posted by circassiankama on July, 2009 as Abkhazia
Abkhazia and Georgia: Time for Reassessment
The Brown Journal of World Affairs, vol. XV, Issue II, Spring/Summer 2009, pp.183-196.
George Hewitt* Professor of Caucasian Languages SOAS, London University
Introduction Much has been written since the
summer of 2008 about Russo-Georgian relations and the rights and wrongs
of the August fighting that erupted in or around both South Ossetia
and, to a lesser extent, Abkhazia. Most commentators (foreign
correspondents, media opinion-formers, NATO-spokesmen, politicians)
forgot (or chose to ignore) the issues underlying the conflicts in both
these long-suffering Transcaucasian regions, preferring to take their
cues from Georgia's well-oiled (or, at least, well-financed) spinning
machine. The argument has, thus, been that President Dmitry Medvedev
and Premier Vladimir Putin have embarked on a mission to revive the
Kremlin's imperial ambitions, dormant since the 1991 collapse of the
USSR, along the former Soviet periphery, beginning with punishment of
Georgia for the avowedly pro-Western stance of its president, Mikheil
Saak’ashvili, since his overthrow of Eduard Shevardnadze in November
2003. Thus, it is the larger matter of east-west relations that have
tended to be debated, whilst the voices of those trying to argue their
respective cases against Tbilisi for some two (if not nine) decades
have been drowned out. This article seeks to redress the balance, with
special reference to the Abkhazian cause. But first let it be noted
that there is absolutely no genetic link between the languages spoken
by the Abkhazians and the Georgians: Abkhaz is a North-West Caucasian
language related to Circassian and Ubykh (extinct since 1992), whilst
Georgian is a South Caucasian (or Kartvelian) language related to
Mingrelian, Laz and Svan; Ossetic is an Iranian language. Read more... [AbkhazWorld.com]
*George Hewitthas held the title Professor
of Caucasian Languages at London University's School of Oriental and
African Studies since 1996 and been a Fellow of the British Academy
since 1997. He is the author of Georgian: a Structural Reference
Grammar (1995) and Georgian: a Learner's Grammar (1996; 2nd edition
2005); he edited The Abkhazians: a Handbook (1998) and is currently
preparing a self-tutor for Abkhaz. He has written extensively on the
Georgian-Abkhazian conflict since 1989.
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