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History and Government
History: Throughout the centuries Georgia has been a victim of the aggression of powerful neighbours. The nation’s history has been a constant struggle for survival, interspersed with brief interludes of peace. Georgia’s conversion to Christianity in the fourth century AD brought it into conflict with the major regional powers. For the next four centuries, despite brief periods of independence, Georgia’s various provinces were vassal states of, successively, Persia, Byzantium and the Arab Caliphs. Towards the end of the ninth century, a gradual process of uniting the provinces began. This was finally completed in 1122 when the regional capital of the Caliphs, Tblisi, fell to King David II. Georgia’s power and influence reached an apex during the late 12th and early 13th centuries under Queen Tamar. The Mongol invasions from 1220 onwards brought this ‘golden age’ to an end. Despite occasional resurgences, Georgia was never able to reassert itself and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 left it isolated from the rest of the Christian world. The Ottomans occupied Transcaucasia in the late 16th century but were driven out by the Iranian Shah Abbas who installed a dynasty of viceroys at Tblisi. Over the next 200 years, the Turks occasionally recovered control of the territory. But at the end of the 18th century, King Erekle II, a descendant of the Bagratids who ruled Georgia in the 12th century, forged a vital alliance with Catherine the Great of Russia, who was then presiding over the southward expansion of her empire. The Bagratid line was deposed by the Russians in 1801 after which the whole region was steadily absorbed into the Russian Empire.
A strong Georgian nationalist movement grew up from around this time, the precursor of the irrepressible Georgian nationalism which has shaped the republic’s history during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods. Briefly independent from 1918 until the invasion of the Red Army in 1921, Georgia distinguished itself by voting in the first Socialist government in the world ever to be elected in free, multi-party elections. Although Stalin was himself a Georgian – his real name was Djugashvili – the republic suffered terribly during the purges of the 1930s and 40s. The national intelligentsia was almost wiped out and it is estimated that ten per cent of the population perished between 1940 and 1945. Nonetheless, many Georgians continue to this day to idolise their most notorious son.
Stalin’s repressive policies failed to stamp out Georgian nationalism, and in 1956 more than 100 people died in a demonstration which purported to be a popular repudiation of Khrushchev’s anti-Stalin speech, but turned into an expression of nationalist discontent. Agitation mounted steadily from the late 1970s until 1989 when, in an episode that was to trigger the final disillusionment with Soviet power, 20 people (most of them women) were killed and hundreds more injured when Soviet troops attacked a nationalist demonstration in Tblisi.
In a referendum held in April 1991, an overwhelming majority voted in favour of independence from the Soviet Union. Forces loyal to Moscow were by now in no mood or condition to resist the popular will. In May, following a formal declaration of independence, presidential elections brought to power (in a landslide victory with 87 per cent of the poll) Zviad Gamsakhurdia, a nationalist intellectual, who had been imprisoned as a dissident during the Soviet era. Incapable of wielding power effectively, Gamsakhurdia’s chaotic government ended within months with his flight into exile to the Black sea port of Sukhumi, where he died in mysterious circumstances in 1994. In March 1992, former Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Schevardnadze was appointed Chairman of the National Parliament. Schevardnadze had been First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party from 1972-85, and despite widespread distrust of his historic connections with Moscow, his persuasive nature and substantial international profile – a considerable asset at a time when the country’s very existence was barely recognised by the outside world – allowed him to assume the presidency in 1992, which he has held ever since.
Schevardnadze’s immediate task was to suppress secessionist revolts in the outlying Georgian provinces of Abkhazia (where Gamsakhurdia was located) and South Ossetia. In 1994, after two years of sporadic fighting, South Ossetia was brought back into the fold, while the government negotiated an uneasy settlement with the Abkhazian rebels. Abkhazia is now effectively an autonomous region of Georgia. From 1995 onwards, the Government was able to devote more attention to the economy and the domestic political situation. Nonetheless, several assassination attempts (most recently in February 1998) against Schevardnadze have served as a reminder of the depth of bitterness among his secessionist opponents. In November 1995, Schevardnadze was triumphantly re-elected with 70 per cent of the vote and a clear mandate for a further five-year term. Simultaneous elections to the newly-established parliament delivered a large majority to Schevardnadze’s political vehicle, the Georgia Citizens’ Union (SMK, Sakartvelos Mokalaketa Kavshiri). The most recent parliamentary poll in November 1999 returned the Citizens’ Union once again, with a small absolute majority. The chairmanship of the parliament, the country’s second most important political post, has been through a number of hands since then. The incumbent as of August 2002 is Nino Budzhanadze who took office after the sacking of the entire government by Schevardnadze in November 2001. Schevardnadze interpreted the electoral results in part as an endorsement of the pro-Western and pro-NATO course which he has followed in foreign policy. (In May and June 2002, to Russian fury, the Georgian army held a series of joint exercises with US special forces and other NATO units under the auspices of the ‘Partnership for Peace’ programme.) Schevardnadze himself was re-elected to a further five-year term in April 2000. Nevertheless, Gamsakhurdia (now something of a martyr figure) and other opposition figures retain widespread support. That, along with the country’s chronic economic difficulties and a recent government crackdown on opposition politicians and media, has fuelled several outbreaks of civil unrest.
Government: Under the Constitution of August 1995, the President of Georgia (who is Head of State, Head of the Executive and Commander of the Armed Forces) is directly elected for a five-year term. The Government (headed by the Chairman of the Parliament) is accountable to the President. The supreme legislative body is the 235-member Sakartvelos Parlamenti (Georgia Parliament) which is elected every four years, partly by proportional representation and partly in single-seat constituencies.
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