Georgia Ethnic Minorities
Figure 14. Ethnic Groups in Georgia
Regional ethnic distribution is a major cause of the problems
Georgia faces along its borders and within its territory
(see
fig. 14). Russians, who make up the third largest ethnic group
in
the country (6.7 percent of the total population in 1989), do not
constitute a majority in any district. The highest concentration
of Russians is in Abkhazia, but the overall dispersion of the
Russian population restricts political representation of the
Russians' interests.
Azerbaijanis are a majority of the population in the
districts of Marneuli and Bolnisi, south of Tbilisi on the
Azerbaijan border, while Armenians are a majority in the
Akhalkalaki, Ninotsminda, and Dmanisi districts immediately to
the west of the Azerbaijani-dominated regions and just north of
the Armenian border. Despite the proximity and intermingling of
Armenian and Azerbaijani populations in Georgia, in the early
1990s few conflicts in Georgia reflected the hostility of the
Armenian and Azerbaijani nations over the territory of NagornoKarabakh
(see
Nagorno-Karabakh and Independence
, ch. 1;
National
Security
, ch. 2). Organizations in Georgia
representing the
interests of the Armenian and Azerbaijani populations had
relatively few conflicts with authorities in Tbilisi in the first
postcommunist years.
Under Soviet rule, a large part of Georgian territory was
divided into autonomous regions that included concentrations of
non-Georgian peoples. The largest such region was the Abkhazian
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Abkhazian ASSR; after
Georgian independence, the Abkhazian Autonomous Republic). The
distribution of territory and the past policies of tsarist and
Soviet rule meant that in 1989 the Abkhaz made up only 17.8
percent of the population of the autonomous republic named for
them (compared with 44 percent Georgians and 16 percent
Russians). The Abkhaz constituted less than 2 percent of the
total population of Georgia. Although Georgian was the prevailing
language of the region as early as the eighth century A.D.,
Abkhazia was a separate Soviet republic from 1921 until 1930,
when it was incorporated into Georgia as an autonomous republic.
In the thirteenth century, Ossetians arrived on the south
side of the Caucasus Mountains, in Georgian territory, when the
Mongols drove them from what is now the North Ossetian Autonomous
Republic of Russia. In 1922 the South Ossetian Autonomous Region
was formed within the new Transcaucasian republic of the Soviet
Union. The autonomous region was abolished officially by the
Georgian government in 1990, then reinstated in 1992. South
Ossetia includes many all-Georgian villages, and the Ossetian
population is concentrated in the cities of Tskhinvali and Java.
Overall, in the 1980s the population in South Ossetia was 66
percent Ossetian and 29 percent Georgian. In 1989 more than 60
percent of the Ossetian population of Georgia lived outside South
Ossetia.
The Ajarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Ajarian
ASSR) in southwest Georgia was redesignated the Ajarian
Autonomous Republic in 1992. The existence of that republic
reflects the religious and cultural differences that developed
when the Ottoman Empire occupied part of Georgia in the sixteenth
century and converted the local population to Islam. The Ajarian
region was not included in Georgia until the Treaty of Berlin
separated it from the Ottoman Empire in 1878. An autonomous
republic within Georgia was declared in 1921. Because the Ajarian
population is indistinguishable from Georgians in language and
belongs to the same ethnic group, it generally considers itself
Georgian. Eventually "Ajarian" was dropped from the ethnic
categories in the Soviet national census. Thus, in the 1979
census the ethnic breakdown of the region showed about 80 percent
Georgians (including Ajars) and 10 percent Russians.
Nevertheless, the autonomous republic remains an administrative
subdivision of the Republic of Georgia, local elites having
fought hard to preserve the special status that this distinction
affords them.
The so-called Meskhetian Turks are another potential source
of ethnic discord. Forcibly exiled from southern Georgia to
Uzbekistan by Stalin during World War II, many of the estimated
200,000 Meskhetian Turks outside Georgia sought to return to
their homes in Georgia after 1990. Many Georgians argued that the
Meskhetian Turks had lost their links to Georgia and hence had no
rights that would justify the large-scale upheaval resettlement
would cause. However, Shevardnadze argued that Georgians had a
moral obligation to allow this group to return.
Among the leading ethnic groups, the fastest growth between
1979 and 1989 occurred in the Azerbaijani population and the
Kurds (see
Glossary), whose numbers increased by 20 percent and
30 percent, respectively. This trend worried Georgians, even
though both groups combined made up less than 7 percent of the
republic's population. Over the same period, the dominant
Georgians' share of the population increased from 68.8 percent to
70.1 percent. Ethnic shifts after 1989--particularly the
emigration of Russians, Ukrainians, and Ossetians--were largely
responsible for the Georgians' increased share of the population.
Data as of March 1994
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