Amirani
Journal of the International Caucasological Research Institute
XIV-XV
Montréal
– Tbilisi
2006
“Amirani”
is a peer-reviewed journal published biennially by the International Caucasological Research Institute
ISSN 1512-0449
amirani
kavkasiologiis saerTaSoriso samecniero-kvleviTi sazogadoebrivi institutes moambe
XIV-XV
monreali –
Tbilisi
2006
Jurnali
`amirani~ referirebuli gamocemaa da gamodis
weliwadSi orjer
ISSN 1512-0449
Giorgi Leon Kavtaradze
CAUCASIAN
GEORGIA - A BRIDGEHEAD
OR A STRONGHOLD OF THE MODERN
GEOPOLITICAL GAMES
A Look from the Historical
Perspective
[p. 134] If
we throw a glance through the main - Eurasian - part of the Eastern Hemisphere we can easily find
Transcaucasia, located between two seas. It has quite an extraordinary,
I dare say, even central position on the Hemisphere. In the north of it, across
the Great Caucasian Range, is situated typical northern country - Russia, in
the south - genuine Middle Eastern Turkey and Iran, in the west the Black Sea
divides it from Eastern Europe, and in the east - the Caspian Sea from Central
Asia.
Such an
intermediate location of the Caucasus should be the
reason of its ethno-cultural diversity noticed already by Greco-Roman
authors.
Georgia (ancient Colchis and Iberia) - the country of
the Golden Fleece of Classical Greek mythology is located in the central and
western parts of Transcaucasia. It is chained to the Caucasus like Prometheus
who found his last abode in the same mountains. Even today, on the state emblem
of Georgia, under the hoofs of the horse of Tetri (White) Giorgi (the image of Georgia) the Caucasian mountains are
depicted - instead of the dragon of St. George's icon - a symbol of natural
challenge of the country, representing the link of its destiny with one of the
main markers of the geographical, ethno-cultural and political division of the
world.
Georgia, and Transcaucasia generally, lies
not only at the cross-roads of all four sides of world, but at the cross-roads
also from the temporal standpoint between the old and new worlds - the old
world of totalitarianism and the new world of democratic society. Both these
cross-roads are at the same time intertwined with each other. The areas north
and east of the Caucasus are still embodiments of
totalitarian societies, the areas west and south - of societies with a
democratic way of life, or on the path of democratic transformation.
Numerous states
were created in all parts of the world after the First and Second World War and
the collapse of Communistic system. In our days this process takes place mainly
in new countries of the post-Soviet space, among them in Georgia, where an
analogous situation was known already after the annihilation of the Russian
Empire and the three-year period of the time of existence of the Georgian
Democratic Republic, occupied by Soviet Russia in February-March 1921. Though the tradition of statehood in Georgia
counts thousands of years. [p. 135]
It seems that the
factors of geopolitical character caused not only the emergence of statehood in
Central Transcaucasia in the Classical period but
also determined its historical development in Medieval, New and Newest times.
The main purpose of
the future studies is to outline the possible trends in Georgia’s political
orientation against the background of existing tendencies in the political life
of Georgia itself, of Transcaucasia generally, and of
a more wide area - adjacent to the basins of the Black and Caspian seas.
Discussions under
way among Georgian politicians and public of how to solve the triple choice
which faces the country:
1.
to join the security system of the CIS (i.e. Russia),
2.
declare neutrality,
3.
integrate with the
Euro-Atlantic democratic societies.
Pro-Russian trend actually
means turning back from the process of state creation to final dissolution
(though gradual) in the Russian maw –
the age-long dream of Russian political circles. In spite of the decision of
the Istanbul summit of 1999, Russia tries to retain by
all means its military bases in Georgia and at the same time
to widen its economic and political presence in the country. Neutral status is
irrelevant for a country lying on the highway of political processes and
surrounded by aggressive neighbours - primarily by Russia; Turkey and Iran to some extent,
during the reinterpretation of their Caucasian policy after the breakdown of
the Soviet Empire, are trying to ensure peace and security of the region –
different with their old historical traditions. At the same time, Turkey could be
considered itself as a member of the Transcaucasian family. We have in mind the
fact that Transcaucasian southern boundary is confined by the flow of the Araxes River. The upper reaches
of it form a boundary between Transcaucasia and Anatolia, going west from
the same river along the Palandöken and Kop ranges;
and further to the north, the presumable border runs along the middle and lower
flow of the Çoruh River. We could use the
term Turkish Transcaucasia as the
manifestation of a widening interpretation of Transcaucasia.
The pro-Western trend seems
the only option, which can secure the independent development of Georgia.
But can we be sure
that this choice answers the national interests of the country? Why the
pro-Western orientation becomes a motto of Georgian society? How trustworthy
are the fears spreading among a part of Georgian public that because of their
pro-Western orientation the country and its population are under the
unforeseeable and imminent threat [p. 136] of punishment coming from rivals of
the Western democratic societies and, therefore, in the opinion of this part of
public, the political orientation of the country should be changed?
These questions
show how tense and uncertain the political situation in Georgia is today. I don’t
think that there exists an easy answer to all questions that are facing
Georgian public today, but historians could try to make the situation more
understandable from the standpoint of the historical development of this
country.
Therefore, we need
to throw a glance from the historical perspective to gain an insight into the
character of developments underlying modern processes. The pointer of Georgia’s political
compass was directed at various sides of the world in different times, but what
kind of mechanism caused such a shift of orientation? Which point, having
strong magnetic power, was most determinative for the Georgian pointer
throughout the history? These are the questions that should be answered.
Unfortunately
nobody paid attention in the special literature to the interconnection between the
existence of state power in Central Transcaucasia and the necessity to control
the passes through the Caucasus, indicated by the historical development of the
area. This must be mainly due to the fact that during the last two hundred
years Transcaucasia was incorporated in the Russian and Soviet empires
and no governmental employee in charge of these totalitarian states would
allow, or will encourage even now in a much more democratic Georgia, to carry out such
a study. Both these countries (the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union) succeeded in
total subjection of the Transcaucasian territory which was of vital importance
for their expansionistic plans against the entire East Mediterranean-Middle
Eastern area. On the other hand, the fact that no Caucasian nation was
represented on the political map of the world over the last two centuries, with
the above-mentioned short exception, is the main reason why Caucasian history
was actually neglected by Western specialists even when studying the areas
adjacent to it.
The breakdown of
the Communist system gave specialists of countries belonging to this system the
possibility of using such methodological principles that are far removed from
the dogmas of Marxism-Leninism and that were sometimes already obsolete in
other parts of the world. In
connection with the early Caucasian political history the use of Arnold
Toynbee's Challenge-and-Response
model seems preferable, as the emergence and development of the idea of
statehood in the Caucasus finds its stimulus (Challenge) in the reaction (Response) of the local natural and
social environment. [p. 137]
The political
history of Georgia, like other
Transcaucasian countries, was mainly dominated by the fact of the geographical
location of Transcaucasia south of the Great Caucasian
mountainous chain, one of the most important watershed systems of the world.
These mountains form a fracture (something like a geological fault-line) not only from the
geographical and ethno-cultural points of view, but also from the geopolitical
division of the world. The key importance of the location of the Caucasus was picturesquely
stated by Pliny the Elder (Plinius Magnus), already
two thousand years ago, namely that the Caucasian
Gate (i.e. the Darial Pass, crossing the
central part of the Great Caucasian Range), divides the
world in two parts (N.H. 6, 30).
There was always a
need for a barrier to be erected by the world of reasonable men against the
world of barbarians, such as the Great Wall of China or Hadrian's Wall (Roman Limes). The Caucasian Gate had the
same function for the Middle East. From times immemorial it
barred the descent of the Eurasian nomads into the civilised world of common
interest - the Mediterranean-Middle Eastern oikoumene.
The Caucasian Gate
is frequently called the Pillars, Stronghold or Iron Gate of Alexander the Great by the Classical (Greco-Roman)
authors. The linkage of Alexander's name of the legend with the emergence of
the Iberian statehood, known from the evidence of old Armenian and Georgian
chronicles, indicates the raison d'être
of this state, namely to be the outpost of the civilised world in its struggle
with the realm of Gog
and Magog
lying beyond the Caucasian Gate.
Today too, the above-mentioned emblem of Georgia, bears the sun, the
moon and the five stars, supposedly bestowed on the Georgians by the legendary
image of Alexander of old Georgian chronicles as an ideological basis of their
state religion. Thus the concept of Alexander’s Iron Gate was the reflection of the
concrete political function of the Georgian State - the control of
one of the most important strategic passes of the world.
This
function of the state seems to have been one of the main decisive factors that
challenged the emergence of the Georgian State in the central
part of Transcaucasia in the Early Hellenistic period. The location of Georgia, south of the Great Caucasian Range, in the contact
zone of the Eurasian nomads and the Middle Eastern civilised societies, had
predetermined the continual external pressure from the north, a Challenge, which for its part caused a Response - the creation of a state (i.e.
the Iberian Kingdom) in Central
Transcaucasia.
The raison d'être not only of Iberia, but also of other
new states of the Classical period, Albania and Lazica (the successive state of Colchis), [p. 138]
were to become stronghols of the civilised world
(Greek oikoumene or Roman orbis terarrum) in its struggle with the
barbarian Realm of Darkness beyond
the Caucasian Gate. However, there was undoubtedly a difference between the western
political orientation (the Greek states, Roman and Byzantine empires) of Iberia
and also to a certain degree of Lazica, on the one
hand, and the eastern orientation (Persia, Parthia)
of Albania (together with Armenia), on the other.
The control of the
Caucasian passes could create the most favourable opportunity for the
preservation of Pax Romana in the
Middle East. The Iberians (eastern Georgians) were the most important allies of the Romans
in the region, having supremacy over the Caucasian Gate. The close
collaboration between the Romans and the Iberians, based on their joint
strategic interests as parts of one and the same orbis terarrum was the leit-motif of their interrelations.
At the same time, the rulers
of the Iberian Kingdom successfully used
the favourable strategic location of their country to balance the pressure of
the powers coming from all sides of the world, often changing the direction of
their orientation. Already Tacitus noted that the
Iberians were "masters of various positions" and could suddenly
"pour" mercenaries from across the Caucasus against their
southern enemies (Ann. 6, 33).
The long-term aspiration of
the medieval Georgian monarchy, going back presumably to the times of the Roman
Empire, to bring under its sovereignty not only the Caucasian Gate, but all existing Caucasian passes from the Black to
the Caspian Sea, is expressed by the formula of its territorial integrity in
the Georgian chronicle of the eleventh century the "Life of Georgia": "from
Nikopsia to Daruband", i.e. from the north-eastern Black Sea
littoral to the Derbent gateway (the second important
pass of the Caucasus), on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. This formula,
emphasising especially the northern borderline along the Caucasus, enables us to
interpret the main function of that kingdom in a more general context.
Faced with the necessity of
effective control of the Caucasian passes, which barred the way of the northern
invaders, the rulers of the states of the Eastern Mediterranean-Middle Eastern
area were always eager to have in Central Transcaucasia - in Iberia - a political
organisation with sufficient strength to fulfil such a defensive function. The
concept of the Caucasian Gate
predetermined the fate of the Georgian State from the Early
Hellenistic time till the beginning of the nineteenth century, when Georgia's annexation by Russia meant the loss of
this important function [p. 139] of this state. I think, this function was the reason that Georgia, as pointed out by
Cyril Toumanoff, is the only country of Christendom
where socio-political and cultural development ran an uninterrupted course from
the Classical period to the beginning of the nineteenth century.
This
overwhelming interest of the Near Eastern-Mediterranean societies in Georgia was caused not
only by the abstract defensive function of this country, but mainly by its
concrete location at the edge of the civilised and barbarian worlds. Though
Georgia and Transcaucasia were open to the influences of these two opposite
models of historical development, the factor of the Great Caucasian Range
determined its destination to be the strongholds of the highly developed and
prosperous Middle Eastern-Mediterranean oikoumene against the vast area of Eurasian steppes - an embodiment
of the powerful and aggressive forces with their slow rate of social,
political, economic and cultural development; or in other words, to be the
stronghold of the civilised South and West against the barbarian North and
East. On the other hand, the northern nomads required a bridgehead for their
raids towards the Middle East. The territories of Georgia and Transcaucasia represented best
opportunities for this task.
The constant opposition
between the barbarian and civilised peoples, aggressors and producers, brigands
and creators, were two firestones with the help of which the fire of statehood
south of the central part of the Great Caucasian Range, in Central
Transcaucasia, was kindled.
Giorgi L. Kavtaradze
web-site: http://www.geocities.com/komblege/kavta.html
2004.10.07
giorgi qavTaraZe
Suaguli amierkavkasia
- forposti Tu placdarmi Tanamedrove geopolitikur TamaSebSi
[p. 140] amierkavkasia (da kerZod saqarTvelo) mdebareobs ara
mxolod geografiulad - dedamiwis oTxive mxaris -gzajvaredinze, aramed gzajvaredinze qronologiuri TvalTaxedviTac - Zvel totalitarul da axal demokratiul
samyaroebs Soris.
qarTuli
saxelmwifoebriobis bedis kavSiri kavkasionis gadasasvlelebis gakontrolebis moTxovnasTan mkafiod ikveTeba mTeli misi istoriis ganmavlobaSi.
Cemi azriT, ZiriTadad qveynis am funqciis arsebobiT unda iyos gamowveuli
is garemoeba, rom saqarTvelo warmoadgens erTaderT saxelmwifos mTels qristianul samyaroSi, romlis socialuri, politikuri da kulturuli ganviTareba
uwyvetad SeiZleba CaiTvalos klasikuri xanebidan dawyebuli XIX saukunis dasawyisSi ruseTis mier misi
aneqsiis xanamde (kiril Tumanovi). aRniSnuli funqciis
dakargvam saqarTvelos damoukidebel arsebobasac azri daukarga da
TiTqmis ori saukune qveyana aRar Canda msoflios
rukaze.
`kavkasionis
karibWeTa mflobelis~ es metad mniSvnelovani
funqcia arsebiTad ganapirobebda da rogorc Cans momavalSic ganapirobebs saqrTvelos sve-beds.
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