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Georgia Threats of Fragmentation
The autonomous areas of South Ossetia and Abkhazia added to
the problems of Georgia's post-Soviet governments. By 1993
separatist movements in those regions threatened to tear the
republic into several sections. Intimations of Russian
interference in the ethnic crises also complicated Georgia's
relations with its giant neighbor.
South Ossetia
The first major crisis faced by the Gamsakhurdia regime was
in the South Ossetian Autonomous Region, which was largely
populated by Ossetians, a separate ethnic group speaking a
language based on Persian
(see Population
and Ethnic Composition
, this ch.). In December 1990, Gamsakhurdia summarily abolished the
region's autonomous status within Georgia in response to its
longtime efforts to gain independence. When the South Ossetian
regional legislature took its first steps toward secession and
union with the North Ossetian Autonomous Republic of Russia,
Georgian forces invaded. The resulting conflict lasted throughout
1991, causing thousands of casualties and creating tens of
thousands of refugees on both sides of the Georgian-Russian
border. Yeltsin mediated a cease-fire in July 1992. A year later,
the cease-fire was still in place, enforced by Ossetian and
Georgian troops together with six Russian battalions.
Representatives of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe (
CSCE--see
Glossary) attempted mediation, but the two
sides remained intractable. In July 1993, the South Ossetian
government declared negotiations over and threatened to renew
large-scale combat, but the cease-fire held through early 1994.
Data as of March 1994
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