Abstract

The demise of the two federal communist states, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, was the major cause of the appearance of a new kind of state entity, unheard of since the end of feudalism in Europe. While the 15 Union Republics of the Soviet Union became independent from the old center (Moscow) as well as detached from each other, some ethnically different or mixed parts of the newly independent republics, deprived of federal protection, felt uncomfortable within the new framework and emerged as separate or detached entities. It should be remembered that this separatist movement predates the disintegration of the Soviet Union and is parallel to Gorbachev's ‘perestroika’. In the Trans-Caucasus, the separatist forces within the republics began to act as soon as Moscow loosened its grip and the national republics began to assert themselves. The half-hearted and limited use of force by Moscow in order to prevent the disintegration of the Soviet Empire (in Baku, Tbilisi, Vilnius) succeeded no better than attempts by individual republics to stop separatism within their own borders. Georgia and Azerbaijan were most affected, with several ‘quasi-states’ appearing within their borders: Nagorno-Karabagh in Azerbaijan, Abkhazia and Ossetia in Georgia. With the direct support of the Armenian republic and covert Russian assistance, the Armenian majority in the former Nagorno-Karabagh Autonomous Region split from Azerbaijan, expelled the Azeri minority, occupied a substantial chunk of Azeri territory, and created a ‘state’ of its own. The Abkhazian minority (less than one-fifth of the total population), with Russian assistance, split Abkhazia from Georgia, expelled the Georgian majority, and established its own ‘state’. South Ossetia declared itself a ‘sovereign republic’, while Adjaria and parts of Georgia proper became practically independent from Tbilisi. Political mistakes and chauvinist acts on the part of the Azeri and Georgian Popular Front governments that initially came to power contributed to local separatism.