South Ossetia: Russian, Georgian...independent?

[dkf]

On Sunday 12 November 2006, South Ossetians went to the polls to vote in a referendum confirming the region's independence from Georgia. The result was an overwhelming "yes" to independence, with a turnout above 95% from those among the territory's 70,000 people who were eligible to vote. There was a similar vote in favour of a new term for South Ossetia's president, Eduard Kokoity. Neither outcome came as a surprise, but the chances are that nobody in the international community will take the slightest bit of notice of the results.

South Ossetia is a bite-sized chunk of land on the southern slopes of the Caucasus mountains, one of four "breakaway states" that - along with fifteen recognised nation-states - emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union (the other three are Abkhazia, Transdniestria, and Nagorno-Karabakh). The Ossetians are a largely Christian people, whose language is related to Farsi, and the majority of whom live on the northern side of the Caucasus in North Ossetia, which is part of Russia. South Ossetia was part of the Georgian republic within the Soviet Union, but in the early 1990s tried to gain autonomy from Tbilisi, which led to violent clashes in which many died and thousands were made refugees, both Georgian and Ossetian.

Since then, South Ossetia, with the exception of a few villages controlled by the Georgian government in Tbilisi, has been run as a de facto independent state, although its proclamations of independence have been ignored by the international community. The territory is heavily reliant on Russian support. As in Abkhazia, Moscow has infuriated the Georgians by granting passports to the majority of the South Ossetian population, and providing significant economic backing.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-caucasus/south_ossetia_4100.jsp

--This is an older article but since I don't know much about the history of the area I found it interesting.

[clear eye]

1. Thanks, n/t

[KharmaTrain]

2. Given Their Druthers....

Both Abkhazia and South Osetsia will gladly rejoin their Russian bretheren across the international border. In essence that's what was going on, but now we will see the actual borders redrawn...cutting about 30% out of the current Georgia.

I would imagine whatever ethnic Georgians in either area (and there weren't many prior to this war) will be expelled from those areas if they haven't fled already.

A lot depends on if the Russians push ahead to replace the government in Tlbisi...installing one more favorable to both Moscow and the ethnic Russians in those regions. If that's the case, Georgia will once again slip into the black hole of the American myopia.