Posted
on August 18, 2008
Hot Spot Report: Since
Russia began pouring its troops, tanks, and bombs into South
Ossetia, a province of Georgia, on August 7, 2008, the United States
Department of States, U.S. Embassies in Moscow and Tbilisi have
issued numerous travel warnings to Americans who travel or live in
Georgia. Now Georgia has become one of the world's hot spots. In
order to help our clients have a better understanding of the nature
of official travel alerts regarding Georgia, we at SIRM would like to present
some facts and a brief history of Georgia.
Georgia
Geographic Overview
Area: 69,700 square kilometers; slightly smaller
than the state of South Carolina; 20% of total territory is not
under government control.
Cities: Capital Tbilisi (population 1.1 million, 2002).
Terrain: Mostly rugged and mountainous.
Climate: Generally moderate; mild on the Black Sea coast with cold
winters in the mountains.
People
Nationality: Noun and adjective
Georgian(s).
Population (July 2007 est.): 4.65 million.
Ethnic groups (2002 census): Georgian 83.8%, Azeri 6.5%, Armenian
5.7%, Russian 1.5%, other 2.5%.
Religion (2002 census): Orthodox Christian 83.9%, Muslim 9.9%,
Armenian Apostolic 3.9%, Catholic 0.8%; other 0.8%; none 0.7%.
Language: Georgian (official), Abkhaz also "official language" in
Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia.
Education: Years compulsory 11. Literacy (2004 est.)
100%.
Health: Infant mortality rate (2007 est.) 17.36 deaths/1,000
live births. Life expectancy (2007 est.) 76.3 yrs.
Georgia, Tbilisi City Hall
Photo by: Christine Palowitch
Government
Type: Republic.
Constitution: August 24, 1995; amended February, April, and June
2004; December 2005; and January 2007.
Branches: Executive: president with State Chancellery.
Legislative: unicameral parliament, 235 members. Judicial:
Supreme Court, Constitutional Court, and local courts.
Subdivisions: 67 electoral districts, including
those within the two autonomous republics (Abkhazia and Adjara) and
five independent cities.
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HISTORY
Georgia's recorded history dates back
more than 2,500 years. Georgian, a South Caucasian (or "Kartvelian")
language unrelated to any other outside the immediate region, is one
of the oldest living languages in the world, and has its own
distinctive alphabet.
Capital Tbilisi, located in the picturesque
Mtkvari River valley, is more than 1,500 years old. In the early 4th
century Georgia adopted Christianity, the second nation in the world
to do so officially.
Georgia has historically found itself on the
margins of great empires, and Georgians have lived together in a
unified state for only a small fraction of their existence as a
people.
Much of Georgia's territory was fought over by
Persian, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Mongol, and Turkish armies from at
least the 1st century B.C. through the 18th century. The zenith of
Georgia's power as an independent kingdom came in the 11th and 12th
centuries, during the reigns of King David the Builder and Queen
Tamara, who still rank among the most celebrated of all Georgian
rulers. In 1783 the king of Kartli (in eastern Georgia) signed the
Treaty of Georgievsk with the Russians, by which Russia agreed to
take the kingdom as its protectorate.
In 1801, the Russian empire began the
piecemeal process of unifying and annexing Georgian territory, and
for most of the next two centuries (1801-1991) Georgia found itself
ruled from St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Exposed to modern European ideas of
nationalism under Russian tutelage, Georgians like the writer Ilya
Chavchavadze began calling for greater Georgian independence.
In the wake of the collapse of tsarist rule
and war with the Turks, the first Republic of Georgia was
established on May 26, 1918, and the country enjoyed a brief period
of independence under the Menshevik president, Noe Zhordania.
However, in March 1921, the Russian Red Army re-occupied the
country, and Georgia became a republic of the Soviet Union. Several
of the Soviet Union's most notorious leaders in the 1920s and 1930s
were Georgian, such as Joseph Stalin, Sergo Orjonikidze, and
Lavrenti Beria.
In the postwar period, Georgia was
perceived as one of the wealthiest and most privileged of Soviet
republics, and many Russians treated the country's Black Sea coast
as a kind of Soviet Riviera. On April 9, 1991, the Supreme Council
of the Republic of Georgia declared independence from the U.S.S.R.
Beset by ethnic and civil strife from
independence in 1991, Georgia began to stabilize in 1995. The
separatist conflicts in Georgia's regions of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia remain unresolved, although cease-fires are in effect.
In Abkhazia, the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) maintains a peacekeeping force (in fact, composed only
of Russian forces), and the United Nations maintains an Observer
Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), both of which monitor compliance with
the 1994 cease-fire agreement. In South Ossetia, the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has the prime role in
monitoring the 1992 cease-fire and facilitating negotiations. A
Joint Peacekeeping Force composed of Georgian, Russian, and Ossetian
troops patrols the region.
The Georgian Government stakes much of its
future on the revival of the ancient Silk Road as a Eurasian
transportation corridor, using Georgia's geography as a bridge for
the transit of goods, including oil and gas, between Europe and
Asia.
Georgians are renowned for their hospitality
and artistry in dance, theater, music, and design.
Source: DOS and
CIA Fact Book
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