South Ossetia

South Ossetia, autonomous region of Georgia, in the north central part of the country, bordered to the north by Russia. South Ossetia covers a total area of 3,900 sq km (1,500 sq mi). The main range of the Caucasus Mountains forms the region’s northern border with the Russian republic of Alania (North Ossetia). About 90 percent of the region lies more than 1,000 m (3,280 ft) above sea level, with perpetually snow-capped mountains in the higher elevations. Mount Khalatsa is the highest peak at 3,938 m (12,920 ft). Mountain glaciers feed South Ossetia’s numerous rivers, including the Didi Liakhvi, the Ksani, and the Lekhura. These three rivers flow into Georgia’s longest river, the Kura, just south of the region. Forests of beech, hornbeam, oak, and maple cover nearly 50 percent of the republic. South Ossetia has several climactic zones, from warm and dry in the plains to severe cold in the highest elevations. Average temperatures in winter range from -2.6° to -6.5°C (27° to 20°F) and in summer from 21° to 14°C (70° to 57°F). Annual precipitation varies between about 500 and 1,000 mm (about 20 and 40 in).

South Ossetia has a population (1989) of 98,527. The capital and largest city is Ts’khinvali. At the 1989 census Ossetians (or Ossetes) constituted about 65 percent of the total population, and Georgians made up about 30 percent. During the interethnic fighting of the early 1990s, however, segments of both ethnic groups fled the region, and in early 1994 about 11,000 South Ossetians and 7,000 Georgians had not yet returned. The Ossetians are descendants of the Alans (or Alani), who are themselves descendants of the Scytho-Sarmatian tribes that lived in the vast plains of southern Russia in ancient times. In South Ossetia the Ossetians call themselves Tual, a subset of the Ir or Iron groups occupying eastern Alania. The language of the Ossetians is Ossetic, which belongs to the northwest group of the Iranian branch of Indo-Iranian languages. South Ossetians are predominantly Orthodox Christian by religion; a small minority adheres to Islam. These official religions coexist with traces of older animistic and totemic beliefs (see Animism; Totemism).

The principal economic pursuits in South Ossetia are grain cultivation, livestock raising, and dairy farming. Ossetic butter and cheese have been renowned throughout Caucasia for centuries; another Ossetic specialty is the brewing of beer. Traditional handicrafts such as clothing and utensils are also produced. Centered in Ts’khinvali, industries include lumber milling, food processing, chemicals manufacturing, and electronic engineering. In addition, the region’s rivers support a hydroelectric-power industry.

In the 9th century the Alans, the ancestors of the Ossetians, established a state in present-day Alania. Invading Mongols conquered the state in the 13th century, driving the Ossetians southward into the Caucasus Mountains and into what is now Georgia. In the late 18th century the Russian Empire annexed the northern part of Ossetia, and in 1801 the southern part was also absorbed, along with eastern Georgia. Ossetians participated in several rebellions against Russian imperial rule before serfdom was abolished in 1864. During the Russian Civil War (1918-1921), Ossetians revolted against the government of a short-lived independent Georgia, which fell to the invading Soviet Red Army in 1921. In April 1922 Ossetia was divided into north and south; the northern part was incorporated into the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (SFSR), and the southern part was designated the South Ossetian Autonomous Region within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR). In December 1922 the Georgian SSR was merged into the newly formed Transcaucasian SFSR, which was a founding member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).

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During the late 1980s Georgian nationalists renewed a movement to secede from the USSR. Ossetians within Georgia began demanding greater autonomy and expressing interest in the unification of North and South Ossetia into a single republic within Russia. Fighting broke out between local Georgians and Ossetians, and Soviet troops were dispatched to the region as a peacekeeping force. Political and ethnic tensions intensified in 1990 with the election of a nationalist Georgian government, led by Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

In September 1990 the South Ossetian Supreme Soviet (legislature) declared South Ossetia a sovereign state within the USSR. In response, the Georgian legislature abolished the region’s autonomous status and renamed it the Ts’khinvali Region. Violent clashes ensued and tens of thousands of Ossetians fled to Alania, while many Georgians fled to other parts of Georgia. The conflict in South Ossetia left an estimated 2,000 people dead and 43,000 displaced as refugees. In January 1991 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev annulled all of the declarations of the South Ossetian and Georgian legislatures. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, a joint peacekeeping force remained in place and government officials continued negotiations to bring about a political solution to the conflict.

The negotiations resulted in an armistice a few years later, but the terms of the armistice never completely satisfied the desire of most South Ossetians to either become independent or part of Russia. A separatist movement continued to be active in South Ossetia, although Russia appeared to distance itself from any support for independence, taking the position that it would not violate international law by interfering in the territorial integrity of another country.

In the intervening years and particularly with the ascension to power of Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili in 2004, Georgia grew increasingly closer to the West, particularly to the United States government, headed by President George W. Bush. Both U.S. and Israeli military advisers began training the Georgian army, and Georgia contributed the third largest military force to the U.S.-British occupation of Iraq (see U.S.-Iraq War), supplying about 2,000 soldiers to the occupying force.

When the United States and the European Union (EU) supported Kosovo’s independence from Russian ally Serbia, Russian leaders responded that if Western powers could violate Serbia’s territorial integrity, then it would reserve the right to support South Ossetia’s secession from Georgia. Complicating matters was the fact that Russia faced its own secessionist movement in Chechnya and that Georgia was seeking membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a move that Russia opposed because of its Cold War overtones.

In August 2008 South Ossetia unexpectedly became the focus of an international crisis. The crisis began when Georgian president Saakashvili launched a surprise attack on separatist forces in South Ossetia while both Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin and U.S. president Bush were in Beijing, China, for the Summer Olympics. Georgia sent a large military force into South Ossetia on August 7, reaching its capital, Ts’khinvali, where Russian peacekeepers were stationed as part of the armistice agreement. The next day Russia responded with a military invasion of South Ossetia. Casualties, especially of civilians, were reportedly heavy on both sides, and thousands of Georgians and South Ossetians fled the region. The Georgian army, however, was no match for the Russians, and it was soon routed. Fighting also spread to the breakaway region of Abkhazia, where rebel forces engaged Georgian troops in the Kodori Gorge area. Russian forces advanced beyond Abkhazia and South Ossetia, deeper into Georgia, establishing so-called buffer zones.

By week’s end a ceasefire had been arranged, due in part to the efforts of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, acting as the EU president, and Russia began withdrawing its forces from the buffer zones. However, a war of words soon escalated with U.S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and German chancellor Angela Merkel condemning Russia’s intervention as a violation of international law. Already angered by a U.S. decision to station a ballistic missile defense system in Poland, Russia’s parliament and president Dmitri A. Medvedev appeared to counter the criticism from the West by recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in late August. Medvedev also indicated that he believed the United States encouraged Georgia to break the armistice and launch its surprise military assault on South Ossetia.

The crisis soon became part of U.S. presidential politics, as well. Some political observers noted that the principal foreign policy adviser to Republican candidate John McCain had also worked as a lobbyist for the Saakashvili government, and they wondered aloud if the attack was orchestrated to play to the perceived national security strengths of Senator McCain. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama reportedly chose Senator Joseph Biden as his vice-presidential running mate in part because of Biden’s knowledge regarding the Georgia-South Ossetian conflict as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The charge of U.S. complicity and encouragement in the Georgian attack was also echoed by Russian prime minister Putin, who suggested that it might have been made to benefit one of the presidential candidates. The Georgian crisis revealed that while Russia’s Medvedev had the constitutional authority as president to act as commander-in-chief, Putin remained a powerful presence in decision-making, almost eclipsing the president of Russia.

By mid-October Russia had completed its withdrawal from the buffer zones as required by the ceasefire agreement, and civilian monitors from the EU had taken up positions in the buffer zones. Georgia demanded that ethnic Georgians be allowed to return to their homes in South Ossetia amid reports of retaliation against ethnic Georgians.

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