open Democracy News Analysis - russia & eurasia - Comments

Manfred Ostrowski on "Georgia's pluralistic feudalism: a frontline report"

Manfred Ostrowski — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:25:21 +0100

Manfred Ostrowski

The article does not address the main reason for Georgia's

crisis: A highly hostile Russia which took control over two

parts of Georgia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The conflict

between Russia and Georgia is centered around the Russian

claim to support "independence" for Abkhazia and South

Ossetia for ethnic reasons. I have studied Caucasian languages for many years and would like to mention

some crucial facts regarding this conflict:

There are only around 97 000 Abkhaz in what is now Abkhazia, less than 20% of the pre-war population

of this territory; the remaining inhabitants were Georgians,

the Mingrelians (near relatives of the Georgians), and

people of Russian descent. Only a minority of these

roughly 97 000 ethnic Abkhaz still speaks their native

language, and since the Abkhaz remain a minority in the territory of (now Russian-controlled) Abkhazia, the ethnic argument for an independent Abkhazia which neglects rights to the Georgian and Mingrelian part of the population is completely flawed.

According to official data, there were around 180 000

ethnic South Ossetin in pre-war Georgia, the majority

in South Ossetia, but others living in ethnic "pockets"

elswhere in Georgia. Many Georgians lived in South

Ossetia, and a lot of Georgian place names testify that

Georgians were the native and autochthonous inhabitants

in the main part of what is now South Ossetia. So it is

highly problematic to divide politically along Ossetin:
Georgian lines to construct borders, since this ultimately

means the resettlement of large numbers of ethnic Georgians

and ethnic Ossetin. Georgia surely has not yet recovered

from the war last year, but the factual weakness of Russia's

political justification for dismantling Georgia should not go unnoticed, and if one speaks about democracy in Georgia,

one should also take a look at Abkhazia and South Ossetia

where current lack of political freedom is obvious.

liopik on "Moldova: recession hits a frozen conflict"

liopik — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:10:43 +0100

Yes, this article is 100% true. And, unfortunately, I don't believe that some day Moldavian Government(whatever party it will belong to) will start to think about people. Its impossible... at least in nearest future.

jelger72 on "A Georgian appeal: open letter to the west "

jelger72 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 09:17:35 +0100

Georgia needs to unite and not split itself by people who choose themselves to be a
maverick, and promising "real democracy" without really indicating specifically what that
means.

Burjanadze, and many others do not seem to realize that their current behavior adds to
the Russian abuse of Georgian territories. They blame Saakashvili for the August war, but
fail to recognize the well documented processes and events in the months before the war,
which clearly indicate a Russian hand, means and prupose in provoking the war in such a
way that any country who respects itself cannot just sit by and laugh it off. The
opposition is least to say very naive about the prelude of the war, and where to put the
final blame of the occurence of the war.

"or support a decisive campaign for freedom and real democracy in Georgia. "

I have learned to be very sceptical about such expressions. "real democracy". The
democracy of Burjanadze is the one where the voter votes, and the extra-parliamentary
opposition decides that the vote of the people should be neglected. That is what i see.
Despite irregularities reported in presidential elections both in campaign and in voting,
they were not that big that the election result would have been different in "perfect 10"
conditions. Obviously the task should be to correct authorities on the democratic level.
That does not necessarily means to ask for regime change.

abuelita42pj on "Five years to the day: violence in Ingushetia"

abuelita42pj — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:06:20 +0100

You are right with your analogy of the Spartans. The one that came to my mind as I read your article was more Russian in origin--Ivan the Terrible and his means of destroying his own sons if they thought anything different than he did. But then guns are faster and leave fewer signs than crucifixion.

ch1 on "Unlocking the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict "

ch1 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:52:30 +0100

This text is extremely biased. 94% of Nagorno-Karabakh were Armenians, and the lands were given to the Azeris by Russia to soften their relationships with the Turks. The same thing happened in Nakhitchevan, where Azeris deliberately massacred Armenians there, destroyed all/most historical monuments to erase traqces of Armenians who lived there since before Jesus Christ. Karabakh was Artsakh -- an Armenian province. The Azeris tried to Azerify Karabakh by banning Armenian books, TV programs, school, encourageing settlement of muslims there, turning historical Armenian churches to mosques. Where is the democracy in this? Armenians stood up and fought against Azrbaijan, and although extremely outnumbered, they won the war. It was a fight for freedom, not because some Armenians newspaper spread hate for Turks. If Armenians hate Turks, it is not because Armenians are barbaric ignorant fools, it's because they have a reason.

The person who wrote this is either ignorant of Armenian-Turk relationships, or extremely biased towards Turks.

08001 on "A Georgian appeal: open letter to the west "

08001 — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 01:20:44 +0100

Mrs Burjanadze - As someone who formerly respected you as a political figure your conduct throughout the recent protests has been an utter disgrace. You seem intent on preventing any kind of dialogue, have insisted on using inflammatory language and seem to be recklessly destabilising Georgia to prove to everyone your own newly found zeal for opposition.

While I understand that the removal of Saakashvili was the only thing the disparate opposition groups could agree on, it was obvious to the vast majority of observers that this simplistic demand for his resignation was going to be completely unconstructive and end up destabilising Georgia at a crucial time.

Saakashvili is only in his second term and has a mandate to rule until 2013. Nothing in your letter suggests that you are concerned he will seek a third term. If he was to do so then your claim to be protecting Georgia's democracy would be obvious and you would certainly have my whole-hearted support. Instead you seem to be currently undermining the future of Georgian democracy.

As a leader of the opposition you have a duty to steer the popular support your movement has along with the widespread dissatisfaction with the government towards constructive criticism and practical demands without preconditions in order to end the deadlock. This would ultimately galvanise rather than undermine the opposition. You should be more worried about holding the government accountable which I think you did very effectively with your '43 questions' as an example, rather than seeking to replace one Misha with fourteen or fifteen.

K Demetrious on "A Georgian appeal: open letter to the west "

K Demetrious — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:09:37 +0100

Thank you Mrs Burjanadze for your story but how can we believe you when i remember attending your meeting with LSE students in London Last year and you talked about how much Georgia achieved in last 4 years since MR Saakashivili came to power, you talked about Failed state Georgia once was, and changes that you and Saakashvili achieved, i think it is remarkable that Country changes radically and Saakashvili is the reason for good changes, he made powerful stance against corruption and i think whole world knows that now, and now we hear that you were dismissed because your husband was involved in some kind of border control corruption and now that you both are sucked from your work you are destroying everything you and others were building for years, so why should we believe you now??? and what other changes you may bring when we see that all opposition politicians in the country are more violent and aggressive then current government, also we very well know that current government has employed Georgian young professionals to deal with Economy and future reforms and oppositions only has young activist with no strong educational background and they are involved in violent and illegal actions in Tbilisi everyday.!

najuste on "The Vyatlag Archipelago"

najuste — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:57:02 +0100

The most terrible thing is that Russians still do not face up these facts, their reality is different. Russians living in this district (oblast in russian) are saying and believing that there were NO CAMPS. People came at those places just to work. And nobody want to say the truth. In fact they were get there to die.

Intelegent people, the middle and the upper class were sent there by force.. My grandmother, trying to avoid those trains, left her home beeing pregnant and was in hidding for half a year. Familly with two small childs moved 150 km away from there home... And much more terrible stories I heard, while we, childs, were doing interviews with people who came back from there., for a history lesson.

Now, in Lithuania, a new project is launched "Misija-Sibiras" - "Mision:Siberia". Young, selected people are going there to search in history. To search graveyards, villages.. In order to respect ancestors, theyo make an order in those graveyards. They mark them. By foot youngsters are traveling through those painfull lands full of signs already overgrow with weeds, bushes and even trees..

A galery from this mission: http://www.misijasibiras.lt/2008/?/GALERIJA/

Inge on "A Georgian appeal: open letter to the west "

Inge — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 21:50:07 +0100

I wonder if Burjanadze desires change only for her own benefit. Thought she did rather well in november 2007, but a change like this, and looking at her family and history, only constitutes the fear she might loose her elite powers.
PS not saying I like Saakashvili myself, but the opposition isn't any better either. it's a shame (both ways)

rebecca6880 on "The miscalculation of small nations "

rebecca6880 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:27:42 +0100

Perhaps the summary of article is:

"Big powers are hypocritical and small
powers have no rights.."

Matin Khalilli on "Unlocking the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict "

Matin Khalilli — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:17:07 +0100

Justice is flourishing at long last!

Zebedee on "Russia’s history wars"

Zebedee — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:07:57 +0100

Yes Iannis, there have.

See this about effective banning of a book on Stalin by an internationally acclaimed writer:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/4936211/Book-on-life-under-Stalin-banned-by-Kremlin-claims-Orlando-Figes.html

Also see this on a recent assertion that Poland effectively started World War 2:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5irhXt4Sm499ylfgjcz4oiShe9xhgD98K2L602

elnur on "Unlocking the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict "

elnur — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:27:11 +0100

It is encouraging to see articles written by clever people of honor. I think fair coverage by internaitonal media will be a very important part of the solution. A good start. Alexander Goryanin, thank you.

Vanes on "Russia/Georgia: War of the Web"

Vanes — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:49:16 +0100

Well, one may disagree with the author at some points, but one thing remains clear: the forum audience here is (almost?) exclusvely russian, because it has been translated to inoSMI. Coincidence? I'm not accusing anybody of anything, but didn't happen exactly what he has written? The article does not have to be heinous or biased - just bitter and critical - and there will always be many people zeaously defending themselves as not being manipulated, because ... well this is just how people work. Nobody thinks he's being manipulated. Let's just ask: anybody would consider russians to be neutral and unbiased about their own criticism? Hell no. The important message is this: if you can select the audience, you can effectively manipulate the reaction without directly manipulating anyone. Translating and linking an article is not good nor bad - but surely it is a form of selecting the audience.

Anna Antonyan on "Karabakh: is war inevitable?"

Anna Antonyan — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:57:59 +0100

Dear Mr. Merry,

You noted: "Fourth is operational art in which the Karabakh Armenians have a clear record of superiority they would exercise in the inherently advantageous role of defenders of a skilfully prepared position" !!!

Excellent!!!

Really, the Karabakh Armenians are very brave and courageous. During the WW II all Armenian Marshals were from Krabakh!!!