ARTICLE: A Caucasian circle of tension. By Derek Boothby (manchesterjournal.com)

The Manchester Journal, Friday, Aug. 29, 2008

We have been deluged recently by so many news reports about Georgia that perhaps readers of the Journal do not want to hear any more but, as I was involved for about two years in a UN effort to negotiate a solution to the Georgia/Abkhaz confrontation, I have some experience of the issues. For what they may be worth, here are my views.
First, some background on Georgia and the Georgians, and the history of the Caucasus region. Within the Caucasus the ethnic and tribal divisions are many and intense, and they have fought each other for centuries, along with being invaded by Romans, Persians, Turks and countless others down the ages. On top of that, Russians have trampled over the area since Czarist times, Stalin stifled Georgian independence in the 1920s, and he and KGB head Lavrenty Beria (among other members of the Soviet leadership) had their warm climate dachas in Abkhazia. Generally Georgians and Russians tend to look down on each other: many Russians regard Georgians as crooks and many Georgians regard Russians as thugs.
Moreover, many old style Russians despise Gorbachev and Shevardnadze as being primarily responsible for the collapse of communism, and Shevardnadze was a Georgian who, after being First Secretary of the Communist party in Georgia for over a decade, became Foreign Minister of USSR in 1985, and then after the breakup of USSR became the President of Georgia.

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