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| Caucasus |
| Tensions rising between Georgia and Ajaria |
| 2004-03-14 |
| Georgia has reportedly put its armed forces on alert after President Mikhail Saakashvili was barred from entering the troubled region of Ajaria. Georgian TV showed footage of troops loyal to Ajarian leader Aslan Abashidze blocking Mr Saakashvili’s convoy at a checkpoint on a road into the region. Meanwhile Russia warned Georgia not to send its troops into the region. Mr Abashidze opposed the events of December 2003 which led to the ousting of former leader Eduard Shevardnadze. Security Council chief Vano Merabishvili told the TV Mr Saakashvili’s convoy was met with warning shots as it approached the checkpoint near the town of Cholokhi. The president decided to turn round, leaving other senior officials to negotiate with the local authorities. Georgian TV reported tanks and armoured vehicles in the streets of the Ajarian capital Batumi, and said firearms were being distributed to civilians. Mr Saakashvili had decided to visit the region to campaign for parliamentary elections set for late March, and is thought to have had no plans to meet regional leaders. On Saturday he warned the Ajarian leadership to abide by Georgian law after it briefly detained his finance minister. "If Abashidze intends to blackmail the Georgian president like a feudal lord from the Middle Ages, he is making a big mistake," he said. Mr Abashidze is currently in Moscow, where on Saturday he accused the new Georgian authorities of preparing to invade Ajaria. And the Russian foreign ministry said Georgia would be to blame for any use of force in the region. But Mr Saakashvili said he did not want to use force. Correspondents say there is a strong personal animosity between Aslan Abashidze and Mr Saakashvili. The Ajarian leadership wants to remain firmly under Russia’s influence, while the central Georgian authorities are strongly pro-Western. |
| Posted by:Paul Moloney |
| #3 Adjarans (they apparently prefer dropping the "i") are indeed Muslim Georgians, but most Western sources are outdated in describing them as a majority within their own autonomous region. By all contemporary accounts, they are a substantial minority. An anectodal example comes from "Living With Caucasians," a blog written by some American expatriates living in Tbilisi. Just a couple weeks before Shevardnadze got his pink slip, Mary Neal wrote: When we were in Batumi, we were allowed by the very gracious imam to tour the one (1) mosque in the city of 140,000 or so. He said that on Fridays, he usually sees about 1,500 people in attendance. [edit some fairly logical demographic assumptions] ... then that would represent a population of, say, 7,500 observant Muslims. This does not constitute a majority of the population of Ajara. And, on the Sunday when we toured Batumi, the formerly R.C. church, St. Mary's I think it was, which has been reconsecrated Orthodox, was packed. I mean packed, and it's a big church. ... I can't imagine that rural folks outnumber urbanites. Even if the rural population has a far greater proportion of Muslims, I still can't get the numbers to show that the vast majority of Ajarans are Muslim. But I keep reading this (as if it's the reason the autonomous region is autonomous, and as if it's going to stay that way forever). As a political entity, Adjara in the here-and-now is probably best described as a mafia state, the personal fiefdom of Aslan Abashidze ... and the ball is firmly in HIS court. Whether or not he successfully manipulates Adjaran/Muslim aspirations to further his own political survival (as, say, Slobo did with Serbian nationalism) is another question. No single overarching personality was behind the Abkhazian uprising, but I've read that ethnic Abkhazi accounted for less than a quarter of Abkhazia's pre-1992 population. Abkhazian secession was -- again -- driven largely by local ethnic Russians and other "Russophile" nationalites (other Slavs, Armenians, Pontic Greeks, etc.). Obviously, this is all short on statistics and long on anecdotal evidence. Any 'Burgers got some stats? |
| Posted by: Another Dan 2004-3-14 2:46:14 PM |
| #2 You mean the Ajarian leadership is paid off by the Kremlin and are staying bought. |
| Posted by: Hiryu 2004-3-14 12:55:28 PM |
| #1 Ajarians= Georgian-speaking Muslims, who conveted from Orthodox Christianity under the rule of the Ottomans. No surprise, in other words. |
| Posted by: closet neo-con 2004-3-14 12:16:32 PM |