The South Ossetian Conflict
South Ossetia is a mountainous region in Georgia. North Ossetia falls in Russia. South Ossetian ethnics speak a language remotely related to Farsi and the Georgians population in the area is less than one-third of the area population. Traditionally, the Ossetians have had good relations with Russians.
The current armed conflict between South Ossetia and Georgia can be traced to 1920, when South Ossetian’s attempted to declare independence from Georgia as a Soviet Republic. Following the 1921 Soviet invasion of Georgia, the Soviet Government declared South Ossetia to be an autonomous oblast within Georgia in April 1922.
Soviets granted South Ossetians a certain degree of autonomy over matters of language and education in their territory. Meanwhile the nationalist groups in Georgia were beginning to accumulate support, leading to renewed South Ossetian-Georgian tensions.
The South Ossetian Popular Front was started in 1988 in response to increasing nationalist sentiments in Georgia. In 1989, the Popular Front came to power in South Ossetia. On November 10, 1989, South Ossetian Popular Front demanded that the “oblast” be made an autonomous republic. The Georgian Government rejection lead to protests and demonstrations on both sides.
The South Ossetian declaration of independence from Georgia in September of 1990. In December Georgia abolished South Ossetia’s status as an autonomous oblast and declared a state of emergency in the region.
Armed conflict began in January of 1991 and continued until June of 1992. At that point, a the Sochi Agreement for cease-fire was arrived upon by Russia, Georgia, and South Ossetia. Georgia had declared independence in April of 1991.
The June 24, 1992, Sochi Agreement established defined a zone of conflict around the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali and a security corridor along the border of South Ossetian territories. The Agreement also created the Joint Control Commission (JCC), and a peacekeeping body, the Joint Peacekeeping Forces group (JPKF). The JCC was charged with demilitarizing the security zone in the conflict region and facilitating negotiations; it is Co-Chaired by Georgian, Russian, South Ossetian, and North Ossetian representatives. The JPKF is under Russian command and is comprised of peacekeepers from Georgia, Russia, and Russia’s North Ossetian autonomous republic. The North Ossetians were involved as the separatist South Ossetian government remained unrecognized. Elements of South Ossetian peacekeepers, serve in the North Ossetian contingent. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) agreed to monitor the ceasefire and facilitate negotiations.
Recent Developments
The Sochi Agreement held true into 2004 till the new Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, expressed a renewed interest in reintegrating Georgia’s separatist regions. The Georgian Government placed a special emphasis on the regulation and monitoring of trade within and through South Ossetia, closing down a particularly large South Ossetian market which had been used for unregulated trade. South Ossetian forces in retaliation closed the highways and detaining Georgian troops within South Ossetian borders. The situation escalated, and there were exchanges of mortar fire in late July and August 2004.
The South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity met in November of 2004 with Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania. At the meeting, both sides expressed concern at the violence and reaffirmed their interest in a peaceful resolution, before reaching a series of agreements designed to strengthen relations between the two sides and to demilitarize the zone of conflict.
Georgian President Saakashvili in September 2004, proposed for autonomous status for South Ossetia within Georgia in the United Nations. However, with the de facto authorities in Tskhinvali expressing little interest in the proposal, the Georgian Government gradually turned its attention to a parallel de facto administration emerging under the leadership of Dmitri Sanakoyev, an ethnic Ossetian who advocated the pursuit of South Ossetian autonomy within the state of Georgia. In April 2007, this parallel administration received formal Georgian backing and was transformed into the Provisional Administrative Unit for South Ossetia, with its base of operations in Kurta, South Ossetia.
Most South Ossetian’s hold Russian passport and most trade happens in Russian currency.