South Ossetia - A Sad History

I had initially been made aware of the situation in South Ossetia early this morning while I was watching CNN's coverage, shortly before I left for Sarasota. They, uh, neglected to mention that Georgia initiated the conflict by invading the region. Then they stopped covering it altogether, apparently, and switched to the unbelievable news that the National Enquirer turned out to be dead on about something. Luckily, there have been a number of people following this story all day and there's a lot of information available now.

Turns out that the timing of Georgia's incursion - to coincide with the opening of the Beijing Olympics - was not coincidental.

Naturally then, it's not nearly so clean cut as McCain would like it to be. We can't just put all the blame on Moscow. That's not to say that their reaction isn't tragic and avoidable, but like the vast majority of military conflicts there are vast shades of grey.

For those of you unfamiliar with the background to the story, I'll use the rest of this post to summarize what has been a long-standing, complicated and volatile situation.

The South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast (Russian word for "region") was established by the Soviet Union in 1922, shortly after the invasion of and occupation of Georgia. Aside from some outbursts towards and immediately after the end of the First World War, the Georgians and the Ossetians co-existed. However, by the late 80s a sweeping nationalist trend, influenced by the Soviet Union's imminent collapse and other nationalist movements in Eastern Europe, pushed both the Ossetians and the Georgians toward outright hostility. The South Ossetians wanted to be united with the North Ossetians and have a separate oblast recognized by Moscow, effectively making them no longer a part of Georgia. Georgian nationalists, led by a man with a wonderfully easy for Western media to ignore name, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, marched to the de facto capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali - where the majority of the fighting took place today - and blocked roadways, eventually forcing Soviet tanks to intervene.

This next bit is really important: after the break up of the Soviet Union, we recognized the legitimacy of the borders established before the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1933, meaning that we regarded as independent the Baltic States, but regarded the territory disputes of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as internal Soviet problems.

The conflict lasted on and off until a cease fire was agreed upon in 1996. This was in the middle of Russia's First Chechen War. Enter Eduard Shevardnadze - an opportunist and corrupt prick who would eventually be denounced by the international community in 2003 for rampant election fraud - who was receiving massive amounts of money from the US. Moscow accused his government of hiding Chechen rebels. This accusation, whether legitimate or not - we're dealing with two very suspicious and notoriously manipulative regimes, here - added to the tension caused by Shevy's cozy relationship with the West.

The aftermath of the peace agreements were a disaster. The region, lacking a strong and organized government, collapsed and became a hotbed for organized crime, specifically drugs and smuggling.

In 2004, Gerogia got a new president, with a name less inclined to be appropriated in a Dubya-esque nickname, Mikheil Saakashvili. He turned out to have a flair for violent, incendiary language and the inability to tolerate others' disagreements with him. He also quickly addressed the South Ossetian problem by closing a market which was a hub for tax-free good from Russia. Tensions mounted, the Ossetians closed a road from Russia to Georgia and some Georgian soldiers were captured and eventually released. The Duma that same year also passed a resolution recognizing South Ossetia's right to secede. Some fighting took place for a few days in mid August before Saakashvili agreed to remove all non peace-keeping forces. Later in November, an effort to demilitarize the zone was agreed to.

Georgia looked to Europe to help solve the problem and both the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, endorsed the Georgian peace plan, which granted Autonomy to the region, and agreed to give Ossetia a voice in the national government. In addition, Saakashvili would also propose to improve the social and economic conditions in South Ossetia and offered a three year proposal to integrate the Ossetian police and armed forces into the united Georgian Armed Forces.

In 2006, an attack on a helicopter, accusations from South Ossetia that the Georgians hired Chechens, armed them, and sent them into the region to carry out terrorist attacks and finally some good old fashion election scandals would escalate tensions. The next year, a stricter conflict resolution would be pushed by Georgia, specifically outlining the region's status within Georgia. The authorities in Tskhinvali were outraged at this.

Another bad thing that happened in '07 was that the Georgians accused the Russians of firing a missile into Tsitelubani, north of the capital, Tiblisi. NATO confirmed that the jet entered Georgian airspace from Russia, but Russia denied having anything to do with it.

This brings us to this summer. Most sites are giving August 1st as the beginning of the "War in South Ossetia", citing the eruption of intense gun battles which left numerous civilians dead, and reports of Georgia moving tanks and artillery into the area. Yesterday, overnight, Georgia began a full-fledged invasion to restore order in the region and attacked a Russian base in Tskhinvali. Georgia accuses the Russian peacekeepers of not being a neutral force and demanded their removal, prompting the Russian's response.

A very important post by Nathan Hodge asserts that Georgia has also been on the receiving end of US military support, receiving arms, uniforms and armor.

So, in summary: this is the Caucasus, people. This region is ethnically diverse, with borders that do not recognize this diversity, and it has a long, long history of brutal colonial oppression. It's been a war zone since the USSR fell. This time, sadly, it could last a long while.