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South Ossetia
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South Ossetia ( or ; , Xussar Iryston; , Yuzhnaya Osetiya; , Samxreti Oseti) is a disputed region in the South Caucasus. Since its declaration of independence from Georgia in 1991 during the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, it is governed by the partially-recognized Republic of South Ossetia, which claims the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Georgia does not recognize the secession of the province and considers it to be a part of the Shida Kartli region within its sovereign territory.
The contemporaneously de facto independent republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Transnistria, recognized each other's independence on 17 November 2006.
Since the Russian-Georgian war of 2008 two UN member states have recognised South Ossetia's independence, and several other UN members and unrecognized entities have also expressed a willingness to do so at a future date.
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Encyclopedia
South Ossetia ( or ; , Xussar Iryston; , Yuzhnaya Osetiya; , Samxreti Oseti) is a disputed region in the South Caucasus. Since its declaration of independence from Georgia in 1991 during the Georgian-Ossetian conflict, it is governed by the partially-recognized Republic of South Ossetia, which claims the territory of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast within the former Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Georgia does not recognize the secession of the province and considers it to be a part of the Shida Kartli region within its sovereign territory.
The contemporaneously de facto independent republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as well as Transnistria, recognized each other's independence on 17 November 2006.
Since the Russian-Georgian war of 2008 two UN member states have recognised South Ossetia's independence, and several other UN members and unrecognized entities have also expressed a willingness to do so at a future date. The first member of the United Nations to recognize South Ossetia was the Russian Federation on 26 August 2008, followed by Nicaragua on 5 September. However, the European Union, NATO, along many other countries do not recognize South Ossetia as independent state.
Since 28 August 2008, Georgia has considered South Ossetia to be "Russian-occupied territory."
Three days after Russia's recognition of South Ossetia as an independent nation, a South Ossetian official announced that the region would soon be absorbed into Russia and Russia will open military bases there. However, Eduard Kokoity, the current president of South Ossetia, later stated that South Ossetia would not forgo its independence by joining Russia.
Political status
The European Union, Council of the European Union, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and most UN member countries do not recognize South Ossetia as an independent state. The de facto republic governed by the secessionist government held a second independence referendum on 12 November 2006, after its first referendum in 1992 was not recognized by most governments as valid. According to the Tskhinvali election authorities, the referendum turned out a majority for independence from Georgia where 99% of South Ossetian voters supported independence and the turnout for the vote was 95%. The referendum was monitored by a team of 34 international observers from Germany, Austria, Poland, Sweden and other countries at 78 polling stations. However, it was not recognized internationally by the UN, European Union, OSCE, NATO and the Russian Federation, given the lack of ethnic Georgian participation and the legality of such a referendum without recognition from the Georgian government in Tbilisi. The European Union, OSCE and NATO condemned the referendum.
Parallel to the secessionist held referendum and elections, the Ossetian opposition movement (People of South Ossetia for Peace) to Eduard Kokoity, the current President of South Ossetia, organized their own elections in which Georgian and some Ossetian inhabitants of the region voted in favour of Dmitry Sanakoyev as the alternative President of South Ossetia. The alternative elections of Sanakoyev claimed full support of the ethnic Georgian population.
In April 2007, a "Provisional Administrative Entity of South Ossetia" headed by ethnic Ossetians (former members of the separatist government) under the leadership of Dmitry Sanakoyev, was created by Georgia, which had retained control over part of South Ossetia's eastern and southern districts. It was intended that this provisional administration would negotiate with central Georgian authorities regarding its final status and conflict resolution. On 10 May 2007, Sanakoyev was appointed by the President of Georgia as the Head of South Ossetian Provisional Administrative Entity.
On July 13, 2007, Georgia set up a state commission, chaired by the Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli, to develop South Ossetia's autonomous status within the Georgian state. According to the Georgian officials, the status was to be elaborated within the framework of "an all-inclusive dialogue" with all the forces and communities within the Ossetian society.
At about midnight (Tbilisi/ Moscow/ Tskhinvali time, EST +8) of 8 August, 2008, , on the same day as the 2008 Olympic Games officially commenced, Georgian armed forces moved forward to South Ossetia to take control of Tskhinvali and "restore constitutional order in the entire region". The Georgian operation started eight hours after Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili pledged a ceasefire to South Ossetians, and included hours of artillery bombardment of Tskhinvali, during which, according to Amnesty International, "over 100 civilian houses were hit". . 13 Russian servicemen of the peacekeeping force stationed in the city under UN mandate were killed during the first hours, the Russian Ministry of Defence stated on 8 August. Russian troops moved into South Ossetia as part of a "peace enforcement" operation, pushing the Georgian army out of South Ossetia and moving farther, occupying Gori, Kareli, Kaspi and Igoeti in Georgia proper. Parallel to these events Russian forces also entered western Georgia from another breakaway region of Abkhazia occupying Zugdidi, Senaki and the major Georgian port of Poti. Following the end of hostilities, the Federation Council of Russia called an extraordinary session for 25 August 2008 to discuss recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. On 25 August the Federation Council unanimously voted to ask the Russian President to recognise independence of South Ossetia
and Abkhazia. The Russian parliament voted in favour of this motion the following day. This unilateral recognition by Russia was met by condemnation from Western countries and other members of the United Nations (France, Germany, Great Britain, United States, etc), NATO, OSCE, the European Council due to the violation of Georgia's territorial integrity, United Nations numerous resolutions. This was in stark contrast to their swift recognition of Kosovo not long before. On 29 August, Georgia severed diplomatic relations with Russia over the conflict.
On August 30, 2008, Tarzan Kokoity, the Deputy Speaker of South Ossetia's parliament, announced that the region would "soon" be absorbed into Russia, so that South and North Ossetians could live together in "one united Russian state". Russian and South Ossetian forces began giving residents in Akhalgori, the biggest town in the predominantly ethnic Georgian eastern part of South Ossetia, the choice of accepting Russian citizenship or leaving. The EU's diplomatic response to the news was delayed by disagreements between Eastern European states and the UK wanting a harsher response and Germany, France, and other states' desire not to isolate Russia. Former US envoy Richard Holbrooke said the conflict could encourage separatist movements in other former Soviet states along Russia's western border.
On September 5, 2008, Nicaragua became the second country - after Russia - to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
On September 11, 2008, Eduard Kokoity stated, “We are not going to say no to our independence, which has been achieved at the expense of many lives; South Ossetia has no plans to join Russia." Civil Georgia has said that this statement contradicts previous ones made by Kokoity earlier that day, when he indicated that South Ossetia would join North Ossetia in the Russian Federation.
According to Russian daily Vremya Novostei on November 11, 2008, Lebanon may consider recognizing the two Georgian separatist republics as independent. Saad Hariri, leader of the Lebanese parliamentary majority, was quoted as saying: "The recognition issue will be decided at the top level of government. We are about to start establishing contacts with South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Delegations of our businessmen will soon be sent there." Lebanese sources didn't confirm the consideration to recognize.
History
Medieval and early modern period
The Ossetians are originally descendants of the Alans, a Sarmatian tribe. They became Christians during the early Middle Ages, under Byzantine, Georgian and since 1767 Russian influences. Under Mongol rule, they were pushed out of their medieval homeland south of the Don River in present-day Russia and part migrated towards and over the Caucasus mountains (into the kingdom of Georgia and into the lands of present-day North Ossetia-Alania), where they formed three distinct territorial entities. Digor in the west came under the influence of the neighboring Kabard people, who introduced Islam. Kudar in the south became what is now South Ossetia, part of the historical Georgian principality of Samachablo where Ossetians found refuge from Mongol invaders. Iron in the north became what is now North Ossetia, under Russian rule from 1767. The vast majority of the Ossetians are Orthodox Christians; there is also a significant Muslim minority.
South Ossetia as a part of the Soviet Union
The modern-day South Ossetia joined Russia in 1801, along with Georgia proper, and absorbed into the Russian Empire. Following the Russian Revolution, South Ossetia became a part of the Menshevik Georgian Democratic Republic, while the North Ossetia became a part of the Terek Soviet Republic. "The Georgian Menshevik government accused Ossetians of cooperating with Russian Bolsheviks. A series of Ossetian rebellions took place between 1918 and 1920 during which claims were made to an independent territory. Violence broke out in 1920 when Georgian Mensheviks sent National Guards and regular army units to Tskhinvali to crush the uprisings. Ossetian sources claim that about 5,000 Ossetians were killed and more than 13,000 subsequently died from hunger and epidemics"
The Soviet Georgian government established by the Russian 11th Red Army in 1921 created the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast (i.e., province) in April 1922. Although the Ossetians had their own language (Ossetian), Russian and Georgian were administrative/state languages. Under the rule of Georgia's government during Soviet times, it enjoyed some degree of autonomy including speaking the Ossetian language and teaching it in schools.
Georgian-Ossetian conflict
1989-2008
The tensions in the region began to rise amid the rising nationalism among both Georgians and Ossetians in 1989. Before this, the two communities of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast of Georgian SSR had been living in peace with each other except for the 1918-1920 events. Both ethnicities have had a high level of interaction and high rates of intermarriages.
The influential South Ossetian Popular Front (Ademon Nykhas) was created in 1988. On 10 November 1989, the South Ossetian regional council asked the Georgian Supreme Council (in Russian: ????????? ????? ??????) for the region to be upgraded to that of "autonomous republic". In 1989 the Georgian Supreme Council established Georgian as the principal language countrywide.
The Georgian Supreme Council adopted a law barring regional parties in summer 1990. This was interpreted by Ossetians as a move against Ademon Nykhas and led to Ossetians proclaiming South Ossetia as the South Ossetian Democratic Republic on September 20, 1990, fully sovereign within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Ossetians boycotted subsequent Georgian parliamentary elections and held their own contest in December. The Georgian government headed by Zviad Gamsakhurdia declared this election illegitimate and abolished South Ossetia's autonomous status altogether on 11 December 1990.
Violent conflict broke out towards the end of 1991 during which many South Ossetian villages were attacked and burned down as were Georgian houses and schools in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia. As a result, approximately 1,000 died and about 100,000 ethnic Ossetians fled the territory and Georgia proper, most across the border into North Ossetia. A further 23,000 ethnic Georgians fled South Ossetia and settled in other parts of Georgia. Many South Ossetians were resettled in uninhabited areas of North Ossetia from which the Ingush had been expelled by Stalin in 1944, leading to conflicts between Ossetians and Ingush over the right of residence in former Ingush territory.
The western part of South Ossetia was affected by the 1991 Racha-Java earthquake, which killed 200 and left 300 families homeless.
In 1992, Georgia accepted a ceasefire to avoid a large scale confrontation with Russia. The government of Georgia and South Ossetian separatists reached an agreement to avoid the use of force against one another, and Georgia pledged not to impose sanctions against South Ossetia. However, the Georgian government still retained control over substantial portions of South Ossetia, including the town of Akhalgori. A peacekeeping force of Ossetians, Russians and Georgians was established. On 6 November 1992, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) set up a Mission in Georgia to monitor the peacekeeping operation. From then until mid-2004 South Ossetia was generally peaceful. In June 2004, serious tensions began to rise as the Georgian authorities strengthened their efforts to bring the region back under Tbilisi rule, and established an alternative government pro-Georgian government for South Ossetia in Tbilisi. Hostage takings, shootouts and occasional bombings left dozens dead and wounded. A ceasefire deal was reached on 13 August though it was repeatedly violated. Presently the situation is tense with war escalating. Moscow and Tskhinvali viewed the recent Georgian military build-up with concern.
The Georgian government protests against the continually increasing Russian economic and political presence in the region and against the uncontrolled military of the South Ossetian side. It also considers the peacekeeping force to be non-neutral and demanded its replacement. This criticism was supported, by the U.S. senator Richard Lugar EU South Caucasus envoy Peter Semneby said later that "Russia's actions in the Georgia spy row have damaged its credibility as a neutral peacekeeper in the EU's Black Sea neighbourhood." Most recently, Joseph Biden (Chairman, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee), Richard Lugar, and
Mel Martinez sponsored a resolution accusing Russia of attempting to undermine Georgia's territorial integrity and called for replacing the Russian-manned peacekeeping force operating under CIS mandate.
2008 War
The prelude to the conflict began with violent clashes on Wednesday, 6 August 2008 with both sides claiming having been fired upon by the other. The Georgian interior ministry claimed Georgian forces had returned fire only after South Ossetian positions shelled Georgian-controlled villages and accused the South Ossetian side of "trying to create an illusion of serious escalation, an illusion of war." South Ossetia denied provoking the conflict.
Over the course of several days in early August, the Georgians secretly concentrated a significant number of troops and equipment, including the full 2th, 3th and 4th Infantry Brigades, the Artillery Brigade, the elements of the 1th Infantry Brigade, the separate Gori Tank Battalion, among others, - all in all, up to 16,000 men - in the Georgian enclaves in the South Ossetian conflict zone, under cover of providing support for the exchange of fire with Ossetian formations."
On 4 August 2008, according to a BBC article it was reported, that five battalions of the Russian 58th Army (approx. 5,500 men) were moved to the vicinity of the Roki Tunnel that links South Ossetia with North Ossetia..
On 7 August, Georgian and Ossetian forces agreed on a ceasefire.
However, in the first hours of 8 August 2008, Georgia launched a massive attack, which started the 2008 South Ossetia war. After a prolonged artillery onslaught, Georgian troops with tanks and air support entered South Ossetian-controlled territory. On the same day, twelve Russian peacekeepers were killed and nearly 150 injured.
At least one former Georgian government official has testified that Georgia started the war with the approval of the United States government. Erosi Kitsmarishvili, Georgia's former ambassador to Moscow and a confidant of President Mikheil Saakashvili, testified to the Parliament of Georgia that Georgian officials told him in April 2008 that they planned to start a war in Abkhazia, one of two breakaway regions at issue in the war, and had received a green light from the United States government to do so. He said the Georgian government later decided to start the war in South Ossetia, the other region, and continue into Abkhazia.
The Russian Prime-Minister Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Government condemns the "aggressive actions" by Georgian troops in South Ossetia and that, under such circumstances, it would be "legitimate and even necessary" for Russia to retaliate. Heavy fighting was reported in Tskhinvali for most of 8 August, with Georgian forces attempting to push Ossetians slowly from the city.
The following day, Russia deployed forces into South Ossetia to remove Georgian forces from South Ossetia. Additionally, Russia targeted Georgia's military infrastructure to reduce Georgia's ability to conduct another incursion.
On 22 August, following a negotiated cease-fire between Georgia and Russia, Russia pulled its forces back to Russia and South Ossetia, leaving military contingents disbursed throughout various areas as observation and security posts. These were withdrawn by 8 October.
Politics
South Ossetia consists of a checkerboard of Georgian-inhabited and Ossetian-inhabited towns and villages. Until the armed conflict of August 2008, the largely Ossetian capital city of Tskhinvali and most of the other Ossetian-inhabited communities were governed by the separatist government, while the Georgian-inhabited villages and towns were administered by the Georgian government. This close proximity and the intermixing of the two communities has made the Georgian–Ossetian conflict particularly dangerous, since any attempt to create an ethnically pure territory would involve population transfers on a large scale.
The political dispute has yet to be resolved and the South Ossetian separatist authorities govern the region with effective independence from Tbilisi. Although talks have been held periodically between the two sides, little progress was made under the government of Eduard Shevardnadze (1993–2003). His successor Mikheil Saakashvili (elected 2004) made the reassertion of Georgian governmental authority a political priority. Having successfully put an end to the de facto independence of the southwestern province of Ajaria in May 2004, he pledged to seek a similar solution in South Ossetia. After the 2004 clashes, the Georgian government has intensified its efforts to bring the problem to international attention. On 25 January 2005, President Saakashvili presented a Georgian vision for resolving the South Ossetian conflict at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) session in Strasbourg. Late in October, the U.S. Government and the OSCE expressed their support to the Georgian action plan presented by Prime Minister Zurab Noghaideli at the OSCE Permanent Council at Vienna on 27 October 2005. On 6 December, the OSCE Ministerial Council in Ljubljana adopted a resolution supporting the Georgian peace plan which was subsequently rejected by the South Ossetian de facto authorities.
Republic of South Ossetia
On September 11, 2006, the South Ossetian Information and Press Committee announced that the republic would hold an independence referendum (the first referendum had not been recognized by the international community as valid in 1992) on 12 November 2006. The voters would decide on whether or not South Ossetia "should preserve its present de facto status of an independent state". Georgia denounced the move as a "political absurdity". However, on 13 September 2006, the Council of Europe (CoE) Secretary General Terry Davis commented on the problem, stating that it would be unlikely that anyone would accept the results of this referendum and instead urged South Ossetian government to engage in the negotiations with Georgia. On 13 September 2006 European Union Special Representative to the South Caucasus, Peter Semneby, while visiting Moscow, said: "results of the South Ossetian independence referendum will have no meaning for the European Union". Peter Semneby also added that this referendum would not contribute to the peaceful conflict resolution process in South Ossetia.
South Ossetians nearly unanimously approved a referendum on 12 November 2006 opting for independence from Georgia. The referendum was hugely popular, winning between 98 and 99 percent of the ballots, flag waving and celebration marked were seen across South Ossetia, but elsewhere observers were less enthusiastic. International critics claimed that the move could worsen regional tensions, and the Tbilisi government thoroughly discounted the results.
The People of South Ossetia for Peace was founded in October 2006 by the ethnic Ossetians who were outspoken critics and presented a serious opposition to secessionist authorities of Eduard Kokoity.
The group headed by the former defence minister and then prime minister of secessionist government Dmitry Sanakoyev organized the so-called alternative presidential election, on 12 November 2006– parallel to those held by the secessionist authorities in Tskhinvali. High voter turnout was reported by the alternative electoral commission, which estimated over 42,000 voters from both Ossetian (Java district and Tskhinvali) and Georgian (Eredvi, Tamarasheni, etc.) communities of South Ossetia and Sanakoyev reportedly received 96% of the votes. Another referendum was organized shortly after asking for the start of negotiations with Georgia on a federal arrangement for South Ossetia received 94% support. However, People of South Ossetia for Peace turned down a request from a Georgian NGO, “Multinational Georgia”, to monitor it and the released results were very likely to be inflated.
According to the International Crisis Group, "Georgian government’s steps are non-violent and development-oriented but their implementation is unilateral and so assertive that they are contributing to a perceptible and dangerous rise in tensions".
Initially the entity of Sanakoyev was known as "the Alternative Government of South Ossetia", but during the course of 2007 the central authorities of Georgia decided to give it official status and on 13 April the formation of "Provisional Administration of South Ossetia" was announced. On 10 May 2007 Dmitry Sanakoyev was appointed head of the provisional administrative entity in South Ossetia. During the Georgian-Ossetian War 2008 Dmitry Sanakoyev was cooperating with the Georgian Government and supported actions of the Georgian military.
An EU fact finding team visited the region in January 2007. Per Eklund, Head of the Delegation of the European Community to Georgia said that “None of the two alternatives do we consider legitimate [in South Ossetia].”
Geography
South Ossetia covers an area of about 3,900 km² on the southern side of the Caucasus, separated by the mountains from the more populous North Ossetia (part of Russia) and extending southwards almost to the Mtkvari river in Georgia. It is extremely mountainous, with most of the region lying over 1,000 m (3,300 ft) above sea level. Its economy is primarily agricultural, although less than 10% of South Ossetia's land area is cultivated. Cereals, fruit and vines are the major produce. Forestry and cattle industries are also maintained. A number of industrial facilities also exist, particularly around the capital Tskhinvali.
Demographics
Before the Georgian-Ossetian conflict roughly two-thirds of the population of South Ossetia was Ossetian and 25-30% was Georgian. The eastern quarter of the country, around the town of Akhalgori, is predominantly Georgian, while the center and west are predominantly Ossete. Much of the mountainous north is scarcely inhabited. (See map at Languages of the Caucasus.)
Because the statistical office of Georgia was not able to conduct the 2002 Georgian census in South Ossetia, the present composition of the population of South Ossetia is unknown, although according to some estimates there were 45,000 ethnic Ossetians and 17,500 ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia in 2007.
| Ethnicity | 1926 census | 1939 census | 1959 census | 1970 census | 1979 census | 1989 census |
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| Ossetians | 60,351 (69.1%) | 72,266 (68.1%) | 63,698 (65.8%) | 66,073 (66.5%) | 65,077 (66.4%) | 65,200 (66.2%) | | Georgians | 23,538 (26.9%) | 27,525 (25.9%) | 26,584 (27.5%) | 28,125 (28.3%) | 28,187 (28.8%) | 28,700 (29.0%) | | Russians | 157 (0.2%) | 2,111 (2.0%) | 2,380 (2.5%) | 1,574 (1.6%) | 2,046 (2.1%) | 2,128 (2.1%) | | Armenians | 1,374 (1.6%) | 1,537 (1.4%) | 1,555 (1.6%) | 1,254 (1.3%) | 953 (1.0%) | 871 (1.21%) | | Jews | 1,739 (2.0%) | 1,979 (1.9%) | 1,723 (1.8%) | 1,485 (1.5%) | 654 (0.7%) | 648 (0.9%) | | Others | 216 (0.2%) | 700 (0.7%) | 867 (0.9%) | 910 (0.9%) | 1,071 (1.1%) | 5,100 (4.8%) | | Total | 87,375 | 106,118 | 96,807 | 99,421 | 97,988 | 99,000 |
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Economy
Following a war with Georgia in the 1990s, South Ossetia has struggled economically. Employment and supplies are scarce. Additionally, Georgia cut off supplies of electricity to the region, which forced the South Ossetian government to run an electric cable through North Ossetia. The majority of the population survives on subsistence farming. Virtually the only significant economic asset that South Ossetia possesses is control of the Roki Tunnel that used to link Russia and Georgia, from which the South Ossetian government reportedly obtains as much as a third of its budget by levying customs duties on freight traffic.
In late 2006, a large international counterfeiting operation stretching from South Ossetia was revealed by U.S. Secret Service and Georgian police.
South Ossetian GDP was estimated at US$ 15 million (US$ 250 per capita) in a work published in 2002.
See also
External links
- From
- , Weekly Online about South Caucasus.
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- International Crisis Group, , Europe Report N°183, 7 June 2007 (free registration needed to view the full report)
- Carnegie Centre Moscow, , 2006)
- Centre for European Policy Studies/Nicu Popescu, , 2007)
- Alan Tskhurbayev (CRS No. 406 17-Aug-07), . Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
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- (Ukrainian)
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