After being in Tbilisi, the Capital city of Georgia, for a few days I still had no sense of the place. It is a complicated country to understand, less than a month ago thousands of Georgians were protesting en mass against police and prison staff brutality. A Parliamentary election followed and their long standing President Mikhail Saakashvili finds himself pushed towards the exit door, again the Georgians were out on the streets. The week I arrived, it seemed as if nothing had ever happened.
I initially wrote a searing blast along the lines of ‘look at the state of this dump, what have you done with all the American’s foreign aid money’ and ‘people beg in the streets and you have pissed it all away on a ridiculous bridge’. Whilst much of that thinking might be valid, it isn’t the whole picture. Since 1989 Georgia has veered from disaster to crisis and back again.
If I had arrived here independently, straight from London I might have thought it was a little scruffy yes, but charmingly bohemian (Lonely Planet phrase not mine). After central Baku’s extravagant and polished newness Tbilisi looks, well, to be honest, a bit of a mess really. It is impossible to cross the road, the old town, bar a few restored streets, is crumbling, the roads and pavements are sinking and the traffic is terrifying. Everywhere you look there are collapsed derelict buildings, broken drains and potholes. Yet along the river there is an Italian-designed statement bridge of glass and steel, a dome topped new presidential palace and a town hall that looks like a futuristic beetle.
It might seem harsh to criticise any former Soviet republic for not being pretty enough but Georgia is not any old Soviet Republic. They chose the Baltic-route but had the misfortune to be located in the South Caucasus. Under Saakashvili Georgia portrayed itself as Western facing, trading on its strategic Caucasus location in return for billions of dollars of aid. He came to power on the back of the bloodless so-called Rose Revolution in 2004, wholeheartedly rejecting Russian overtures and clamouring to join Nato. He was often portrayed by western media as he saviour of Georgia and the country was supposed to be a democratic progressive capitalist nation. When I arrived this is what influenced my first few days thinking, but it is not the reality.
The protests in the street before the recent election were not isolated incidents. In 2007 hundreds of protestors were injured as the policed forcibly broke up a gathering of thousands protesting against Saakasvili’s regime. A state of emergency was declared and Georgia independent TV stations shut down. Amnesty international reported that year that Georgia displayed the characteristics of a police state.
Accusations followed concerning the untimely deaths of political opposition leaders, nepotism, cronyism and personal profit. In 2008 the general election saw Saakasvili re elected and more accusations of lack of transparent voting practises, in some cases, fraud. Again in 2008 50,000 people gathered in Tbilisi to protest against the regime, claiming Georgia had been steered into another dictatorship.
However, to see how far Georgia has come, and how much it has cost, you have to understand the start point. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Georgia proudly declared independence and immediately entered economic disaster and a series of futile ethnic civil wars. Former Soviet Minister for Foreign Affairs, and previously Communist First Secretary of Georgia, Edward Sheverdnadze was elected president in 1992 by the new Georgian Parliament. He did not face an easy job and survived no less than 3 assassination attempts during his tenure. In 1993 the average Georgia earned a monthly salary of £1.80. By 1994 inflation was running at 60% a month and the entire country survived by means of a black economy and corruption was an essential part of everyday life. There was frequently no power or water and the entire country’s infrastructure became almost obsolete. Over the next ten years it didn’t get any better either. By 2003 over a million people had emigrated, half the remaining population lived below the poverty line and unemployment was at 40%. Conflict and war had seen huge loss of life and the government had no control over the breakaway republics of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Ajara. Refugees from the regions ran in to hundreds of thousands and lived on the streets of Tbilisi.
It is against this backdrop that the Rose Revolution claimed power in 2004. Rumours have never been fully dispelled that the American educated Mikhail Saakashvili was CIA backed. Whether this is true it is undeniable that America had strong interests in fostering stability in the region given the BTC pipeline and the proximity to Chechnya. The democratic opposition party at the time were preparing for the 2005 elections, their outlook, whilst not overtly pro-Russian, was more left leaning, leaving the Americans again on uncertain footing.
Despite allegations of dictatorship, Mikhail Saakashvili does deserve credit for many achievements since 2004, notably a functional state, a restructured army and normalisation of relations with Armenia. This represents money well spent and the Georgian people have much to thank him for. But in 2008, miscalculating just how much western support he had, Saakashvili unwisely launched an offensive to reclaim the breakaway South Ossetia republic which resulted in the full might of the Russian forces bearing down of Georgia for days. The west did nothing other than to send in French President Nicholas Szarkozy to mediate a humiliating climb down for the Georgians. George W. Bush was reportedly furious with Saakashvili and Valdimir Putin famously expressed a desire to ‘hang Saakasvili by the balls’. With hindsight this probably sealed his fate.
Georgia looks as if, come next summer, to have a new President. Bidzina Ivanishvili is Georgia’s richest man, he made his billions in Russia and just about qualifies as a bonafide Oligarch. His Georgian Dream Coalition party promises more jobs, better pensions, lower taxes, unicorns and so on. He has no political track record, lives in a spaceship on a hill overlooking Tbilisi, and making billions in 90s Russia does not guarantee he will have the progressive interests of his country at heart. Putin is reportedly very pleased.
So why is Georgia never far from the edge of chaos? Per Gahrton, former MEP and South Caucasus expert compares Georgia to Cuba and claims the country is merely a pawn in the wider game, ‘As always, the most vulnerable victims of the clashes between superpowers are not the active players of combatants, but all those who happen to stand in the way, those who suffer collateral damage. One example is Georgia and its people’
The future of Georgia remains to be seen, but it won’t be a straightforward one. No matter what they do, the Georgians will be forever on the edge of chaos.
I initially wrote a searing blast along the lines of ‘look at the state of this dump, what have you done with all the American’s foreign aid money’ and ‘people beg in the streets and you have pissed it all away on a ridiculous bridge’. Whilst much of that thinking might be valid, it isn’t the whole picture. Since 1989 Georgia has veered from disaster to crisis and back again.
If I had arrived here independently, straight from London I might have thought it was a little scruffy yes, but charmingly bohemian (Lonely Planet phrase not mine). After central Baku’s extravagant and polished newness Tbilisi looks, well, to be honest, a bit of a mess really. It is impossible to cross the road, the old town, bar a few restored streets, is crumbling, the roads and pavements are sinking and the traffic is terrifying. Everywhere you look there are collapsed derelict buildings, broken drains and potholes. Yet along the river there is an Italian-designed statement bridge of glass and steel, a dome topped new presidential palace and a town hall that looks like a futuristic beetle.
It might seem harsh to criticise any former Soviet republic for not being pretty enough but Georgia is not any old Soviet Republic. They chose the Baltic-route but had the misfortune to be located in the South Caucasus. Under Saakashvili Georgia portrayed itself as Western facing, trading on its strategic Caucasus location in return for billions of dollars of aid. He came to power on the back of the bloodless so-called Rose Revolution in 2004, wholeheartedly rejecting Russian overtures and clamouring to join Nato. He was often portrayed by western media as he saviour of Georgia and the country was supposed to be a democratic progressive capitalist nation. When I arrived this is what influenced my first few days thinking, but it is not the reality.
The protests in the street before the recent election were not isolated incidents. In 2007 hundreds of protestors were injured as the policed forcibly broke up a gathering of thousands protesting against Saakasvili’s regime. A state of emergency was declared and Georgia independent TV stations shut down. Amnesty international reported that year that Georgia displayed the characteristics of a police state.
Accusations followed concerning the untimely deaths of political opposition leaders, nepotism, cronyism and personal profit. In 2008 the general election saw Saakasvili re elected and more accusations of lack of transparent voting practises, in some cases, fraud. Again in 2008 50,000 people gathered in Tbilisi to protest against the regime, claiming Georgia had been steered into another dictatorship.
However, to see how far Georgia has come, and how much it has cost, you have to understand the start point. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Georgia proudly declared independence and immediately entered economic disaster and a series of futile ethnic civil wars. Former Soviet Minister for Foreign Affairs, and previously Communist First Secretary of Georgia, Edward Sheverdnadze was elected president in 1992 by the new Georgian Parliament. He did not face an easy job and survived no less than 3 assassination attempts during his tenure. In 1993 the average Georgia earned a monthly salary of £1.80. By 1994 inflation was running at 60% a month and the entire country survived by means of a black economy and corruption was an essential part of everyday life. There was frequently no power or water and the entire country’s infrastructure became almost obsolete. Over the next ten years it didn’t get any better either. By 2003 over a million people had emigrated, half the remaining population lived below the poverty line and unemployment was at 40%. Conflict and war had seen huge loss of life and the government had no control over the breakaway republics of South Ossetia, Abkhazia, and Ajara. Refugees from the regions ran in to hundreds of thousands and lived on the streets of Tbilisi.
It is against this backdrop that the Rose Revolution claimed power in 2004. Rumours have never been fully dispelled that the American educated Mikhail Saakashvili was CIA backed. Whether this is true it is undeniable that America had strong interests in fostering stability in the region given the BTC pipeline and the proximity to Chechnya. The democratic opposition party at the time were preparing for the 2005 elections, their outlook, whilst not overtly pro-Russian, was more left leaning, leaving the Americans again on uncertain footing.
Despite allegations of dictatorship, Mikhail Saakashvili does deserve credit for many achievements since 2004, notably a functional state, a restructured army and normalisation of relations with Armenia. This represents money well spent and the Georgian people have much to thank him for. But in 2008, miscalculating just how much western support he had, Saakashvili unwisely launched an offensive to reclaim the breakaway South Ossetia republic which resulted in the full might of the Russian forces bearing down of Georgia for days. The west did nothing other than to send in French President Nicholas Szarkozy to mediate a humiliating climb down for the Georgians. George W. Bush was reportedly furious with Saakashvili and Valdimir Putin famously expressed a desire to ‘hang Saakasvili by the balls’. With hindsight this probably sealed his fate.
Georgia looks as if, come next summer, to have a new President. Bidzina Ivanishvili is Georgia’s richest man, he made his billions in Russia and just about qualifies as a bonafide Oligarch. His Georgian Dream Coalition party promises more jobs, better pensions, lower taxes, unicorns and so on. He has no political track record, lives in a spaceship on a hill overlooking Tbilisi, and making billions in 90s Russia does not guarantee he will have the progressive interests of his country at heart. Putin is reportedly very pleased.
So why is Georgia never far from the edge of chaos? Per Gahrton, former MEP and South Caucasus expert compares Georgia to Cuba and claims the country is merely a pawn in the wider game, ‘As always, the most vulnerable victims of the clashes between superpowers are not the active players of combatants, but all those who happen to stand in the way, those who suffer collateral damage. One example is Georgia and its people’
The future of Georgia remains to be seen, but it won’t be a straightforward one. No matter what they do, the Georgians will be forever on the edge of chaos.