Fratture regionali e dinamiche geopolitiche nello spazio post-sovietico: I casi di Abcasia e Ossezia meridionale

Northwestern Transcaucasia is one of the post-Soviet areas most affected by regional cleavages and ethno-political conflicts. Following the fall of the Russian Empire, Georgia tried to build its own statehood, while in Abkhazia and South Ossetia there was a confrontation between Kartvelian communities oriented towards Tbilisi and the Abkhazian and Ossetian ones facing Moscow and Ciscaucasia. With the Sovietization of Transcaucasia in 1921 and the creation of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (GSSR), South Ossetia was converted to an Autonomous Oblast within the GSSR, while Abkhazia became a proper SSR (albeit with an ambiguous Union Treaty with the GSSR) but, in 1931, it was downgraded to an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the GSSR. For at least a decade after their Sovietization, Abkhazia and South Ossetia could benefit from a certain cultural and linguistic autonomy, but from the second half of the 1930s they were affected by a growing policy of Georgianization and, in the Abkhazian case, also by a massive Kartvelian immigration. After Stalin’s death and Beria’s execution in 1953, Abkhazians and South Ossetians experienced a new phase of broadening their cultural and linguistic rights. The following decades were characterized by the deepening of the contraposition and mutual stimulation dynamics between Abkhazian and Ossetian national identities and the Georgian one. In the second half of the 1980s, radical nationalism progressively imposed its hegemony over Georgian society and, in 1990, the GSSR parliament assumed the objective of the country’s independence. Consequently, the Abkhazian and South Ossetian legislative assemblies proclaimed their own sovereign republics. Then, in January 1991 Georgia attacked South Ossetia, resulting in the outbreak of military conflict in the region, during which both Tbilisi and Tskhinval declared their independence. In 1992, following the coup against the nationalist Gamsakhurdia and Shevardnadze’s return as Georgian leader, a ceasefire agreement between Tbilisi and Tskhinval was reached in June with Russian mediation, consolidating South Ossetian control over most of the region. Soon, the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) was involved in the ceasefire monitoring process, but failed to foster concrete steps towards a negotiated solution to the Ossetian-Georgian political conflict. Contextually, inter-ethnic tensions grew in Abkhazia and, in August 1992, Georgia militarily attacked the region, initially conquering a large part of it but subsequently suffering the progressive counter-offensive of the Abkhazians, who in September 1993 re-established their control over Sukhum and large part of the region. Meanwhile, in August 1993, the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) had been established to monitor the conflict in Abkhazia. Following the Abkhazian military victory, a complex phase of Abkhazian-Georgian talks began, under the aegis of the United Nations and with the participation of the Russian Federation and the CSCE. Then, in May 1994, a ceasefire and separation of forces agreement was reached, with the establishment of a security zone on which a CIS peacekeeping contingent was deployed, and UNOMIG was expanded. Once the military dimension of the conflict was frozen, the parties were engaged in complex talks to reach a negotiated political solution, under the auspices of the UN and with an active role of Russia. However, the positions were no longer reconcilable: on the one hand, Tbilisi intended to establish its sovereignty over Abkhazia within the framework of a federalist compromise, on the other hand, Sukhum was willing to accept at most a confederal and symbolic solution. Therefore, in 1999, the parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia formally declared state independence, greatly reducing the prospects for a negotiated solution to the political conflict with Georgia.