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About Georgia
Georgia (Georgian: საქართველო, transliterated as Sakartvelo)
is a country on the juncture of Eastern Europe and Western
Asia, located in the Caucasus region on the east coast of
the Black Sea. It is bordered on the north by Russia, on the
south by Turkey and Armenia, and on the east by Azerbaijan.
Georgia is a representative democracy, organized as a
secular, unitary, semi-presidential republic. Georgia was
the second state to adopt Christianity as an official state
religion after Armenia in the 4th century AD. (The
traditional date is AD 337.)
Georgia is currently a member of the United Nations, the
Council of Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States,
the World Trade Organization and the Organization of the
Black Sea Economic Cooperation, and seeks integration with
the European Union and NATO. Georgia is official extension
of AIESEC.
 Georgians
call themselves Kartvelebi (ქართველები), their land
Sakartvelo (საქართველო), and their language Kartuli (ქართული).
According to legend, the ancestor of the Kartvelian people
was Kartlos, the great grandson of the Biblical Japheth.
Ancient Greeks (Strabo, Herodotus, Plutarch, Homer, etc.)
and Romans (Titus Livius, Cornelius Tacitus, etc.) referred
to early eastern Georgians as Iberians (Iberoi in some Greek
sources) and western Georgians as Colchians.
The origin of the name Georgia is still disputed and has
been explained in the following ways:
1. Linking it semantically to Greek and Latin roots
(respectively, γεωργος "tiller of the land" and georgicus
"agricultural")[8]
2. Its derivation from the name of St. George. At least,
popularity of the cult of Saint George in Georgia influenced
the spread of the term.
3. Under various Persian empires (536 BC-AD 638), Georgians
were called Gurjhān (Gurzhan/Gurjan), or "Gurj/Gurzh
people." The early Islamic/Arabic sources spelled the name
Kurz/Gurz and the country Gurjistan. This also could evolve
or at least contribute to the later name of Georgia.
The terms Georgia and Georgians appeared in Western Europe
in numerous medieval annals including that of Crusaders and
later in the official documents and letters of the
Florentine de’Medici family. Jacques de Vitry and English
traveler, Sir John Mandeville, stated that Georgians are
called Georgian because they especially revere and worship
Saint George. Notably, the country recently adopted the
five-cross flag, featuring the Saint George's Cross; it has
been argued that the flag was used in Georgia since the 5th
century.
History
The territory of modern-day Georgia has been continuously
inhabited since the early Stone Age. The classic period saw
the rise of the early Georgian states of Colchis and Iberia.
The proto-Georgian tribes first appear in written history in
the 12th century BC.[14] Archaeological finds and references
in ancient sources reveal elements of early political and
state formations characterized by advanced metallurgy and
goldsmith techniques that date back to the 7th century BC
and beyond. In the 4th century BC a unified kingdom of
Georgia - an early example of advanced state organization
under one king and the hierarchy of aristocracy, was
established.
Tondo depicting Saint Mamas from the Gelati Monastery,
14th–15th centuries Christianity was declared the state
religion as early as AD 337 proving a great stimulus to
literature, arts and the unification of the country. As a
crossroad between Christian and Islamic traditions, Georgia
experienced the dynamic exchange between these two worlds
which culminated in a true renaissance around 12-13th
centuries AD.
 This
early Georgian renaissance, which preceded its European
analogue, was characterized by the flourishing of romantic-
chivalric tradition, breakthroughs in philosophy, and an
array of political innovations in society and state
organization, including religious and ethnic tolerance. The
Golden age of Georgia left a legacy of great cathedrals,
romantic poetry and literature, and the epic poem "The
Knight in the Panther's Skin". This Golden Age was
interrupted at its peak by the Mongol Invasion in the 13th
century AD. Throughout the next six centuries, Georgia
experienced repeated invasions by Persians and Turks,
resulting in the disintegration of the state into several
small kingdoms. Under this climate of insecurity, in 1783
Georgia signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with the Russian
Empire, placing the eastern Georgian kingdom of
Kartli-Kakheti under the Russian patronage. Despite Russia's
commitment to defend Georgia, it rendered no assistance when
the Turks invaded in 1785 and again in 1795. This period
culminated in the 1801 Russian annexation of remaining
Georgian lands and the deposing of the Bagrationi dynasty.
A few decades later, Georgian society produced a modernist
nationalistic elite which united Georgian society around the
dream of the restoration of their once glorious state. In
1918, this dream was fulfilled as the Democratic Republic of
Georgia was established. The republic was short-lived, as in
1921 Georgia was invaded and occupied by Bolsheviks
eventually being incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1922.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Georgia declared its
independence in 1991, soon to be embroiled in a civil war
and subsequent severe economic hardships. The bloodless Rose
Revolution of 2003 installed a new, pro-Western reformist
government that aspired to join NATO and attempted to bring
the secessionist territories (Abkhazia and South Ossetia
lost in the civil war and de facto independent ever since)
back under Georgia's control. These efforts resulted in
severe deterioration of relations with Russia, fuelled also
by Russia's open assistance and support to the two
secessionists areas. Russian military bases (dating back to
Soviet era) in Georgia were evacuated, with the last
remaining base in Batumi handed over to Georgia in 2007.
Georgia in antiquity
 The
two early Georgian kingdoms of late antiquity, known to
ancient Greeks and Romans as Iberia (Georgian: იბერია) (in
the east of the country) and Colchis (Georgian: კოლხეთი) (in
the west), were among the first nations in the region to
adopt Christianity (in AD 337, or in AD 319 as recent
research suggests.).
In Greek Mythology, Colchis was the location of the Golden
Fleece sought by Jason and the Argonauts in Apollonius
Rhodius' epic tale Argonautica. The incorporation of the
Golden Fleece into the myth may have derived from the local
practice of using fleeces to sift gold dust from rivers.In
the last centuries of the pre-Christian era, the area, in
the form of the kingdom of Kartli-Iberia, was strongly
influenced by Greece to the west and Persia to the east.
After the Roman Empire completed its conquest of the
Caucasus region in 66 B.C., the kingdom was a Roman client
state and ally for nearly 400 years.[19] In AD 330, King
Marian III's acceptance of Christianity ultimately tied the
kingdom to the neighboring Byzantine Empire, which exerted a
strong cultural influence for several centuries.
Known to its natives as Egrisi or Lazica, Colchis was often
the battlefield and buffer-zone between the rival powers of
Persia and Byzantine Empire, with the control of the region
shifting hands back and forth several times. The early
kingdoms disintegrated into various feudal regions by the
early Middle Ages. This made it easy for Arabs to conquer
Georgia in the 7th century. The rebellious regions were
liberated and united into a unified Georgian Kingdom at the
beginning of the 11th century. Starting in the 12th century
AD, the rule of Georgia extended over a significant part of
the Southern Caucasus, including the northeastern parts and
almost the entire northern coast of what is now Turkey.
Although Arabs captured the capital city of Tbilisi in AD
645, Kartli-Iberia retained considerable independence under
local Arab rulers.[19] In AD 813, the prince Ashot I also
known as Ashot Kurapalat became the first of the Bagrationi
family to rule the kingdom: Ashot's reign began a period of
nearly 1,000 years during which the Bagrationi, as the house
was known, ruled at least part of what is now the republic.
Western and eastern Georgia were united under Bagrat V (r.
1027-72). In the next century, David IV (called the Builder,
r. 1099-1125) initiated the Georgian golden age by driving
the Turks from the country and expanding Georgian cultural
and political influence southward into Armenia and eastward
to the Caspian Sea.
Brief independence period and Soviet era
 Declaration
of independence by the Georgian parliament, 1918After the
Russian Revolution of 1917, Georgia declared independence on
May 26, 1918 in the midst of the Russian Civil War. The
parliamentary election was won by the Georgian
Social-Democratic Party, considered to be pro-Mensheviks,
and its leader, Noe Zhordania, became prime minister. In
1918 a Georgian–Armenian war erupted over parts of Georgian
provinces populated mostly by Armenians which ended due to
British intervention. In 1918–19 Georgian general Giorgi
Mazniashvili led a Georgian attack against the White Army
led by Moiseev and Denikin in order to claim the Black Sea
coastline from Tuapse to Sochi and Adler for independent
Georgia. The country's independence did not last long,
however. Georgia was under British protection from
1918-1920.
Prince Kakutsa Cholokashvili leader of the anti-Bolshevik
uprising in August of 1924, venerated as national hero of
GeorgiaIn February 1921 Georgia was attacked by the Red
Army. Georgian army was defeated and the Social-Democrat
government fled the country. On February 25, 1921 the Red
Army entered capital Tbilisi and installed a puppet
communist government led by Georgian Bolshevik Filipp
Makharadze. Nevertheless the Soviet rule was firmly
established only after the 1924 revolt was brutally
suppressed. Georgia was incorporated into the Transcaucasian
SFSR uniting Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The TFSSR was
disaggregated into its component elements in 1936 and
Georgia became the Georgian SSR.
The Georgian-born communist radical Ioseb Jughashvili,
better known by his nom de guerre Stalin (from the Russian
word for steel: сталь) was prominent among the Russian
Bolsheviks, who came to power in the Russian Empire after
the October Revolution in 1917. Stalin was to rise to the
highest position of the Soviet state.
From 1941 to 1945, during World War II, almost 700,000
Georgians fought as Red Army soldiers against Nazi Germany.
(A number also fought with the German army). About 350,000
Georgians died in the battlefields of the Eastern Front. As
during this period the Chechen, Ingush, Karachay and the
Balkarian peoples from the Northern Caucasus, were deported
to Siberia for alleged collaboration with the Nazis and
their respective autonomous republics were abolished, the
Georgian SSR was briefly granted some of their territory,
until 1957.
The Dissident movement for restoration of Georgian statehood
started to gain popularity in the 1960s.[28] Among the
Georgian dissidents, two of the most prominent activists
were Merab Kostava and Zviad Gamsakhurdia. Dissidents were
heavily persecuted by Soviet government and their activities
were harshly suppressed.
Post-Soviet Independence
On April 9, 1989, a peaceful demonstration in the Georgian
capital Tbilisi ended in a massacre in which several people
were killed by Soviet troops. Before the October 1990
elections to the national assembly, the Umaghlesi Sabcho
(Supreme Council) — the first polls in the USSR held on a
formal multi-party basis — the political landscape was
reshaped again. While the more radical groups boycotted the
elections and convened an alternative forum (National
Congress), another part of the anticommunist opposition
united into the Round Table—Free Georgia (RT-FG) around the
former dissidents like Merab Kostava and Zviad Gamsakhurdia.
The latter won the elections by a clear margin, with 155 out
of 250 parliamentary seats, whereas the ruling Communist
Party (CP) received only 64 seats. All other parties failed
to get over the 5%-threshold and were thus allotted only
some single-member constituency seats.
On April 9, 1991, shortly before the collapse of the USSR,
Georgia declared independence. On May 26, 1991, Zviad
Gamsakhurdia was elected as a first President of independent
Georgia. However, he was soon deposed in a bloody coup
d'état, from December 22, 1991 to January 6, 1992. The coup
was instigated by part of the National Guards and a
paramilitary organization called "Mkhedrioni". The country
became embroiled in a bitter civil war which lasted almost
until 1995. Eduard Shevardnadze returned to Georgia in 1992
and joined the leaders of the coup — Kitovani and Ioseliani
— to head a triumvirate called the "State Council".
In 1995, Shevardnadze was officially elected as a president
of Georgia. At the same time, two regions of Georgia,
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, quickly became embroiled in
disputes with local separatists that led to widespread
inter-ethnic violence and wars. Supported by Russia,
Abkhazia and South Ossetia achieved de facto independence
from Georgia. More than 250,000 Georgians were ethnically
cleansed from Abkhazia by Abkhaz separatists and North
Caucasians volunteers, (including Chechens) in 1992-1993.
More than 25,000 Georgians were expelled from Tskhinvali as
well, and many Ossetian families were forced to abandon
their homes in the Borjomi region and move to Russia.
 In
2003, Shevardnadze (who won reelection in 2000) was deposed
by the Rose Revolution, after Georgian opposition and
international monitors asserted that the November 2
parliamentary elections were marred by fraud. The revolution
was led by Mikheil Saakashvili, Zurab Zhvania and Nino
Burjanadze, former members and leaders of Shavarnadze's
ruling party. Mikheil Saakashvili was elected as President
of Georgia in 2004.
Following the Rose Revolution, a series of reforms was
launched to strengthen the country's military and economic
capabilities. The new government's efforts to reassert the
Georgian authority in the southwestern autonomous republic
of Ajaria led to a major crisis early in 2004. Success in
Ajaria encouraged Saakashvili to intensify his efforts, but
without success, in the breakaway South Ossetia. |
AIESEC in Georgia
E. Bedia Street: Nutsubidze Plateau; I Block
(+995) 90-333-844
info@aiesec.ge |
