Georgia (country)

Georgia (Georgian: საქართველო Sakartvelo) is a tiny (approximately half the size of the homonymous US state) country in eastern Europe. It is located in the Caucasus and borders Russia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. Georgia was formerly part of the Soviet Union, just like most of its neighbors. Also, like those neighbors, its government is dominated by one party, the center-left (but socially conservative) . It was also the birthplace of Joseph Stalin (under the name Ioseb Jughashvili/იოსებ ჯუღაშვილი). Its capital and largest city is Tbilisi.
Georgia is currently involved in a territorial dispute with the de facto independent regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which seceded from Georgia with the help of Vladimir Putin's Russia.
==History==
===Prehistory===
Georgia was possibly the birthplace of wine; the oldest wine found to date, at 8,000 years old, was found there in 2003.Now that's what you call a real vintage: professor unearths 8,000-year-old wine Interestingly, images of worshiping wine were found on the jars, and this may have been the origin of such gods as the Greek Dionysus and the Roman Bacchus. Some ancient metallurgical remnants were found in Georgia as well.The Gold Mine of Sakdrisi
===Antiquity/Middle Ages===
In days past, Georgia was split into two kingdoms: in the west and (not to be confused with the one in Spain, Portugal, Andorra, and Gibraltar) in the east. Colchis was an important location for Greek mythology, with the Golden Fleece being located there. Iberia became part of the Persian Empire, while Colchis was incorporated into Roman territories as Lazica for a while. Eventually, the unified Kingdom of Georgia was formed, but it fell apart circa 1466. After another few hundred years of strife, it was incorporated into the glorious Russian Empire from 1800 to the October Revolution.
===Soviet Union===
Soon after the October Revolution, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic was formed, encompassing Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and small sections of eastern Turkey and southwestern Russia. Georgia exited one month and four days after the republic's formation, with Armenia and Azerbaijan following two days later.Breakup of Transcaucasia Georgia was then independent for less than three years as the Democratic Republic of Georgia, a Menshevik government. It was absorbed by the Soviet Union after its military forces could not repel the Russians.
When Georgia was incorporated into the USSR in 1921, it retained its borders and extended just slightly past its current boundaries (including the disputed Abkhazia and South Ossetia). As a Soviet republic, it had a pseudo-capitalist economy. It somewhat resisted the communist economic system the USSR preferred, resulting in high ownership of cars and houses and making it one of the most economically prosperous divisions of the USSR.Svante Cornell, Autonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Cases in Georgia, p. 149 Eventually, Georgian nationalists began to clash with the Soviets, but Georgia remained in the union until the 1991 collapse.
===Rose Revolution===
The Rose Revolution, or in Georgian, ვარდების რევოლუცია (lit. Revolution of Roses), was a large-scale peaceful protest occurring across Georgia, which took place between November 3 and 23, 2003.Giorgi Kandelaki, Georgia's Rose Revolution - A Participant's Perspective The protests resulted in the resignation of the nepotistic, corruptThe Telegraph, Eduard Shevardnadze - obituaryNatalia Antelava, Postscript: Eduard Shevardnadze, 1928-2014 Soviet-era leader , whose place was briefly taken by the conservative parliamentarian until an election could be held. In the next election, (the de facto leader of the revolution) won in a landslide with 96% of the votes and a large voter turnout of 80%.Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Georgia, Extraordinary Presidential Election, 4 January 2004: Final Report The protests may have helped inspire the Ukrainian of 2004Taras Kuzio, The Orange and Euromaidan Revolutions: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives and the Armenian of 2018. 
Saakashvili wound up as president of Georgia until 2013 after this victory, although opponents accused him of electoral fraud.Tom Parfitt, Opposition claims Georgia president rigged election victory His administration was a mixed bag; although he had a pro-European and globalist agendaPresident (Bush) and President Saakashvili Discuss NATO, DemocracySaakashvili, Filat Offer Support To Pro-EU ProtestersMatthew Collin, Georgia to double troops in Iraq and helped eliminate rampant corruption,Georgia's corruption index dramatically improved -- 2004 vs 2008. his presidency was plagued by human rights abusesUnited Press International, OHCHR upset over Georgia prison videoHuman Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch's Open Letter to President Saakashvili and authoritarianism.Claire Bigg, Mikheil Saakashvili's Polarizing LegacyClaire Bigg and Daisy Sindelar, Georgia: After Crackdown On Protests, President Calls Early Polls In addition, his government failed to adequately protect protesters with unpopular ideologies like LGBT rights groupsHRIDC, HRIDC statement on the dispersal of LGBT organization Identoba's demonstration (although Georgia is better with LGBT rights than its neighbors, with the parliament having unanimously approved anti-discrimination legislation that protects LGBT citizens,Civil.ge, Anti-Discrimination Bill Adopted and it is ranked a good deal higher by ILGA).Rainbow Europe - Country Ranking Saakashvili tended to dismiss the arguments against him by accusing his opponents of being pro-Russia.
Eventually, Saakashvili and were kicked to the sidelines as the tycoon and his new party coasted in on a wave of popular discontent with the president.BBC News, Mass opposition rally in Tbilisi, Georgia The presidential election held shortly after the parliamentary one resulted in the GD-associated candidate Giorgi Margvelashvili winning. Ivanishvili continued on essentially the same foreign policy path as Saakashvili but was considerably more corrupt and is thought by some to still be calling the shots behind the scenes due to GD's continued dominance.Giorgi Lomsadze, Georgia: Political Crisis Prompts Speculation About Ivanishvili’s Political Role Saakashvili was rather bombastic and populist, while the current administration is less revolution-minded, and little of note has happened under its control.
==Corruption and authoritarianism==
Corruption was rampant until the Saakashvili administration of 2004 to 2013, with Soviet Georgia being considered corrupt even for a Soviet country. It decreased hugely throughout Saakashvili's presidency, but experienced a resurgence with the advent of Georgian Dream.
===Electoral fraud===
====Saakashvili administration====
Although Saakashvili did a remarkable job of crushing corruption, OSCE observers assessed the 2008 presidential election as wrought with electoral fraud.Charges of Fraud Surface in Georgian Election - "It also appears that there was also voting fraud, the head of the OSCE observer mission said Thursday, Jan. 10. [...] Saakashvili won a majority of the votes, the election commission said. [...] 'There was crass, negligent and deliberate falsification during the vote counting,' German diplomat Dieter Boden said in an interview published in the Frankfurter Runschau newspaper. [...] Not only did OSCE observers report incidents of fraud during Saturday's vote, but conditions at Georgia's Central Elections Commission were 'chaotic,' Boden said." However, some thought the electoral fraud wasn't widespread enough to have influenced the outcome of the election.Robert Parsons, Mikheil Saakashvili's bitter victory.
====Current events====
In the polls leading up to the 2016 parliamentary election in Georgia, only 19% of respondents selected the ruling Georgian Dream - Democratic Georgia party as their first choice.Public Opinion Survey - Residents of Georgia (p. 96) Despite this low approval, the party won a whopping 115 of the 150 seats (partially due to the weird representation system of Georgia). Opposition parties accused Georgian Dream of vote-rigging,
Georgia ruling party leads in parliamentary polls: Early results
which is quite plausible. Although parties and people may win elections with a low approval rating, the massive disparity between opinion polling and electoral results looks suspicious.
==Abkhazia/South Ossetia territorial disputes==
===Abkhazia===
Abkhazia is a province in northwestern Georgia. It is primarily inhabited by ethnic Abkhazians rather than Georgians like the rest of the country, who speak an entirely unrelated language, and there are some ethnic tensions between the two. Abkhazia has attempted to secede from Georgia and has been aided by Russia (rather in the manner of Nagorno-Karabakh). Few nations recognize Abkhazia as independent,A map of the international recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Georgia asserts its right to the territory. Elections may be illegitimate, as ethnic Georgians have been denied the right to vote.Encyclopaedia Britannica, Abkhazia Most Abkhazians support independence, with a smaller percentage supporting Russian annexation and a very tiny percentage supporting Georgian unification.Gerard Toal and John O'Loughlin, How people in South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria feel about annexation by Russia Currently, the conflict is unresolved.
===South Ossetia===
South Ossetia is not an actual province in Georgia (well, it used to be, thanks to later-reversed, Soviet-era ethnic gerrymandering), but a region encompassing parts of several. It borders Russia and, like Abkhazia, has been aided in its secession by Russia. It and Abkhazia were the cause of the 2008 Russo-Georgian War, with both fighting against Georgia alongside Russia and winning. Ethnic cleansing against various ethnic groups residing in the area was conducted by Ossetians.MPIL, [http://www.mpil.de/en/pub/publications/archive/independent_international_fact.cfm Independent International Fact-Finding Mission
on the Conflict in Georgia, vol II] (p. 94)
==Gallery==
File:2014 Tbilisi, Widoki z Twierdzy Narikala (13).jpg|Tbilisi, Georgia's capital.
File:Ajapsandali - Georgian eggplant stew.jpg|Georgian eggplant stew.
File:268A5992 HDR.jpg|Georgia's rugged Caucasian landscape.
File:Alfa lebedev1.JPG|Georgian race car drivers.
File:Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi 07.jpg|Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi.
File:Female Georgian Shepherd - Khevi, Georgia (3).jpg|A Georgian Shepherd dog in Khevi.
==See also==
*
* (1008 CE - 1490 CE)
*
==References==
Category:Middle Eastern countries
Category:Asian countries
Category:European countries