President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia reclaimed control of the breakaway region of Ajaria on Thursday, making a dramatic announcement in the middle of the night that its rebellious leader had fled the country after months of threatening a civil war. Just hours earlier, Aslan Abashidze had vowed on television not to leave his post. But he relented after a negotiating session at his residence with a Russian envoy who was dispatched to defuse the crisis, according to accounts from Georgia.
"Lookee here, Aslan: You gave a war and nobody came. Y'remember Ceaucescu?"
"Ceaucescu?... Ceaucescu?... Hmmm... Romanian guy, right?"
"Dead Romanian guy."
"I'll start packing now." |
By 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Abashidze had left Ajaria without making a public statement, after thousands of opponents turned out on the streets of Batumi, the regional capital, and some members of his police and military joined their side. "Georgians: Aslan has fled! Ajaria is free!" Saakashvili said on Georgian television, according to reports from Tbilisi, the national capital. "I congratulate everyone on this victory, on the beginning of Georgia's unification," he said, alluding to two other breakaway regions he has pledged to take back under his control.
| What does the well-dressed warlord wear into exile these days? |
Leftist dictator --> green military fatigues.
South American dictator --> dress military uniform with lots of gold braid.
East Asian dictator --> beige military fatigues with funny-looking collar.
Arab dictator --> Seville Row suit.
African dictator --> Seville Row suit.
Russian dictator --> Seville Row suit. |
The standoff over Ajaria began as soon as Saakashvili came to power last fall in a peaceful street revolution and vowed to regain control over the autonomous region on the Black Sea coast. In recent days, the dispute escalated sharply when Abashidze's forces blew up bridges connecting Ajaria to the rest of Georgia and thousands of anti-Abashidze protesters took to the streets in Ajaria hoping to repeat Saakashvili's revolution in their province. Both sides had troops near their border, but there were no armed clashes. Saakashvili did not wait for Abashidze's exit before declaring victory. As Russia's national security council chief, Igor Ivanov, was en route to Ajaria on Wednesday, Saakashvili announced on television that evening that he was introducing direct presidential rule in the province until elections could be held. Saakashvili also said that he had offered Abashidze and his family safe passage out of the country if he would quit.
"And if I don't?"
"Remember Ceaucescu?" |
"There are only a few hours to go until our final victory arrives," Saakashvili said at the time. He also exultantly compared the street protests in Batumi to the mass rallies he led in November that resulted in the toppling of Eduard Shevardnadze, who had been in power nearly since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. "The world is amazed by the accomplishment of two bloodless revolutions in Georgia," he said in footage aired on Russian television. Earlier Wednesday, other Georgian officials were more belligerent, warning Abashidze that he had just a few hours left to resign or face a bloody end like that Nicolae Ceausescu, the Romanian dictator executed in 1989 after a street uprising. "Abashidze has the right to choose: He can share the fate of Ceausescu or Shevardnadze," the Georgian prosecutor general, Irakli Okruashvili, said in televised remarks.
| "He can count muzzle blasts or he can get out with an unperforated skin and maybe a few bucks..." |
Several times on television before his exit, Abashidze exhorted his backers to defend him. But early Thursday morning, the Reuters news agency reported from Batumi that his plane had left the airport and that protesters were attempting to enter his empty residence. It was unclear whether Abashidze would seek asylum in Russia or elsewhere.
| I think Chuck Taylor has a spare bedroom... |
Abashidze, a former Soviet official whose family claims to have ruled Ajaria since the 15th century, had run the province as an independent fiefdom for more than a decade, relying on his close ties to Russia and the weakness of the Georgian central government under Shevardnadze to secure his autonomy. During the revolution that brought Saakashvili to power last fall, he bet on the losing side, and Saakashvili has since made reestablishing control of Ajaria a key test of his new administration. "Abashidze was ruling his fiefdom and creating problems for this country, and he was nurtured by the Russians always," said Alexander Rondeli, president of the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies. "Now our relationship with Russia is better, and they understand now he is finished." In Batumi, television crews captured scenes of celebrations reminiscent of the Georgian revolution, as thousands of people took to the streets, dancing, brandishing Georgian and U.S. flags and urging Abashidze to go. Roses, the symbol of the uprising that Saakashvili led, were also much in evidence, and several of the Georgian president's allies, including his prime minister, Zurab Zhvania, traveled to Batumi and addressed the protesters Wednesday night as Abashidze huddled in his residence with Ivanov. "This is a moment to solve everything, bloodlessly," Katiya Dekaniodze, an aide to the Georgian national security adviser, said by phone from Tbilisi. "We'll not make any provocations." |