Georgia–South Ossetia border

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Map of South Ossetia

The Georgia–South Ossetia separation line is a de facto boundary set up in aftermath of the

Law on Occupied Territories of Georgia". The Constitution of Georgia does not recognize South Ossetia as having any special status within Georgia, therefore the line does not correspond to any Georgian administrative area, with the territory claimed by the Republic of South Ossetia shared out amongst several Georgian Mkhares: Shida Kartli, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti and Mtskheta-Mtianeti.[1]

Description

The border starts in the west at the western tripoint with Russia on the Caucasus Mountains, just south of Mount Uilpata, and proceeds overland in a rough W-shaped arc, returning to the Caucasus Mountains at the eastern Russian tripoint just north of Mount Zilga-Khokh.

History

The border at Khurvalleti

During the 19th the Caucasus region was contested between the declining

Kingdom of Kartli and Kakheti in 1801 (including the area of modern South Ossetia), followed by the western Georgian Kingdom of Imereti in 1804, following the Russian treaty with North Ossetia and the construction of Vladikavkaz as a base in 1784.[2] Construction of the Georgian Military Road was begun in 1799, following the Treaty of Georgievsk. Over the course of the 1800s Russia continued to push its frontier southwards, at the expense of the Persian and Ottoman Empires.[3] The Georgian territories were initially organised into the Georgia Governorate, then later split off as the Georgia-Imeretia Governorate from 1840 to 1846, and finally divided into the governorates of Tiflis and Kutaisi. Unlike Abkhazia
, South Ossetia was never a territorial entity prior to the Soviet era, and it was subsumed into these various administrative divisions.

Following the

Bolshevik cause.[6] A South Ossetian National Council (SONC) was formed and pushed for annexation by Russia or Ossetian autonomy.[7] Rising tensions led to sporadic ethnic violence, culminating in a Georgian-Ossetian war in 1918–1920, resulting in thousands of deaths and a deepening of the ethnic divisions between Ossetians and Georgians.[8][9][10]

Internal disagreements led to

Stalin – as is frequently believed. The boundaries of the autonomy were not drawn arbitrarily, but were the attempt to implement certain principles (ethnographic, political and ideological) on the ground."[19]

Map showing the situation in Georgia at the end of 1993, with large parts of South Ossetia under separatist control.

In the late 1980s with the advent of

1991–1992 South Ossetia War.[8][21] Meanwhile, Georgia declared its independence in April 1991. After fierce fighting and some 1,000-2,000 deaths a ceasefire was signed in 1992, leaving the territory of the former South Ossetia AO divided between Ossetian and Georgian held areas.[8][22][23]

Tensions increased following the election of

Ajaria and South Ossetia. In 2008 Georgia attempted to wrest back South Ossetia, sparking a war
with Russia which ended with Georgia's defeat and the expansion of Ossetian control to the full territory of the former South Ossetia AO.

Following the war Russia recognised the independence of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

borderization'.[25][26][27] Georgia rejects the process as illegal, and is especially concerned as it claims that the border is being extended beyond the boundaries of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast and into Georgia 'proper'. The process has also been criticised as it has divided local people from their lands which fall on the 'wrong' side of the line, and the increased militarisation has impeded cross-border movement.[28]

Border crossings

Sign and barbed wire fence along the border

There are currently no legal border crossings, with South Ossetia only accessible from the north via Russia.[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ Venhovens, Mikel (2019). "Hardening porousness. Borderization and abandonment among the borderland ruins of Abkhazia". International Institute for Asian Studies. Retrieved 10 September 2020.
  2. ISBN 5-7107-7399-9
    .
  3. ^ The boundary between Turkey and the USSR (PDF), January 1952, archived from the original (PDF) on January 24, 2017, retrieved 8 April 2020
  4. OCLC 312951712
    (Armenian Perspective)
  5. OCLC 78646544
    (Turkish Perspective)
  6. ^ Saparov 2014, p. 30.
  7. ^ Saparov 2014, p. 69.
  8. ^ a b c d Georgia: Avoiding War in South Ossetia (PDF) (Report). International Crisis Group. 26 November 2004. ICG Europe Report 159. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2008. Retrieved 13 August 2008.
  9. ^ A Modern History of Georgia, pp. 228–9. Lang, David Marshall (1962). London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. "In the spring of the following year, the Caucasian Bureau of the All-Russian Communist Party formed a special South Ossetian Revolutionary Committee to lead an armed revolt against the Georgian government. A Russian-sponsored Ossetian force crossed the border from Vladikavkaz in June 1920 and attacked the Georgian Army and People's Guard. The Georgians reacted with vigour and defeated the insurgents and their supporters in a series of hard-fought battles. Five thousand people perished in the fighting and 20,000 Ossetians fled into Soviet Russia. The Georgian People's Guard displayed a frenzy of chauvinistic zeal during the mopping-up operations, many villages being burnt to the ground and large areas of fertile land ravaged and depopulated."
  10. ^ Saparov 2014, p. 67.
  11. ^ Lang, DM (1962). A Modern History of Georgia, p. 226. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
  12. ^ A Modern History of Georgia, pp. 232–6. Lang, David Marshall (1962). London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
  13. ^ a b Samkharadze, Nikoloz (August 2020). "Georgian State Border – Past and Present" (PDF). Centre for Social Sciences. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  14. ^ Saparov 2014, p. 77, 130.
  15. ^ Saparov 2014, p. 80.
  16. ^ a b Saparov 2014, p. 84-5.
  17. ^ a b Saparov 2014, p. 84.
  18. ^ Saparov 2014, p. 81-2.
  19. ^ a b Saparov 2014, p. 87.
  20. ^ Saparov 2014, p. 148-9.
  21. ^ a b Saparov 2014, p. 149.
  22. ^ "Chapter 4 of "The Georgian - South Ossetian Conflict"". Caucasus.dk. Archived from the original on 30 April 2009.
  23. ^ Saparov 2014, p. 150.
  24. ^ Mark Tran (26 August 2008). "Russia defies west by recognising Georgian rebel regions". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 September 2018. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
  25. ^ "Russia Accelerates 'Borderization' in Georgia on War's 20th Anniversary". The Jamestown Foundation. 2 October 2013.
  26. ^ "Russian Troops Try To Shift South Ossetia Border Markers". RFE/RL. 3 August 2009.
  27. ^ James Brooke (12 August 2013). "'Rural Berlin Walls' Divide Communities After Russia-Georgia War". Voice of America.
  28. ^ "Creeping occupation – where are the Georgian borders?" (PDF). The Georgian Times. 30 September 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 May 2014. Retrieved 24 September 2014.
  29. ^ "Georgia Border Crossings". Caravanistan. Retrieved 9 September 2020.

Works cited

  • Saparov, Arsène (2014). From Conflict to Autonomy in the Caucasus: The Soviet Union and the Making of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno Karabakh. Routledge.
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