South Ossetia says it will join North Ossetia-Alania as a federal subject of Russia
As the parliament of Georgia voted to approve closing the nation’s embassy in Moscow and severing diplomatic ties with Russia, officials in the breakaway territory of South Ossetia are stating that their ultimate goal is not independence, but to be absorbed into Russia.
Znaur Gassiyev, the speaker in the parliament of South Ossetia, said today in Tskhinvali, the capital, that the region will be annexed by Russia “in several years” or earlier. He further went on that this was the position of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and South Ossetian leader Eduard Kokoity, who met earlier this week to discuss the future of South Ossetia. Ultimately, South Ossetia would be joined with the Russian federal subject of North Ossetia-Alania.
“We will live in one united Russian state,” Tarzan Kokoiti, one of Gassiyev’s deputies, said. However, a Russian government spokesperson said there was “no official information” on the talks.
The Vice Speaker of the Georgian Parliament, Gigi Tsereteli, warned the areas, which are “autonomous republics” within Georgia, that absorption into Russia would ultimately destroy them as territorial entities.
“The regimes of Abkhazia and South Ossetia should think about the fact that if they become part of Russia, they will be assimilated and in this way they will disappear,” Tsereteli said.
On August 26, Russia voted to diplomatically recognize South Ossetia, as well as other another semi-autonomous region of Georgia, Abkhazia. So far, no other member of the United Nations has recognized these republics.
“We found ourselves in an awkward situation when a country militarily invading and occupying our country, then recognizing part of its territories, is trying to create a sense of normalcy,” Georgian Foreign Minister Ekaterine Tkeshelashvili said while in Sweden.
“Breaking off diplomatic relations with Tbilisi is not Moscow’s choice, and the responsibility lies with Tbilisi,” Andrei Nesterenko, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said.
Russia’s efforts to get other nations to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states hit a snag when the People’s Republic of China and other members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation balked at recognition.
Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela, said that he supports the recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but did not say if Venezuela formally recognises the republics.
“Russia has recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. We support Russia. Russia is right and is defending its interests,” Chavez said.
Russia and South Ossetia continue to work on an agreement to install permanent Russian military bases in the breakaway territory. The agreement is scheduled to be signed on September 2.
Russian military forces continue to occupy nominal Georgian territory in defiance of the European Union-brokered ceasefire agreement.
Backgrounder
The 2008 South Ossetia War was a land, air and sea war fought between Georgia, on one side, and the separatist regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and the Russian Federation, on the other. Ongoing occasional skirmishes escalated to a war early in the morning of 8 August 2008, with an attack by Georgia into the break-away region of South Ossetia. This was followed by a Russian invasion of Georgia, justified by Moscow as necessary due to the presence of Russian citizens within Georgian territory.
A preliminary ceasefire was signed by Georgia and Russia on 15 August 2008. The Russian military has announced a ten-day withdrawal from advance positions, while Georgian authorities have expressed discontent with the rate and extent of the pull-back, and with the continuing Russian presence in the port of Poti. The number of refugees from South Ossetia fleeing into Russia reached an estimated 30,000 of the 70,000 overall population. Meanwhile by August 18, about 68,000 ethnic Georgians had fled their homes due to the conflict.
On 26 August 2008, the Russian President formally recognised the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia denounced this move as an annexation of its territory. The unilateral recognition by Russia was met by condemnation from some members of the international community and other members of United Nations, NATO, OSCE, European Council due to alleged violation of Georgia’s territorial integrity, United Nations numerous resolutions and the international law. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation issued a joint statement voicing support for Russia’s “active role” in “assisting in peace and cooperation in the region” without explicitly backing Russia’s recognition policy. On August 29, Human Rights Watch published a report showing satellite images released by the UN program UNOSAT, said to indicate that widespread torching of ethnic Georgian villages inside South Ossetia has been carried out by Russian and Ossetian militias.
South Ossetian interests
The Ossetians are a distinct Iranian ethnic group whose origin lies along the Don River. They came to the Caucasus after they were driven out of their homeland by Mongol invasions in the 13th century. Some of them settled in the territory now known as North Ossetia-Alania (currently part of Russia), and South Ossetia (currently part of Georgia).
South Ossetia currently has a Georgian ethnic minority of around one fifth (14,000) of the total population (70,000). The region, which is one and a half times the area of Luxembourg (roughly 6% of the total territory of Georgia) broke away from Georgia in the 1991–1992 war (in which more than 2,000 people are believed to have died). The BBC suggests that the South Ossetians wanted their ‘Ossetian’ ethnic group identity retained and did not want to become citizens of Georgia. A force with 500 troops each from Russia, North Ossetia-Alania (part of Russia), South Ossetia and Georgia monitored a 1992 truce. In a South Ossetian independence referendum, 2006, held by the secessionist government, full independence was supported by 99% of the voters. A simultaneous alternative referendum held by the pro-Georgian group People of South Ossetia for Peace (or Salvation Union of Ossetians) favored closer ties with Georgia.
Georgian interests
Georgia accuses Russia of the annexation of its internationally recognized territory and installing a puppet government led by Eduard Kokoity and several officials who previously served in the Russian FSB and Army. Sporadic clashes between separatist and Georgian forces have killed dozens of people in the previous few years.
Restoring South Ossetia and Abkhazia (a region with a similar separatist movement) to Georgian control has been a goal of Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili since the Rose Revolution. Saakashvili proposed a new peace accord, under which South Ossetia would be given “a large degree of autonomy” within a federal state, but leaders of those areas are instead demanding full independence. Another point of interest for Georgia is the strategic position of South Ossetia along the border with Russia, as the Roki Tunnel, which passes through the Greater Caucasus Mountains, is one of few road routes between Georgia and Russia and would be a critical component in any plan to control the border.
According to the 2007 report of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Georgia had the highest average growth rate of military spending in the world. Military expenditures accounted for 5.6-6 per cent of GDP in the last two years. South Ossetian leadership expressed its concerns with Georgia’s military build-up however Tbilisi claimed that it was not aimed at the breakaway states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. MP Givi Targamadze attributed this to the country’s desire to join NATO. According to the 2008 budget of Georgia defence funding accounted for slightly over 19% of all state spending, with a further significant increase approved in an extraordinary parliament session on July 15.
Russian interests
The majority of the residents of South Ossetia are Russian citizens holding Russian passports. According to the BBC, “more than half of South Ossetia’s 70,000 citizens are said to have taken up Moscow’s offer of a Russian passport,” while a journalist of Deutsche Welle says that “almost all residents have Russian passports.” Russian President Medvedev asserts that 90% of South Ossetia residents possess them. Medvedev cited article 80 the Constitution of the Russian Federation, saying, “According to the Constitution, I must protect the life and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are.”
Since the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War, Russian, Georgian, North Ossetian and South Ossetian soldiers have been stationed in and around South Ossetia as peacekeepers under the terms of a 1992 agreement and were monitored by the OSCE mission in Georgia. The Russian defense ministry said 12 of its peacekeeping troops in South Ossetia had been killed and 30 wounded in the initial Georgian offensive. Russia describes its intervention as a peacekeeping operation to protect its citizens and peacekeepers, and to enforce their peacekeeping mandate in South Ossetia. Dmitry Medvedev said that it aims to force Georgia to accept peace and restore the status quo, and that it is acting within its peacekeeping mission in South Ossetia, and in line with the mandate issued by the international community. The Russian defense ministry said reinforcements for Russian peacekeepers had been sent to South Ossetia “to help end bloodshed.”
Reuters describes the South Ossetian separatist government as “dependent on Russia,” which “supplies two thirds of their annual budget,” and reports that “Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom is building new gas pipelines and infrastructure” worth hundreds of millions of dollars there.
According the UK The Daily Telegraph, in 2007 Vladimir Putin announced plans for a $200 billion arms program over the next seven years for the financing of new, modern weapons and ordered military chiefs to ’strengthen the battle-readiness of the army and navy’. Russia’s defense budget rose 22% in 2007.
NATO’s interests
NATO members have in the past disagreed whether to enlarge the alliance further eastwards to include Georgia. To build up a case, Georgia conducted in 2008 a Georgian NATO membership referendum, 2008. It was a non-binding, advisory referendum on whether to join NATO and was held in Georgia on January 5, 2008, at the request of the Georgian President, together with an early presidential election and legislative election date referendum. This was announced in a surprise move on November 26, 2007, shortly before Mikheil Saakashvili resigned as President of Georgia for the early presidential elections. The only question of the referendum asked: “Do you want Georgia to become a member of NATO?” According to the official results of Georgia’s Central Election Commission, 77% of voters were in favor, and 23% voted against it.
However, at the 2008 Bucharest summit, to the great disappointment of Georgia, the alliance did not offer a Membership Action Plan(MAP) to Georgia or Ukraine, largely due to the opposition of Germany, France and other European NATO-members who pointed out that Georgia’s territorial integrity was de facto not enforced (namely in Abkhazia and South-Ossetia). However, NATO pledged to review the decision in December 2008. Even though Georgia was not offered a MAP, it officially welcomed the decision and said “The decision to accept that we are going forward to an adhesion to NATO was taken and we consider this is a historic success”.[25] Russian President Putin was also pleased about the alliance deciding not to invite Georgia and Ukraine to the Membership Action Plan at least for the time being.
When Georgia started the 2008 South Ossetia war, she seems to have provided ammunition both to the Franco-German argument, that Georgia solve its minority problems in the two provinces peacefully and prior to any NATO application, and, to the US arguments in favour of a speedy accession of Georgia. It complicates NATO’s relation with Russia, which has peacekeeping troops in both regions, which are internationally recognized as Georgian territory, but which seem to have no intention to be integrated into Georgia proper. The South Ossetia War has further diminished the likelihood of Georgian accession to NATO in the near future.
However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said during the meeting with Russian president that the promise made to Georgia in Bucharest is still standing. However, she did not indicate a time frame, nor did she take back the earlier insistence of Germany and France, that Georgia must resolve its internal problems prior to any NATO membership The USA and Europe (EU) support the territorial integrity of Georgia, while Russia supports self-determination of the two provinces.
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