As of lately South Ossetia and Abkhazia have nothing in common with Kosovo, they are similar to Northern Cyprus, and Turkey's decision to recognize Northern Cyprus as a nation of its own. Decades later, what Cyprus is going through is just pitiful. Russia calls for others to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and rallies countries like Cuba, Belarus and Venezuela. They even dared ask Turkey. I am sure there will be Syria there too, showing gratitude for recently purchased "defense" systems. I bet Syria will get some freebies for this recognition. Turkey is very unlikely to go along though. I have pretty bad record for predicting things, but I do not think Turks have given up their European aspirations, and their business in Georgia is way more than a hotel in Sokhumi.
All of the anti-Russian talk aside, I pity Ossetians and Abkhaz who followed their leadership. Will they live better in Russia than they would in Georgia? I question that. Look at Chechens, they had aspirations and they were shot at.
Neither South Ossetia, nor Abkhazia has been what would be called "independent" last 15-17 years. They were told what to do by Moscow, and that's what they did. Why? Because Moscow paid pensions and salaries in both statelets.
Ossetia is a pasture land that survives on 60% Russian "donation" and the rest robbing people as they exit the tunnel. Lenght of Ossetia-Russia relationship's history can be easily summed up by the fact that Russians use a Georgian word to refer to the ethnic group. In Georgian, Ossetians are called "osi", "-eti" is added at the end to identify the place where people live/come from (e.g. Rusi/Ruseti, Turqi/Turqeti). Russians "conveniently" took Georgian Oseti, and by adding an -a, turned it into Ossetia and Ossetians became Ossetinets. Yet, they tout their "closeness" to each other.
Georgia has lost the war, but future will see how happy Abkhaz and Ossetians will be "independent" and at the same time dependent on Russia.
in-dependence
Democracyphobia
If there is no word Democracyphobia, there should be one!
By the way, I would like to link to a blog entry by jibs called Why Russia is wrong to attack Georgia. I personally agree with jibs on everything he says there and is very well written. Thanks jibs!
RIP
I cannot talk about this without pain. Since my last post, many things changed. I discovered the anger in me towards every party involved in this conflict. A few people who usually check this blog out know about Caucasus more than just a few Wiki articles' worth of cliff notes. They know that this is not a conflict that was started on 8/8/8. What happened on 8/8/8 was a result of Russian policies, Ossetian stubbornness and Georgian stupidity. Ossetians blame Georgians, while they let their government get them to this end result, which themselves acted like the boy who cried wolf. For months they screamed "Georgia will attack next week", "Georgia will attack next month", finally in power to avert this figured that there was no reason to do anything. In the wolf version of the story, boy gets eaten. In our story, it's not the Ossetian government that gets "eaten", but rather the innocent people instead.
Russians care less about South Ossetian people, or any Caucasian people for that matter. All you have to do is look at the immediate North East of Georgia to see that Russians are not in this game to save innocent minorities.
We are all to be blamed for this tragedy. I am not an apologist, i just realize that this is not comparable to America's invasion of Iraq - Georgians and Ossetians will have to live next to each other for years to come, there are no seven sees separating us. Once US leaves Iraq, it will be "out of sight, out of mind". We on the other hand will still be here, and they will still be here. Centuries of intermarriages and friendships have been destroyed and all for what?
I want peace, not just ceasefire. I want people to realize that Caucasus is too small to have half a dozen conflicts in less than two decades. It's not like a family that cannot agree on things, we cannot get a divorce.
My thoughts go to those who died, but did not have to. My thoughts go those who are dying as I write this, but don't have to.
daisy
It is not finished, and I am not sure if I will finish it. I will try, but figured that as topic is current, I will just upload it as is.
Day after day it is becoming obvious that the separatists have no desire to settle the conflict - even when at the brink of the war, they refuse to have discussions. They are not even firm on their position, last three days they managed to change their decision at least twice. Meanwhile, there was more shooting this afternoon...
