russia was satisfied, because the democratic opposition was silenced, and it seemed that also the US was satisfied with Ilham Aliyev - in the name of stability.
Unfair elections and shifting power to pre-selected successors are typical elements of the "controlled democracy" conception of the Russian president Vladimir Putin. Methods used in this type of "democracy" also include silencing all independent media and changing corporate directors like one changes civil servants. The Westerners have been taught with endless repetition that with the exception of the Baltic countries, the former Soviet republics are not prepared for genuine democracy, and if the peoples would be able to decide about their own affairs, something quite unpredictable would follow out of this. However, reality does not support this common cliché, as it is actually Moscow's support for the dictatorships of former Soviet cadres, and harsh manipulation of the internal affairs of "near abroad" that are a crucial element of most of the region's instability and conflicts.
This time the Georgians were not to be cheated. The independent TV station "Rustavi 2" brought up concern about that Russia would pressure Shevardnadze to hand his power to a pre-selected pro-Russian leader without giving chance for democratization. This practically forced the opposition into action. What was crucial this time was that the velvet revolution had been carefully prepared, and it had prepared backing by the US, which also contained Russia's chances to intervene. The pro-Western opposition leader Mikhail Saakashvili had allied with the parliament chairwoman Nino Burdzhanadze into a well-functioning bloodless coup. In the street demonstrations, the flags with St. George's cross were flying, and also original pro-independence activists, "Zviadists", were received to support the revolution from Western Georgia. Saakashvili is by his profile a right-wing liberal, while Burdzhanadze represents moderate left. While the popular power of the opposition centered around Saakashvili's charisma, Burdzhanadze's role was institutionally important, as she was in the position of adopting presidential powers in accordance with the constitution and legal order. It seemed that among Western European leaders this legalist dimension made it much easier to join the US stand supporting the new leadership.
Georgia has applied for NATO membership since 2002, and now Georgia appears as an official applicant country on the NATO home page. In her first speech directed to the international community, the interim President Burdzhanadze also announced Georgia would aim at membership in the European Union. EU flags were also seen among St. George's crosses and Georgian flags in the demonstrations. Still a lot depends on continued Western support for Georgia to be able to maintain her stability, and for Russia to restrain from irresponsible ways of behavior as well as to remove all her troops and military bases from Georgian territory.
The Baku-Ceyhan (or Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) pipeline, which will soon open, should promote Georgia's economic independence and bring some release to the energy and economic measures that Russia regularly uses to blackmail Georgia. So far Russia's actions have mainly hurt Georgia's Russian trade, resulting that since 2001 Turkey has been a more important trade partner for Georgia than Russia.
While things seem promising in Georgia, democratic oppositions in several other former Soviet republics have found clear inspiration in the events in Tbilisi. Oppositions have voiced out in various forums in at least Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus and Uzbekistan. The most critical situation might be in Moldova [see also Marco Pribilla's article on this issue]. Russia has aspired to pressure through a treaty in Moldova, which would practically annex all Moldova to the Russian sphere of dominion, and to the Russian-occupied separatist republic of Transnistria. Transnistria is ruled by old-fashioned Stalinists and is also working as one of the centers of all kinds of illegal trade - starting from weapons, drugs and human beings. There is also evidence on this criminal state's ongoing role in supporting international terrorism, besides of serving as a dummy for dusky Russian and "mafia" operations.
For years, Moldova has struggled as the most democratic state of the "Commonwealth of Independent States" (CIS), largely thank to its parliamentary-dominated constitution, but Putin's administration now seeks to annex Moldova to the crowd of the president-dominated systems prevailing in Russia and most of the other CIS states.
The current crisis actually began in 2001, when the communists took over in the parliamentary election, and consequently, made their leader the new president. He was a former KGB officer and an ethnic Russian called Vladimir Voronin. Immediately after taking the post, Voronin declared that "Moldova must resist Europe like Cuba resists the United States". Thousands of educated people left the country, mainly to Romania, which is Moldova's main road to Europe, both physically and mentally, since Moldovans are Romanians, they speak Romanian, and the republic is in fact just Eastern Moldova, or Bessarabia, which was once annexed by Russia.
Moldova is still far from the demise of democracy and liberty that has taken place in another former Soviet republic captured by communists, namely Belarus. Moldova's saviors have so far been her very active and persistent opposition, which consists of the more centrist and passive Braghis Alliance, named after the former premier Dumitru Braghis, and the Christian Democratic Popular Party (PPCD), with the main stars of the opposition, Vlad Cubreacov, Iurie Rosca and Stefan Secareanu. Cubreacov and his brethren are receiving support especially from the neighbor country Romania, where they have a forum, printing opportunities and a channel to international attention.
Repeatedly, the demonstrations raised by the opposition, with students and school pupils acting as a crucial force, have forced the communists, Voronin, and Russia to back off in order to avoid total bloodshed, which would invite the West to intervene. In this way, the opposition has gained some more time for Moldova's future. It still depends on the support of the world, especially of Europe, how long the Moldovans can hold their country out of the Belarussian path. The Netherlands initiative for international peacekeeping operation in Moldova would be a very good step towards bringing Moldova out of the isolation and giving a new and better chance for democratization, which was halted in 2001.