South Ossetia
South Ossetia is a self-declared independent region located in the Caucasus Mountains, bordered by the Republic of Georgia to the west and North Ossetia in Russia to the north. The area has a complex history of conflict and governance, particularly following its declaration of independence from Georgia in 1991, which coincided with Georgia's own independence from the Soviet Union. A significant turning point occurred in August 2008 when Georgian forces attempted to reestablish control over South Ossetia, leading to a military response from Russia, which subsequently recognized South Ossetia's independence. This region is home to approximately 56,500 residents, predominantly ethnic Ossetians, who speak a language distinct from Georgian and often hold Russian citizenship. The economy is largely based on agriculture, with the region known for its dairy products and beer. Despite its declared independence, South Ossetia's status remains contentious, as it is recognized only by a few countries, while the international community largely views it as part of Georgia. The political landscape continues to evolve, with ongoing discussions around potential integration into Russia and the complexities of ethnic relations within the region.
South Ossetia
Summary: In August 2008, the breakaway state of South Ossetia, which declared its independence from the Republic of Georgia in 1991, was formally recognized by Russia in 2008 during the South Ossetia invasion by Georgian soldiers. South Ossetians first sought independence from Georgia in 1918, when the Republic of Georgia broke from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. In 1991, when Georgia claimed independence from Russia again, South Ossetians refused to go along. After a brief period of intense fighting, the region was overseen by a peacekeeping force comprising soldiers from Russia, Georgia, and North Ossetia (a Russian province). It governed itself as an autonomous region in a so-called "frozen conflict" until August 2008, when Georgia sent troops to reclaim sovereignty. Ossetians speak a language distinct from Georgian, the area uses Russian currency, and many South Ossetians hold Russian passports. Solidifying its position in the region, Russia signed a formal five-year agreement in 2009, taking proper control of Georgia and Abkhazia. In 2015, Russia extended its border fence more than a kilometer into Georgia and eliminated border checkpoints, which Georgians viewed as further Russian annexation efforts.
Overview
South Ossetia is a contested region of the Caucasus Mountains. It has asserted its independence since the early 1990s but has been claimed by the Republic of Georgia as part of its territory. In August 2008, Georgia sent troops to reassert Tbilisi's authority over a region that had long been governed as an autonomous region overseen by peacekeepers from Russia, North Ossetia (part of Russia), and Georgia. In response, Russia sent troops into Georgia and formally recognized the independence of South Ossetia, along with another breakaway region of Georgia, Abkhazia.
Shortly afterward, Russia became the first to recognize South Ossetia formally. Nicaragua followed suit in September. Two other Russian allies, Belarus and Venezuela, supported Moscow's position but hesitated to grant formal diplomatic recognition. Subsequently, in 2009, Venezuela recognized South Ossetia's independence, as did the Pacific island nation of Nauru.
South Ossetia is inhabited by about 56,500 people who speak a different language than Georgian and relate to fellow Ossetian speakers in adjacent North Ossetia, located on the northern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains and an extended part of Russia. The South Ossetians declared their independence in 1991 at the same time Georgia declared independence from the Soviet Union when the USSR was about to cease to exist. Having been declared an autonomous "oblast" (an administrative-territorial division of Russia or the USSR) in the early days of the Soviet Union, South Ossetia effectively governed itself after fighting with Georgian troops ended in an uneasy cease-fire overseen by peacekeepers from Russia, North Ossetia (which included some South Ossetians), and Georgia. Many residents of South Ossetia have Russian citizenship, and the Russian ruble is customarily used in business rather than Georgian currency.
Area: About 1,500 square miles (3,900 sq km), primarily mountainous, on the southern slopes of the Caucasus Mountains, bordering the Russian republic of North Ossetia-Alania. Most of the territory (more than 90 percent) is above 3,280 feet in altitude, and about half is covered by forests.
South Ossetia is connected to North Ossetia by the Roki Tunnel, a 2.25-mile, two-lane passage finished in 1985 under the otherwise virtually impassable ridges of the Caucasus Mountains.
Population: Approximately 56,500, of whom about two-thirds are ethnic Ossetians, and one-third are ethnic Georgians. Within South Ossetia, the two groups live in entirely separate enclaves. Ossetians are concentrated in the capital, Tskhinvali, and the city of Java. There are also many ethnic Ossetians living in Georgia outside the area of South Ossetia, as well as a significant number living in North Ossetia, where they fled fighting in 1991-1992 and where economic opportunities are judged to be better.
Capital: Tskhinvali.
Major languages: Ossetian, Georgian, Russian. Ossetian is related to Farsi (Persian), an entirely separate linguistic branch from Georgian.
Major religion: Orthodox Christianity.
Currency: Russian ruble, Georgian lari.
Economy: South Ossetia's economy is primarily based on agriculture (it is famous for dairy products), brewing beer, and generating electricity from hydroelectric dams across the region's multiple rivers.
Government
President: Alan Gagloev (born 1981), elected in 2022. Anatoly Bibilov (born 1970), elected in 2017. Leonid Tibilov (born 1952), elected in 2012, succeeding acting President Vadim Brovtsev.
Significant Events
The long-simmering tensions between South Ossetians and ethnic Georgians broke out into warfare on the night of August 7-8, 2008, when Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili, sent troops to occupy the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali as a means of reasserting full control. Saakashvili was making good on a platform promise of his 2007 campaign for reelection that promised to reassert complete Georgian control over two breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in northwestern Georgia.
Russia, which already had peacekeepers stationed in South Ossetia under a 1992 cease-fire agreement, responded by invading South Ossetia, seizing control of Tskhinvali, and continuing into Georgia. Three weeks after the conflict erupted, Russia recognized South Ossetia's claim of independence, becoming the first nation to do so. Russia also identified a similar claim by Abkhazia, another breakaway region of Georgia.
Nicaragua also recognized South Ossetia's independence on September 4, 2008. Venezuela and Belarus voiced support for Russia's position but did not immediately grant diplomatic recognition; Venezuela did so in 2009.
The United States and members of the European Union publicly insisted that Russia must recognize the sovereignty of Georgia over the region and remove all its troops from Georgian territory but made no immediate military moves to challenge Moscow. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told French President Nicolas Sarkozy on September 9, 2008, that Russia would remove all its troops from central Georgia—but not South Ossetia or Abkhazia—by the second week in October.
Under President Anatoly Bibilov, South Ossetian troops were sent to Ukraine in 2022 to aid in Russia’s invasion. A short time later, Bibilov began the legal process to become part of Russia, including the requirement to obtain a referendum outlining the consent of the Ossetian people to join the Russian Federation. However, Bibilov was defeated by Alan Gagloyev in the 2022 presidential election, and the referendum was suspended. Later that year, Gagloyev announced the country’s border with Georgia would be open ten days each month.
History and Context
The Ossetians—including residents of both North and South Ossetia—have an ancient history among the many distinctive tribes that occupy the Caucasus Mountains between the Black and Caspian Seas. Their history is closely intertwined with both Georgia and Russia.
In the late eighteenth century, the leader of Georgia sought the protection of Russia's Catherine the Great from the expanding Ottoman Empire to the south. Catherine made Georgia—including the area of South Ossetia—a protectorate. In 1800, Czar Paul I incorporated Georgia into the Russian Empire. Throughout the period, Ossetians, unlike other peoples of the Caucasus, cooperated with Russia rather than resisting the growing Russian empire.
In November 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution overthrew the czar. In early 1918, the Georgians seized upon the opportunity to declare their independence as the Georgian Democratic Republic, which included the area of the south slopes of the Northern Caucasus occupied by Ossetians. Inside that territory, Ossetians established a National Council of Ossetians dominated by Bolsheviks who advocated independence from Georgia. Georgian resistance to the Ossetians included a massacre of Ossetians in Tskhinvali, which left bitter feelings on both sides.
Georgia was an independent republic for three years until the Red Army of the Bolsheviks invaded the former Russian territory in 1921. In April 1922, Georgia became a founding member republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), with South Ossetia governed as an autonomous "oblast" (region) within the new state, while the northern slopes of the Caucasus became an autonomous region of the Russian republic, called North Ossetia. In 1936, North Ossetia became an independent republic within the USSR.
During the 1980s, nationalist sentiments saw a resurgence in Georgia, while South Ossetians formed their organization, Ademon Nykhas (Popular Front), demanding integration with North Ossetia. Georgian nationalists, led by Zviad Gamsakhurdia, entered South Ossetia to challenge this demand.
On April 9, 1991, Georgia proclaimed its independence. Gamsakhurdia, its new leader, canceled the political autonomy granted by Stalin to the Ossetian minority and sent Georgian troops into the enclave to assert authority. In the fighting that ensued, the city of Tskhinvali was ransacked, recalling the fighting over the same issue seventy years earlier.
Eventually, Russia sent troops to separate the two sides and maintain an uneasy peace with a force comprising soldiers from Russia, Georgia, and North Ossetia (the latter force included some South Ossetians). South Ossetia became a "frozen conflict"-an unsettled dispute, like control over the island of Cyprus, that was no longer "hot" in the sense of active conflict. Gamsakhurdia's successor as president of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze, the USSR's foreign minister from 1985-1990, was content to leave the conflict alone. That did not mean, however, that resentments on both sides left from the 1991-1992 conflict healed.
In late 2003, Shevardnadze was forced to resign by Georgia's Rose Revolution, the largely peaceful protests set off by disputed elections. He was succeeded by a young, American-educated lawyer, Mikhail Saakashvili, who was elected president and took office in January 2004. Saakashvili himself was forced to resign in late 2007 on allegations of corruption but then reelected. He campaigned partly on reasserting Georgian control over South Ossetia and another rebellious region in the northwest of Georgia, Abkhazia. Saakashvili also campaigned for membership in NATO and the European Union, which he viewed as guarantors of Georgian independence from a resurgent Russia under President (and later prime minister) Vladimir Putin.
After 1992, South Ossetia essentially governed itself as an autonomous region under the protection of Russian troops, with some Georgians and Ossetians also part of the peacekeeping forces. South Ossetia held a presidential election in December 2001 that was widely boycotted by ethnic Georgians. The election resulted in a businessman, former wrestling champion, and one-time Communist Eduard Kokoity (born 1964; sometimes spelled Kokoyev) becoming the unrecognized president of South Ossetia. He successfully ran for re-election in November 2006. Kokoity has repeatedly said he considers Russia the best guarantor of peace in the region. He also maintained close ties with the other breakaway area of Georgia, Abkhazia. The Supreme Court of South Ossetia invalidated the results of a 2011 presidential election, and a new election was held in 2012, resulting in the election of Leonid Tibilov. Anatoly Bibilov was elected in 2017, but after five years and an attempt to unite South Ossetia with the Russian Federation, Alan Gagloyev was elected in 2022.
Bibliography
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