On April 6,
2009, George Washington University’s Institute for European, Russian,
and Eurasian Studies, the journals Demokratizatsiya and World Affairs,
and Radio Free Europe cosponsored a symposium, entitled “Putin's
Blueprint and The Five-Day War in Georgia: Security and Political
Implications in the CEE/CIS and U.S. Policy” at the Heldref Publishers’
building, not far from Dupont Circle. This event was organized to
prepare a special issue of Democratizatsiya, dedicated to elucidating
the impact of the South Ossetian War on domestic politics of the
warring and surrounding countries – Georgia first of all, Russia,
Ukraine, and Azerbaijan. In other words, this event shared the approach
with SRC’s international symposium held on March 5-6, 2009
.
The initiator of this event, Professor Henry Hale of George Washington
University invited me to deliver a paper half a year ago. After an
unsuccessful attempt to visit South Ossetia in January of this year, I
was finally able to visit the area in March, which hopefully enabled me
to make a more or less meaningful contribution to the event.
The panelists of the first session presented mutually complementary
papers concerning Georgian politics with differing assessments of
Saakashvili’s role in Georgia’s democratization: still positive (Svante
Cornell), negative (me), and neutral (Cory Welt). Taras Kuzio set forth
the interesting view that not only the nationalists, but also the
Left-wing forces in Ukraine (i.e., the Party of Regions, Communists)
are unwilling to support Russia’s new policy towards South Ossetia
because their Soviet traditionalism makes the principle of territorial
wholeness sacred. In discussion Anar Valiyev noted that Turkey’s policy
after August 2008, namely non-criticism of Russia and historical
reconciliation with Armenia, provoked uneasiness in Azerbaijan society.
Moreover, Azerbaijan, as is the case with Moldova, resumed its endeavor
to involve Russia in the regulation of the Karabav conflict actively
because, as Valiyev legitimately admits, Azerbaijan is barely able to
conduct a two-front war: against Armenia and Russia simultaneously.
Looking at the
Russian and South Ossetian outpost with their flags from the Georgian
outpost in Ergneti. Before 2004, a huge bazaar sold Georgian, Ossetian
and Russian commodities here. One of the first tasks Saakashvili
realized after he became the president of Georgia was to close this
bazaar. Since Ergneti was used to shell Tskhinval in 2008, the Ossetian
paramilitaries completely destroyed this village during its occupation
by Russia. Thus, Ergneti transformed from a symbol of peace and
coexistence to that of devastation and confrontation.
＊The
views expressed in the essay belong
solely to the author and do not represent the official position of any
organizations to which the author is permanently or was temporarily
affiliated.
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