(On
the top right hand side of this page you can choose for a translation
in the language of your choice in Google Translate)
De opstandige jongeren in Georgië zijn daartoe aangezet door de VS die de premier van het land willen vervangen voor een anti-Russische pro-VS – EU ‘gezindte’ figuur, Salome Zurabisjvili, de president van Georgië, hebben ze al in hun zak.
Scott Ritter heeft een uitvoerig artikel geschreven over deze zaak, niet in de laatste plaats daar hij getrouwd is met een vrouw met wortels in Georgië.
Eerst schrijft hij over zijn vrouw en schoonouders die uit hun woonplaats Sukhumi halsoverkop moesten vluchten toen in 1993 de Abchaziërs (ook aangeduid als Abchazen) de stad veroverden nadat ze de omliggende regio al in het bezit hadden. De Abchazische ‘rebellen’ zaaiden dood en verderf en kunnen beter worden aangeduid als meedogenloze terroristen……
De vlucht van Georgiërs heeft door de kou in de bergen nog eens aan duizenden het leven gekost….
Dit is overigens een andere zaak dan die van Zuid-Ossetië in 2008, dat zich afscheidde van Georgië, nadat het Georgische leger dit omstreden deel van Georgië aanviel en daarbij grote aantallen slachtoffers maakte onder de daar vooral al generaties lang wonende etnische Russen….. Waarna het Russische leger orde op zaken stelde en het Georgische leger in korte tijd wist te verslaan….. Destijds brachten de zogenaamde onafhankelijke westerse (massa-) media en de meeste westerse politici ook al anti-Russische propaganda, waarmee men Rusland de zwarte piet toespeelde zonder in te gaan op de terreur van het Georgische leger tegen de etnische Russen aldaar…….
Tijdens het kijken naar de jonge Georgiërs en hun eis tot het terugnemen van Sukhumi, zag Ritter dat er iets niet klopte aan de scène die zich voor hem ontvouwde. Er miste een ingrediënt aan ‘de soep van emoties’ die was te zien en dat ingrediënt was zijn land >> the United States of America……
De demonstratie die deze boze jonge Georgiërs voor het parlementsgebouw hadden gebracht, was van origine niet de roep om actie te ondernemen voor de bevrijding van Sukhumi, maar veeleer een protest tegen een voorgestelde wet waarmee media en niet-gouvernementele organisaties die meer dan 20% van hun inkomsten uit het buitenland krijgen zich moeten registreren als ‘agenten van buitenlandse beïnvloeding’ (wat hier als ‘buitenlandse agenten’ wordt aangeduid). Een wet die gemodelleerd is op de VS >> Foreign Agents
Registration Act (FARA) uit 1938, die mensen verplicht aan te geven wanneer zij in de VS lobbyen ten behoeve van buitenlandse regeringen of (buitenlandse) politieke entiteiten. Een wet die in de VS werd gebruikt tegen de zogenaamde staatszenders Russia Today (RT) en Sputnik, waarvoor in het westen geen ophef ontstond, totdat Rusland hetzelfde deed en de boel explodeerde….. De rest van het westen volgde prompt met de censuur op RT en Sputnik….. Terwijl zeker RT in de VS, Duitsland en Groot-Brittannië werd bemenst door respectievelijk VS, Duitse en Britse journalisten en opiniemakers……
Critici van deze wet in Georgië verklaarden dat als de wet zou worden aangenomen, een wet die ze belachelijk maakten als een pro-Russische wetgeving, die het doel zou verhinderen dat Georgië lid zou kunnen worden van de NAVO en de Europese Unie (EU), waarbij men erop wees dat de buitenlandse agenten wet in 2012 door Rusland werd aangenomen tegen niet-gouvernementele organisaties (Ngo’s) die het werk van oppositieleden ondersteunden….. Vergeet hierbij niet dat organisaties als terreurorganisaties NSA maar vooral de CIA (geheime diensten van de VS) en andere overheidsorganisaties van de VS de boel in niet VS welgevallige landen destabiliseren met het steunen van gewelddadige groeperingen en het organiseren van opstanden, iets wat bijvoorbeeld de CIA een paar jaar geleden volmondig heeft toegegeven….. (zo meer daarover)
Ritter stelt dat de Georgische critici gelijk hebben, de praktische uitwerking van de buitenlandse agenten wet zou hebben aangegeven hoe Georgische politiek en bestuur werd ‘overspoeld’ met buitenlands geld en invloed. Deze dreiging kwam echter niet van Rusland (zoals je al begrepen zal hebben na het voorgaande) maar uit de VS, die jaarlijks 40 miljoen dollar via het Verenigde Staten Agentschap voor Internationale Ontwikkeling (United States Agency for
International Development >> USAID) deed toekomen aan oppositie en anti-regeringsgroeperingen in Georgië om te gebruiken voor een ‘zachte staatsgreep’ in dat land, ofwel geld bedoelt om de huidige regering te vervangen voor een regering die de VS doelstellingen zou volgen en niet die van Georgië, inclusief het openen van een tweede front tegen Rusland…..
Het eerste front is uiteraard Oekraïne, waar de VS middels de CIA voor 2014 een opstand organiseerde, regisseerde en betaalde met 5 miljard dollar, met het doel de pro-Russische democratisch gekozen president en regering ten val te brengen (ook onder regie van de CIA)…… In 2014 resulteerde dit inderdaad in een coup tegen de democratisch gekozen president Janoekovytsj en de daaropvolgende massamoord op etnische Russen, plus de oorlog tegen deze mensen in Oost-Oekraïne….. Kortom een oorlog tegen de afgescheiden staatjes Luhansk en Donetsk, wat volgens de VN begin vorig jaar al tot de dood van meer dan 14.000 etnische Russen heeft geleid, ofwel die mensen werden vermoord door het nazi-leger van Oekraïne, dit zonder dat er 8 jaar lang enige strafmaatregel als sancties werden genomen door het westen tegen de fascistische dictatuur van eerst de door de VS geparachuteerde corrupte fascistische juntaleider Porosjenko en later de corrupte fascistische ‘president’ Zelensky……. (gekozen terwijl de meeste oppositiepartijen waren verboden en velen werden geïntimideerd niet te gaan stemmen….)
Jammer dat Ritter vooral wijst naar USAID en niet naar de CIA die wel degelijk ook een hoofdrol speelt in Georgië. Terwijl het toch heel duidelijk is dat wat de CIA deed in Oekraïne, waarbij ook USAID een rol speelde en waarbij hetzelfde scenario wordt gevolgd als dat nu wordt gebruikt in Georgië……
Het is dan ook duidelijk dat de VS achter de opstandige jongeren staat en deze heeft gemobiliseerd, het is dan ook te verwachten dat de VS middels de CIA en haar contacten in Georgië met USAID zal proberen een algehele opstand te bewerkstelligen en daar op zeker al druk doende mee is…..
Verder stelt Ritter in zijn artikel volkomen terecht dat het de VS geen bliksem interesseert als hierdoor Georgiërs het leven zullen verliezen (zoals het de VS geen reet interesseert dat er Oekraïners, waaronder etnische Russen en Russische militairen om het leven komen), immers het gaat ook hier om het belang van de VS >> de oorlog die deze terreurentiteit voert tegen Rusland, met het doel om haar hegemonie over de wereld te bewaren…… Het interesseert de VS al evenmin dat het de boel steeds verder destabiliseert in Europa, één van de doelen is zelfs om de EU economie in het slop te helpen wat de VS economie alleen maar ten goede zal komen….. (vandaar ook de handelsoorlog van de VS tegen China, het land dat ook het beoogde uiteindelijke militaire doel is van de VS, meer nog dan Rusland……)
Ritter zegt er niets over maar reken gerust dat politici uit de EU lidstaten ook in deze slippendragers zijn van de VS en de president van Georgië stroop om de mond smeren en Irakli Garibasjvili, de pro-Russische premier van Georgië, onder druk zetten de banden met Rusland te verbreken……
Lees het verder uitstekende artikel van Scott Ritter waarin je verder nog een aankondiging vindt van Ritter dat hij morgen, 14 maart 2023, via YouTube op dit artikel in zal gaan (als het klopt zal dat om 20.00 u. morgenavond plaatsvinden) en waarin hij vragen van het publiek zal beantwoorden.
(als
je het Engels niet machtig bent, zet dan de tekst in Google translate
dat
je rechts bovenaan deze pagina ziet staan,eerst
om in het Engels door in het menu van Google translate op Engels te
klikken, waarna je weer kan klikken op die vertaalapp en je dan
bovenaan in het menu Nederlands ziet staan, klik daarop en de hele
tekst staat in het Nederlands, de vertaling is van een redelijk goede
kwaliteit.)
Farewell, Sukhumi
Georgian protesters unwittingly imperil their nation’s survival
“Sokhumi!” Sokhumi!” Sokhumi!”
The
shouts ring out from the assembled crowds of Georgian youth in
Rustaveli Plaza, in front of the parliament building in the Georgian
capital of Tbilisi. Sukhumi (Sokhumi is the
Georgian pronunciation) is the capital of Abkhazia, the breakaway
Georgian territory which separated after a year-long war that left
thousands of dead on each side, and hundreds of thousands of Georgians
without a home.
“Sokhumi!” “Sokhumi!” “Sokhumi!”
Those
words resonated with me more than most Americans. My wife was born and
raised in Sukhumi, and I travelled to Sukhumi in the summer of 1991 in a
successful bid to convince her to marry me.
Sukhumi was where my
wife’s parents met, married, and made a life together, raising a family
while pursuing a career teaching at the local university.
Sukhumi
was where my wife’s father, Bidzina, along with the other male faculty
from the Sukhumi Institute of Subtropical Agronomy, was drafted into the
Georgian military at the age of 62, serving in a unit tasked with
guarding a strategic bridge heading south out of the city. He and his
fellow draftees defended the bridge through artillery attacks that
deafened him, and aerial bombardment that eventually wounded him in the
back.
Despite his wounds, Bidzina helped his fellow academics
defend the bridge to the last, holding it open for the last wave of
refugees to escape the murderous wrath of the Abkhazian rebels who
captured the city from the Georgian defenders in late September 1993.
Only after he ran out of ammunition did Bidzina retreat from his post,
joining the long line of human detritus in their long road of flight
over the mountains, to safety.
My
wife’s family’s home was taken over by the victorious Abkhaz, along
with those of hundreds of thousands of others who were either killed, or
else fled for their lives.
Bidzina rarely talked about his
wartime experience. Once I was able to get him to relate what had
happened during the retreat from Sukhumi. He told me of how many of the
women and children had been forced to flee for their lives in their
night clothes, and how they perished in the freshly fallen snow that
covered the mountains they had sought refuge in.
Bidzina spoke of
coming across the bodies of frozen mothers hugging their children in a
desperate attempt to pass life-saving warmth to their now lifeless
bodies, of carrying newly orphaned infants in his arms, only to come
across more—too many for one man to carry. The pain in his eyes as he
left the rest of the sentence unspoken—that to save some, he had to
leave others to their fate—was haunting then, and haunts me in my
memories today.
There was a reason he hugged his granddaughters so close…
“Sokhumi!” “Sokhumi!” “Sokhumi!”
More
than those who chanted those words, I knew the pain caused by the loss
of that city, and Abkhazia as a whole. For decades, I watched as my
wife’s family suffered with the knowledge that all they had worked for
in life had been abandoned to an enemy who had no intention of allowing
them to return. Bidzina and his wife, Lamara, both died thousands of
miles away from their homeland, condemned to be buried under the foreign
soil of a country they were grateful to for taking them in, but which
was, and could never be, their homeland.
“Sokhumi!” “Sokhumi!” “Sokhumi!”
As
I watched these angry young Georgians demand that their government act
to return “unconquered” Georgia to its control, I knew something wasn’t
right with the scene unfolding before me. There was an ingredient
missing from the soup of emotions on display, and that ingredient was my
country—the United States of America.
The
demonstration that brought these angry young Georgians before the
parliament building did not originate as a call to action regarding the
liberation of Sukhumi, but rather to protest a proposed law which would
have required media and nongovernmental organizations that receive more
than 20% of their funding from foreign sources to register as agents of
foreign influence. The law was modeled on the US Foreign Agents
Registration Act (FARA) of 1938, which requires people to disclose when
they lobby in the US on behalf of foreign governments or political
entities.
Critics of the law declared that, if passed, the
legislation—which they derided as a pro-Russian law, could hinder
Georgia’s goals of joining NATO and the European Union, noting that the
foreign agents bill was similar in intent to one enacted in Russia in
2012 that paved the way for the Russian government to close down
numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) accused of supporting the
work of opposition politicians.
In many ways, the critics were
correct—the practical outcome of the foreign agents bill would have been
to expose the extent to which Georgian politics and governance had
become overrun with foreign money and influence. The threat, however,
didn’t come from Russia, but rather the United States, which uses the
$40 million in aid funneled through the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) every year to conduct what amounts to a
“soft coup” in Georgia designed to displace the current government with
one that will be compliant to American—not Georgian—goals and
objectives—including the establishment of a “second front” against
Russia.
All of this is done, according to Samantha Power, the
Director of USAID, to build “a country with free expression, a free
press, & a path to Euro-Atlantic integration.”
But what she
really means is a country that suppresses any dissent as
“disinformation,” uses the media as state-sponsored propaganda, and
removes from power any politician or political party that dares impede
Georgia’s absorption into the US-led NATO sphere of influence.
Georgia’s
Prime Minister, Irakli Garibashvili, does not want an expanded war with
Russia—especially one that drags Georgia into the conflict.
As
such, Samantha Power and her minions at USAID believe the prime minister
of Georgia must now be removed and replaced with an anti-Russian (i.e.,
pro-war) leader cut from the same pro-American cloth as Georgia’s
US-backed President, Salome Zurabishvili.
To accomplish this,
USAID funds programs designed to foment a “bottom-up” transformation of
Georgian society and politics by empowering “diversity” at the
grass-roots level, suppressing opposing points of view in the name of
building “societal resilience to disinformation,” and seizing control of
the electoral process so that the US-controlled “diversity” movements
can prevail in local elections and, by extension, national elections.
The
Georgian foreign agents bill would have exposed the level to which
these USAID-funded programs, and other related US and EU-funded
activities, had infiltrated Georgian society. For that reason, the US
mobilized its paid activists to take to the streets, forcing the
Georgian Prime Minster to pull the plug on the legislation in the
interests of public safety.
Former Supreme Court Justice Louis
Brandeis once famously observed that “Sunlight is said to be the best of
disinfectants,” implying by extension that democracy thrives in an
atmosphere of total transparency.
The fact that Samantha Power and
USAID do not want any sunlight shone on the extent to which their
activities have corrupted Georgian sovereignty is proof positive of the
extent to which the disease of American-funded “soft power” has infected
the Georgian nation.
One would think that the Georgian people had
built up antibodies to the American infection, having suffered through a
short but violent war with Russia in August 2008 brought on by American
exhortations to militarily confront Russia as a prerequisite for
joining NATO. This message was passed to former Georgian President
Mikhail Saakashvili by then-US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
during her July 9, 2008 trip to Georgia. The stated goal of the visit
was to discuss the prospects of Georgia joining NATO, during which time
the senior US diplomat publicly declared America’s support upholding
Georgia’s “territorial integrity.”
Up
until Secretary Rice’s July 2008 visit, Saakashvili had regular
meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, where they discussed
the possibilities for a negotiated solution to the problem of returning
the breakaway territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia to Georgian
sovereign control. In the immediate aftermath of his meeting with Rice,
Saakashvili terminated all communications with Medvedev.
The
extent to which Condoleezza Rice encouraged Saakashvili to provoke a
military conflict with Russia is a matter of dispute. The US State
Department contends that Rice cautioned Saakashvili from taking any
precipitous actions against the Russians, while the former Georgian
President insists Rice had given him the green light to take action.
Regardless,
when Saakashvili sent the Georgian army rolling into South Ossetia on
the morning of August 7, the US was not willing to back up the alleged
exhortations of Condoleezza Rice with military force. While some
participants in the emergency meeting in the White House Situation Room
that was convened in the aftermath of the Georgian incursion, and
Russian response, urged the US military to carry out operations in
support of the Georgian military, such as bombing the Roki tunnels that
connected South Ossetia with North Ossetia, and through which the
Russians were sending troops and supplies to support their
counterattack, then-US National Security Advisor Steve Hadley silenced
the room by asking the simple question, “Are we prepared to go to war
with Russia over Georgia?”
The answer was a resounding “No.”
For
Georgia, this was a bitter pill to swallow. Afterall, Georgians had
paid a blood price for American loyalty, sacrificing 35 killed and 300
wounded while supporting America’s post-9/11 wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
To this now must be added 180 dead soldiers, and
another 1,174 more wounded, in Georgia’s short five-day defeat at the
hands of the Russian military, who quickly pushed the Georgians out of
South Ossetia, before pushing into Georgia proper, halting just outside
the capital of Tbilisi.
America
is fully prepared to let Georgians die for our causes, whether on the
soil of far way lands that pose no threat to Georgia, or on Georgian
soil in pursuit of American geopolitical ambition.
But we will never sacrifice a single American life in defense of Georgia.
You
see, in the minds of American officials like Samantha Power and
Condoleezza Rice, Georgia exists only to do the bidding of its American
master.
The Georgian youth shouting “Sokhumi!” “Sokhumi!” Sokhumi!” into
the evening air in Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Plaza labor under the misguided
notion that there exists some sort of fraternal bond between them and
the American people.
They couldn’t be more wrong.
To
the extent Americans know anything about Georgia and Georgian culture,
this “knowledge” is limited to a superficial appreciation of Georgian
cuisine and dance that can be encapsulated into what I call the “five
K’s”—Khinkali, Khachapouri, Khvanchkara, Kartuli, and Khoroumi.
Khinkali,
or Georgian dumplings, are a mainstay in Russian and/or Georgian
restaurants, a popular appetizer made of twisted dough stuffed with
minced meat (traditionally lamb, but also beef and pork mixed), onions,
chili pepper, salt, and cumin which, because the meat is uncooked when
placed in the dough, produces a savory broth when boiled. Connoisseurs
of Khinkali know to suck the broth from the dough
ball, lest it explode when cut into, and to leave the thick twisted knot
on their plate as evidence of their conquest (because you can’t eat
just one).
Khachapouri is
the delicious Georgian cheese bread which has various variations,
depending upon where in Georgia it is being made. Adjarian Khachapouri,
consisting of a thick boat-shaped bread loaf containing cheese topped
by an egg, is very popular. My wife’s family is more particular to
Imeruli Khachapouri, where a thin layer of cheese
is placed between two thin layers of dough to produce a pizza-like crust
filled with a buttery-cheese center that bursts with flavor when
consumed. There are, as one can imagine, various variations of these
theme.
And what better to wash down a fine Georgian meal of Khinkali and Khachapouri than a bottle of Khvanchkara, a Georgian semi-sweet red wine. Named after the village where the winery is established, Khvanchkara wine
dates to a process perfected in the 1880’s by Dmitri Kipiani, a member
of the Georgian nobility, who in 1907 entered his wine, at that time
called “The Kipiani Wine,” in the European Wine Festival, where it took
home the Gold Grand Prize. In 1927 the Kipiani winery was taken over by
new management (it was, after all Soviet times, when nobility were
openly frowned upon—or worse). Renamed “Khvanchkara, Ltd,” the new
winery continued the tradition of Kipiani, producing a wine which was
identical to that of its predecessor in every way except the name.
The
Kipiani Wine had caught the attention of a young Seminarian-turned
revolutionary named Ioseb Dzhugashvili—better known as Joseph Stalin—and
when it reemerged as Khvanchkara, Stalin (by then
three years into his tenure as the leader of the Soviet Union) adopted
it as one of his favorite wines, serving it at every meal and function.
Today Khvanchkara is known more by the notoriety of the man who once consumed it than its actual bona fides as an award-winning wine.
The
Georgian National Ballet (formerly the Georgian State Dance Company,
formed in 1945 by Iliko Sukhishvili and Nino Ramishvili) serves as the
primary exporter of traditional Georgian dances to the rest of the
world. Two dances in particular stand out in the minds of most
non-Georgians who attend a performance. First is the traditional
Georgian wedding dance, know as the Kartuli. The
combination of grace and chivalry that defines Georgian women and men,
respectively, is on display throughout the performance as the performers
glide across the stage, mesmerizing all who watch.
But it is the Khoroumi,
a traditional dance born from the Georgian martial tradition, that
entices most, especially its dramatic concluding sword dance. It is also
in the roots of the Khoroumi that the tragic reality of the Georgian nation can be deciphered.
The Khoroumi is derived from the history of the Diaokh, an 8th-century
BC tribal union located in northeastern Anatolia, and the Colchis, best
known from Greek mythology as the destination of Jason and the
Argonauts, and home to Medea and the Golden Fleece. Ancient Diaokh was
defeated by the precursors of modern-day Armenia, the Urartians, while
Colchis succumbed to successive invasions by the Persians, Armenians,
and Romans.
The reality is that history did not
provide the ancient Georgians with many opportunities to dance the
victorious sword dance that has become the defining moment of the Khoroumi.
It is of interest to note that the version of the Khoroumi made
popular by the Georgian National Ballet is an amalgam drawn from
variations popular in Adjaria, among the Laz, and in Guria.
Adjaria
is a predominantly Muslim region of Georgia that borders Turkey, and is
home to Batumi, Georgia’s principal port city on the Black Sea coast.
Formerly an Ottoman territory, Adjaria was taken by the Russians after
the 1876-1878 war with Turkey, recaptured by the Ottomans in 1918 (and
later the Turks in 1921), before eventually incorporated into what
became the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic under the Treaty of Kars,
Article 6 of which holds that Turkey is a guarantor of Adjarian autonomy
(something modern-day Georgian nationalists should bear in mind.)
The
Laz trace their heritage back to the Colchis and consist of Georgian
peoples who settled in the Trabzon region of modern Turkey. Afforded a
modicum of autonomy under the Byzantines, the Laz eventually were
absorbed by a succession of Georgian principalities and kingdoms, during
which time they were imprinted with their Georgian cultural identity,
before being occupied by the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century.
For the next 200 years the Laz resisted Ottoman rule, fighting to hold
on to their Georgian heritage, before finally being crushed in the
mid-19th century. Today the Laz reside primarily
in Turkey, with both their language and cultural identity in danger of
becoming extinct.
To the north of Adjaria is the
Georgian region of Guria, which has known its fair share of trials and
tribulations over the centuries. In the 17th century,
Gurian princes were compelled to pay an annual tribute to their Ottoman
masters of 56 young girls and boys. And, during the 1876-1878 war
between Russia and the Ottomans, Guria served as the frontline, and was
laid to waste. Guria was considered to be the most ethnically
homogeneous region of all Georgia, leading to a strong sense of national
identity which proved to be its undoing.
The Gurian
peasantry revolted against Russian nobility in 1902, and again in 1905,
before being slaughtered by the Cossacks dispatched by the Tsar to bring
them to heel. From 1918 until 1921, Guria once again took a leading
role in helping create the short-lived Democratic Republic of Georgia,
before being crushed by the Red Army and transformed into the Georgian
Soviet Socialist Republic.
The Gurians are neighbored to the
north by two other Georgian peoples—the Svans and the Mingrelians. The
Svans settled in the mountainous region of northern Georgia, while the
Mingrelians occupied the valleys and plains of north of Guria. Like
Guria, both Svanetti and Mingrelia are considered hotbeds of Georgian
nationalism. It was the Svans who, in the summer of 1989, famously
emerged from their mountain redoubt in Zemo Svaneti, shirtless, to march on Sukhumi to stamp out unrest among the Abkhazian minority.
And
it is a Mingrelian scholar, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, who is considered by
many to be the father of Georgian nationalism and who served as
Georgia’s first president following independence from the Soviet Union
in 1991. It was under Gamsakhurdia’s leadership that Georgia sought to
violently suppress South Ossetian independence to preserve Georgian
sovereignty and territorial integrity in the aftermath of the collapse
of Soviet authority, setting the scene for Georgia’s short, tragic war
with Russia in 2008.
Today the crowds of young Georgians gather in Tbilisi, shouting “Sokhumi! Sokhumi!” “Sokhumi” to
entice the Georgian government to recapture Abkhazia through force of
arms, thereby fulfilling the larger NATO-driven objective of opening a
second front with Russia. Lest they become too nostalgic over
perceptions of Georgian nationalistic military might, however, history
provides a stark reminder that all is not what it seems to be.
In
September 1993, when the fate of Sukhumi hung in the balance, it was
Mingrelian militias under the control of Loti Kobalia, a Gamsakhurdia
loyalist, who blocked the train carrying Georgian reinforcements to
Abkhazia, disarming them, and dooming the Sukhumi garrison—and the
civilian population they protected—to defeat.
And in October
1993, after the fall of Sukhumi, tens of thousands of Georgian refugees
who were fleeing for their lives had to make the journey through the
mountains of Zemo Svaneti, where armed gangs of
their erstwhile Svan allies set up roadblocks, robbing the desperate
Georgians of whatever possessions they had managed to bring with them,
before sending them on a journey over the snow-covered Kodori Gorge,
where scores of women, children, and the elderly perished of exposure
and starvation.
Sukhumi,
the capitol of Abkhazia where my wife was born and raised, is no longer
under Georgian control. Yes, it was the Abkhaz militias, backed by
Russia, the Chechens, Armenians, and other northern Caucasus peoples who
carried out the attacks that led to the slaughter of thousands of
Georgian civilians and the ethnic cleansing of more than 200,000 others,
including my wife, her brother, and their parents.
Yes, it was
the policies of Soviet ideologues such as Mikhail Andreyevich Suslov
that helped foster and nurture the separatist imaginations of the Abkhaz
and other northern Caucasus peoples as a counter to nascent Georgian
nationalism.
But the origins of the Abkhazian conflict of
1992-93 can be traced to the nationalistic excesses of Georgians as
well. It was the criminal gangs of Jaba Ioseliani’s paramilitary Mkhedrioni (“Horsemen”),
whom Eduard Shevardnadze unleashed on Sukhumi in August 1992, that
transformed what had been a political dispute between Georgia and its
Abkhaz minority into a Civil War which Georgia eventually lost.
Georgians
betraying Georgians is a theme, it seems, one that cost Georgia its
Abkhazian territories, including the city of Sukhumi, in 1993, and which
today appears hell-bent on setting up Georgia for its lemming-like
effort to provoke Russia into a war that Georgia cannot win, and which,
if it occurs, it will not survive as a modern, viable nation state.
Yes, you brave sons and daughters of Georgia—chant your slogans, eat your Khinkali and Khachapouri, drink your Kvanchkara, and watch your women dance the Kartuli, before regaling yourself with the masculine drama of the Khoroumi.
But keep in mind that the Khoroumi is
the dance of a defeated people whose ambitions of glory were, always
and inevitably, crushed by the power of larger neighbors.
Russia is a larger neighbor.
Scott Ritter will discuss this article and answer audience questions on Episode 53 of Ask the Inspector.
The youth of Georgia would do well to consider the following: few, if any, Americans can appreciate the role of Khinkali and Khachapouri in Georgian life, or the history of Georgian wine-making that is encapsulated in Kvanchkara, the social intricacies of the Kartuli, and the painful history behind the Khoroumi.
To most Americans, it is just food, wine, and some funny dancing.
This is the reality of the society you Georgians are betting your future on—America doesn’t care about you.
Americans don’t even really like you. We barely tolerate your food and wine, and we view your culture as a mere curiosity.
History clearly shows that we are definitely not going to die for you.
You exist only to serve our larger geopolitical goals and objectives.
You are nothing more than part of the “belt of instability” being installed by the United States along Russia’s periphery.
Reflect on that for a moment—Georgia’s American purpose is to generate regional instability. Who pays the price?
Not America.
Georgia.
Georgia is but a smaller version of Ukraine, another cog in the American “belt of instability.”
Reflect on that as you act on the American-driven goal of opening a second front against Russia.
Reflect on the fate of Ukraine.
Reflect on the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian dead.
Reflect on the tens of millions of displaced and homeless Ukrainian people.
Reflect on the trillion-plus dollars of infrastructure damage to Ukraine.
Reflect on the Ukrainian territory now permanently lost.
Reflect
on the fact that Ukraine will, as was the case with Afghanistan before
it (and South Vietnam before that), ultimately be abandoned to its fate
by its good “friends,” the Americans.
And understand that what Russia has done to Ukraine in a year can be accomplished against Georgia in less than a month.
Georgia
will lose Abkhazia and South Ossetia for good–forever. Russia may very
well take Poti for good measure, along with Gori and Kutaisi. And why
not? If Georgia wants to transform itself into a permanent military
threat to Russia, then Russia is obliged to permanently remove that
threat.
Once Georgia begins being carved up, Turkey may take
Adjaria. This is not idle speculation—Turkish President Recep Erdogan
has been making statements about Turkey’s historic claim to Batumi under
the terms of Attaturk’s “National Contract,” or Misak-i Milli, of 1920, which set forth the terms of the founding of the post-Ottoman modern Turkish Republic.
Once
Georgia begins to be partitioned, there is not a damn thing either the
United States, the European Union, or NATO can or will do about it.
Georgia will cease to exist as a viable modern nation state.
Guaranteed.
Why? Once again, I remind the people of Georgia—America doesn’t like you.
We are not your friend.
We are using you.
And when we are done using you, we will abandon you.
I’ll leave every Georgian reading this to reflect on the following:
Russian women can knead the dough used to make Khinkali with
the same patient skill as the women of Georgia, because they have
Georgian friends and relatives with whom they grew up doing just that as
an act of social bonding.
Russian women can appreciate the intricacies associated with making the different styles of Khachapouri, because they have vacationed in Georgia, and know the pleasant culinary vagaries of its different regions.
Russian men can discard the Khinkali tops with abandon, devouring slices of Khachapouri,
because eating Georgian food is second nature to them—they have done so
all their life. Georgian cuisine is not foreign to them—it is their cuisine,
because every Russian city of note has at least one Georgian
restaurant. And they can do this while chasing each savory bite with a
sip of Kvanchkara, all the while discussing the
legacy of Stalin with a level of detail and passion that only comes from
being raised in the shadows of a shared legacy.
Georgians and Russians bled together in the Great Patriotic War.
Georgians and Russians suffered together in the Gulag.
Georgians and Russians studied together in the same universities.
Georgians and Russians have married and raised families together.
Russians watched the Kartuli and Khoroumi being performed just like Georgians watched Swan Lake and The Nutcracker Suite,
with a mutual appreciation of the cultural and historical importance
and relevance of each step, each gesture, each movement, because it was
their shared culture.
In 1829, a Russian poet, Alexander
Sergeyevich Pushkin, wrote “Upon the Hills of Georgia,” following the
rejection of a marriage proposal. He joined the Russian Army, and was
sent to serve in Georgia where, in the foothills of the southern
Caucasus Mountains, along the banks of the Aragvi River, he penned this
classic verse of unfulfilled love.
Dark falls upon the hills of Georgia,
I hear Aragva’s roar.
I’m sad and light, my grief – transparent,
My sorrow is suffused with you,
With you, with you alone…My melancholy
Remains untouched and undisturbed,
And once again my heart ignites and loves
Because it can’t do otherwise.
Pushkin
knew and understood Georgia. He had read Shota Rustaveli, and from such
a foundation he was able to write a poem about unrepentant love, set in
the beauty of Georgia, as told by a man whom many have come to
recognize as representing the very soul of Russia.
Pushkin’s words
served as an inspiration for other Russian writers, such as Mikhail
Yuryevich Lermontov, another Russian officer who spent time in Georgia,
and who became known as “the poet of the Caucasus.”
My point is simply this—Russians know Georgia. Russians understand Georgia. Russians love Georgia.
The
fact of the matter is, despite all of the difficulties between Russia
and Georgia, Russia is, and forever will be, a better friend to Georgia
than America.
“Sokhumi!” “Sokhumi!” “Sokhumi!”
The
people of Georgia have allowed themselves to be seduced by the illusion
of American friendship into believing that the road to Sukhumi runs
through Washington, DC and Brussels, when all along all they had to do
was keep the road to Moscow open, and Sukhumi could be theirs again.
I
watch in sorrow as the misguided youth of Georgia chant the name of a
city they have never known and, because of their misguided actions, will
never know. And as I listen to their foolish words, I understand that,
unless Georgia changes course, my family and I, together with all of
Georgia, must bid the city we know and love farewell, because if Georgia
opens a second front against Russia, Sukhumi will be lost to us
forever.
The fall of Sukhumi to Abkhaz rebels and their allies, September 27, 1993
=================================================
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