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International Conference
«Conflicts in the Caucasus: History, the Present and Prospects for Resolution»
Baku (Azerbaijan) 22-23 October, 2012 and Tbilisi (Georgia) 25-26 October, 2012
NATO MEMBERSHIP AS GEORGIA’S FOREIGN POLICY PRIORITY
David GUDIASHVILI
David Gudiashvili, Ph.D. (Hist.), senior research associate, Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies, Georgian Academy of Sciences; assistant professor, Tbilisi Institute of Asia and Africa (Tbilisi, Georgia)
At all times the great powers never let the Caucasus out of sight because of its strategically advantageous location between the East and the West and the South and the North. Foreign policy has always been one of the vital priorities for Georgia on which its continued statehood and, at time of crises, continued existence of the Georgian nation depended.
Two small Christian nations—Georgian and Armenian—found themselves in isolation when the Ottoman Turks who had conquered Constantinople closed the Byzantine corridor that connected them with the rest of the Christian world. When the majority of the North Caucasian peoples had adopted Islam Georgia became an island of Christianity in a Muslim sea. Its rulers skillfully exploited the rivalry between two medieval potentates—the Ottoman Empire and Iran—to preserve its statehood till the early 19th century. As Russia was gaining strength and pressing to the South Georgia made several attempts to establish friendly and even allied relations with the northern neighbor. This was not the only direction of Georgia’s diplomatic efforts: in 1715 a prominent Georgian enlightener and statesman Sulhan-Saba Orbeliani traveled in Western Europe. The mission failed because of lack of interest in the far-away mountainous country.
Incessant Turkish and Iranian raids forced the Georgians to choose between Muslim enslavement and patronage of Christian Orthodox Russia. Having selected the lesser of two evils Georgia became a Russian protectorate under the Treaty of Georgievsk of 1783. A promise of patronage turned out to be false: by its Manifesto of 12 September, 1801 Alexander I abolished Kartly (the Kakhetian Kingdom) and joined it to Russia. For the next 100 years Georgia became an outskirt of the Russian Empire.
The Republic of Georgia created on its ruins was short-lived: under pressure of Bolshevist Russia and Kemalist Turkey and with the West’s complete indifference the Menshevist government of Georgia had to leave the country in the fraternal family of Soviet nations for the next 70 years.
The unfavorable historical context forced the nation to abandon its statehood: for two centuries its fortunes were intimately connected with the powerful northern neighbor. The idea of statehood, however, survived all tribulations and was revived and realized during perestroika amid the centrifugal sentiments typical of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the last years of the Soviet Union. Real independence and distancing from……………..
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