SOVYET MİLLİYET POLİTİKASI: ABHAZYA VE GÜNEY OSETYA'DAKİ ETNİK ÇATIŞMA ÜZERİNDEKİ ETKİSİ

Bu çalışmanın amacı, Gürcistan’daki etnik çatışmayla ilgili birbiriyle bağlantılı iki soruyu cevaplamaktır.1990’ların başlarında, Gürcistan’daki iki etnik grup Gürcistan ortak çatısı altında yaşamak yerine, “neden” ve“nasıl” ayrılıkçı siyaset izlemiş ve bunun sonunda merkezi yönetimle kanlı etnik çatışmalara girişerekbağımsızlıklarını tek taraflı ilan etmişlerdir? Bu çalışmanın ana savı, Sovyetlerin milletler sorununu çözmek içingeliştirdikleri “Sovyet milliyet politikası”nın Gürcistan’daki etnik grup olma bilinci oluşturan ve buna paralelolarak etnik çatışmaya zemin hazırlayan temel ve başlıca tetikleyici araçlardan biri olduğunu ispatlamaktır. Buminvalde, Abhazların ve Güney Osetlerin giriştikleri siyasi statü mücadelesi, Lenin yönetimiyle başlayıp Gorbachev yönetimine kadar değişiklik geçirip evrilen Sovyet millet politikası azınlık gruplarına kendi etnik kimliklerini,dillerini ve kültürlerini geliştirecek, daha da önemlisi kendi kendini yönetme ve ulus olma bilinci kazandıracak ayrıcalıklar tanımıştır. Sovyet millet politikası ve Sovyet federal yapısının doğal sonucu olarak birçok etnik vebölgesel temelli özerk yönetim yapıları oluşturulmuş, Sovyetler zamanı boyunca bu özerk yapılar kendilerine aitsiyasi kurumlarını, ulusal aydın sınıflarını ve bürokratik elitlerini oluşturup geliştirmiş, daha sonra bu sınıflarmilliyetçi hareketleri şekillendirmiş ve bunun doğal sonucu olarak da kendi kendini yönetme isteği ve tambağımsızlık arzusu gelişmiştir. Bunların akabinde, Sovyet sonrası dönemde Gürcistan’daki etnik çatışmalarkaçınılmaz olmuştur.

SOVIET NATIONALITY POLICY: IMPACT ON ETHNIC CONFLICT INABKHAZIA AND SOUTH OSSETIA

This study aims to answer two interlinked questions with respect to ethnic conflict in Georgia: (1) Why and howtwo ethnic groups -the Abkhazians and Ossetians- sought secession in the 1990s rather than accepting unityunder a common Georgian roof? (2) what explains the occurrence of ethnic conflicts between the Abkhazians andGeorgians and between the South Ossetians and Georgians? The central argument of this paper is that Sovietnationality policy was a foremost driving force in shaping consciousness of being ethnic groups in Georgia and setthe stage for the inter-ethnic conflicts of the post-Soviet era. A number of factors explain the particular inter ethnic conflicts in Georgia among ethnic groups, including a long historical relationship between the Georgianpeople and the Abkhaz and Ossetian minorities. However, I argue that the foremost factor was the role of Sovietnationality policy that evolved from Lenin to Gorbachev, a policy that granted ethnic groups some level ofprivileges and fostered a wave of national self-assertion, Soviet nationality policy and the Soviet federal structurecreated numerous ethnic- and territorial-based autonomous units during the Soviet era. These units shaped theirown political institutions, national intelligentsias, and bureaucratic elites, forming the basis for later nationalisticmovements and developing a wish for self-determination and full independence. These institutions and beliefsmade ethnic conflict in post-Soviet Georgia inevitable.

PDF

___

BREMMER, I. (1993). “Reassessing Soviet Nationalities Theory”. Nations and Politics in the Soviet Successor States: 3-26.
BRUBAKER, R. (1998). “Myths and Misconceptions in the Study of Nationalism”. (ed. J. A. Hall). The State of the Nation: Ernest Gellner and the Theory of Nationalism. Cambridge University Press: 272-306.
CORNELL, S. E. (2001). Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus. United Kingdom: RoutledgeCurzon.
CORNELL, S. E. (2002). “Autonomy as a Source of Conflict: Caucasian Conflicts in Theoretical Perspective”. World Politics. LIV/2: 245-276.
COTTER, J. M. (1999). “Cultural Security Dilemmas and Ethnic Conflict in Georgia”. Journal of Conflict Studies. XIX/1: 1-27.
FOWKES, B. (2002). Ethnicity and Ethnic Conflict in the Post-Communist World. New York: Palgrave. GAYAN, M. (2004). “Gorbachev's Reforms and the Beginning of a New History in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic”. Ab Imperio. 4: 419-432.
GELLNER, E. (1983). Nations and Nationalism. Paris: Payot.
HAMMER, P. D. (1997). “Russia Irredenta: Soviet Nationality Policy Reappraised”. The National Council for Soviet and East European Research.
LAK’OBA, S. (1998). “History: 18th Century-1917”. The Abkhazians: A Handbook. (ed. G. Hewitt, 2013). London and New York: Routledge: 67-88.
LAPIDUS, G. W. (1984). “Ethnonationalism and Political Stability: The Soviet Case”. World Politics. XXXVI/4: 555-580.
LENIN, V. I. (1974). V. I. Lenin Collected Works Volume 23 August 1916 - March 1917. (trans. by M. S. Levin - Joe Fineberg). Moscow: Progress.
MARTIN, T. D. (2001). The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. USA: Cornell University Press.
NILSSON, N. - J. POPJANEVSKI (2009). State Building Dilemmas: The Process of National Integration in Post-Revolutionary Georgia: 7-44.
NODIA, G. - Á. P. SCHOLTBACH (2006). The Political Landscape of Georgia: Political Parties: Achievements, Challenges and Prospects. Eburon Uitgeverij BV.
PARSONS, J. W. R. (1982). “National Integration in Soviet Georgia”. Soviet Studies. XXXIV/4: 547-569.
SAMMUT, D., - N. DVETKOVSKI (1996). “The Georgia-South Ossetia Conflict”. Verification Technology Information Centre: London.
SLIDER, D. (1985). “Crisis and Response in Soviet Nationality Policy: The Case of Abkhazia”. Central Asian Survey. IV/4: 51-68.
SLIDER, D (1997). "Democratization in Georgia". Conflict, Cleavage and Change in Central Asia and the Caucasus. (eds. Karen Dawisha - Bruce Parrott). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 156-198.
SUNY, R. (1993). The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union. California: Stanford University Press.
SUNY, R. G. (1994). The Making of the Georgian Nation. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press.
SUNY, R. G. - T. MARTIN (2001). A State of Nations: Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin. New York: Oxford University Press.
SOULEIMANOV, E. (2013). Understanding Ethnopolitical Conflict: Karabakh, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia Wars Reconsidered. New York: Springer.
VOLKAN, V. (2006). Killing in the Name of Identity: A Study of Bloody Conflicts. Virginia: Pitchstone Publishing.
YALÇIN, M. Y. (1996). Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict: A Case in Moscow's Nationality Policy. Ankara: Bilkent University (Doctoral Dissertation).
ZURCHER, C. (2007). The Post-Soviet Wars: Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus. New York and Londo: NYU Press.
LAPIDUS, G. W. (1989). “Gorbachev's Nationalities Problem”. Foreign Aff., 68, 92. Access Date: 09.10.2018. https://search.proquest.com/docview/1290260288/fulltextPDF/D40604CB129F4 F02PQ/1?accountid=14745
LENIN, V. I. (1977). “The Right of Nations to Self-Determination: Selected Writings”. Westport, Conn. Greenwood Press. c1951. Access Date: 15.10.2018. http://ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct =true&db=cat00847a&AN=usflc.024118361&site=eds-live.