Georgia from the inside A revolution that went astray

According to the international group Tasnim news agency, few countries in the back space from the Soviet Union that can be compared to Georgia’s determination to create a Western-style political system. However, at the very beginning, this process almost destroyed the independent and young republic of Georgia.

In the beginning, to enter and get to know the Georgian society and analyze what is in the culture, politics and economy of this The country is in flux, the history of modern Georgia (after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the declaration of independence) should be examined in order to understand and analyze the origins and reasons of many of the political actions of this country in the past 30 years.

Therefore, in order to understand the modern history of Georgia better and more accurately, we will divide the past 32 years into several time periods and examine each period with a historical indicator.

Georgia’s independence until the Golsarkh coup (year 2003)

• The era of Zoyad Gamsakhurdia until Shevardnadze’s coup d’etat

In August 1990 (1369), the iron rule The Soviet Union almost reached the end of the road, out of fifteen republics under the rule of this political regime, thirteen republics approved their declarations of independence in a short period of time.

In some of these republics, political opponents They came to power yesterday, and in another place, the same leaders of the Communist Party took power. But for almost all of them, an unenviable fate and future awaited.

Georgia was one of these republics that, since the years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, activities and opposition against the Soviet rule and leaving the yoke Communism is very strongly followed in it. The peak of these oppositions, which is considered a turning point in the modern history of this country, is the 1989 protest rally in the main street and square of Tbilisi, “Rostavli”, which was met with a harsh and iron reaction from the representative of the central government.

Tbilisi Governorate after the events of 1989

On April 9, 1989 (20 April 1368), a tragedy occurred in Georgia that affected the political and social future of this country. The Soviet army dispersed a rally whose participants demanded the separation of the Soviet Republic of Georgia from the Soviet Union.

In this protest rally, which was suppressed by the intervention of the army and the direct order of the Kremlin, 19 people They died and hundreds of people were injured due to the crowding and violence of the officers. The leader of this protest movement was a person named “Zoviad Gamsakhurdia” with extreme nationalistic thoughts, a person who was sworn in as the first president of independent Georgia a few months later.

Zoviad Kamsakhurdia, the first president of independent Georgia

On October 28, 1990, the first elections It was held to determine the members of the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union of Georgia, in which Zoviad Gamsakhurdia’s party won with the most votes.

One ​​of the features of this election was that the people voted for Gamsakhurdia personally. , that is, any faction headed by Gamsakhurdia will win the election, and this meant that the dissatisfied people of Georgia chose not a written program, but a person who could rid the nation of communism, and therefore the most reliable and anti-communist. They trusted people in Georgia.

This electoral image was a proof of the success of a charismatic radical leader in the political arena of Georgia, who was able to enjoy high popularity among the masses.

p dir=”RTL”> On November 14, 1990 (November 23, 1369), Gamsakhurdia was elected by the Supreme Council of Georgia as the head of the council. On March 31, 1991 (April 11, 1370), a referendum was held in the Republic of Georgia in order to restore and restore the independence of Georgia, as a result of which 98.9 percent voted for the independence of this country (with 90 percent participation).

On April 9 (April 20, 1370) at 12:30 pm, the Supreme Council of Georgia approved the Law on Restoring the State Independence of Georgia and according to this law, this country became an independent country.

On April 14, 1991 (April 25, 1370), in the emergency meeting of the Supreme Council, Zoviad Gamsakhurdia was elected as the first president of independent Georgia, and in continuation of the independence process of this country on May 26 (June 5, 1370), The first general election for the presidency of Georgia was held, and Zoviad Gamsakhurdia won 87 percent of the votes among 6 candidates.

But after the election, nothing went well in Georgia. Gamsakhurdia, who defined himself in complete opposition to Boris Yeltsin’s government after the declaration of independence, refused to implement the Yeltsin-Gaidar economic reforms.

Retail sales, liberalization of foreign trade, reorganization of the tax system and other changes in the economy had no result other than the transition of the countries of the Soviet Union to a free market economy. These changes caused prices to rise and increase Unbridled inflation was found in the economy of most of the newly independent republics. With this decision, Gamsakhurdia defined itself in confrontation with Russia and in a way faced the economic sanctions of “Boris Yeltsin’s” government and thus was not able to get out of economic crises.

But the most important The point that challenged the first independent government of Georgia and overshadowed the future of this country was the issue of territorial integrity and ethnicities in the governmental structure of Georgia. Perhaps the starting point of this challenge can be found in the protest rally on Rustaveli Street in 1989 and in the slogan “Georgia for Georgians”. During the revolution, these slogans were able to unite many Georgians to fight against the Soviet communist government. But in a country like Georgia, which is faced with a plurality of ethnicities, the beginning of ethnic differences can swallow the entire revolution. who were not very satisfied with the separation from Russia, associated with resistance. These resistances, which were supported by Russia, gradually came into serious conflict with the central government of Georgia, and the fire of ethnic differences was ignited in Georgia for many years.

But during the rule of the first president Georgia did not last long, and in less than a year, by implementing policies to suppress freedom of speech, press freedom, and arresting critics, it created many oppositions in the political and social atmosphere of Georgia.

Finally, with Gamsakhurdia was removed from power in a coup d’état by the commander of the National Guard of this country, “Tengiz Kitovani”. After a few months, the leaders of this military coup invited “Edward Shevardnadze”, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union, to take over the administration of the country when preparations are made for the re-election of the president.

The xenophobic rhetoric of Georgia’s first democratically elected president, Zoviad Gamsakhurdia, fueled growing tensions between Georgians and other ethnic groups that culminated in the 1991 conflict in South Ossetia. It culminated and created the preconditions for the war in Abkhazia that began in 1992.

In the early 1990s, Georgia went from one of the most prosperous Soviet republics to a collapsing state. Along with the ongoing internal conflict and two armed separatist movements supported by Russia, it had become. Report: Mehdi Tabrizi RTL”>end of message/