Autonomy and Conflict Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Cases in Georgia Svante E. Cornell Uppsala 2002 Aey Charkhe Falak Kharabi Az Keena-e- Tu Ast Bedadgari Shiva-e Dereena Tu Ast Aey Khak Agar Seena-e Tu Bishi-kafand Bass Gohar-e Qeemati Ka Dar Seena-e Tu Ast Circling heaven, this decay is your ill-will Cruelty, your attribute so perennial O earth! If they cleave your chest In your bosom you hide a precious jewel! Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam (ca. 1048-1131) Translation by Dr. Imtiaz Kazi, 2000 Dissertation for the Degree of Doctor in Philosophy in Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University in 2002 ABSTRACT Cornell, Svante E.: Autonomy and Conflict: Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Cases in Georgia. Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Report No. 61. 258 pp. Uppsala. ISBN 91-506-1600-5. Providing minority populations with autonomy is gaining appreciation as a method of solving, managing, and even pre-empting ethnic conflict. However, in spite of the enthusiasm for autonomy solutions among academics and practitioners alike, there is reason to argue that the provision of autonomy for a minority may under certain circumstances increase rather than decrease the likelihood of conflict. In certain political conditions, autonomy strengthens the separate identity of a minority; it thereby increases its incentives to collective action against the state; and most of all its capacity to seek separation from the central state, through the state-like institutions that autonomy entails. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate whether territorial autonomy was a contributing factor to the violent ethnic conflicts that have erupted in the South Caucasus since the late 1980s. It presents a theoretical argument to explain which qualities of autonomy solutions increase the likelihood of conflict; and then seeks to outline possible rival explanations derived from the theoretical literature. The dissertation then examines the explanatory value of autonomy as compared to nine other possible causal factors in a study of nine minorities in the South Caucasus. Finding that autonomy has the highest explanatory value of any of the factors under study, it then moves on to study in depth the five minorities existing on the territory of the republic of Georgia. Three of them, Abkhazia, Ajaria, and South Ossetia, were autonomous, whereas two (the Armenians and Azeris in Southern Georgia) had no autonomous status. The dissertation shows how the institution of autonomy, by promoting an ethnic elite in control of state-like institutions, and by enhancing factors such as leadership, economic viability, and external support, played a crucial together with these factors in the escalation to conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, whereas the absence of autonomy mitigated conflict in Javaheti’s Armenian and Kvemo Kartli’s Azeri populations. Keywords: Autonomy, Caucasus, Ethnopolitical Conflict, Georgia (Republic), Ethnic Relations, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Javakheti, Ajaria, Kvemo Kartli Svante E. Cornell, Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Box 514, SE- 75120 Uppsala, Sweden © Svante E. Cornell 2002 ISSN 0566-8808 ISBN 91-506-1600-5 Printed in Sweden by Elanders Gotab, Stockholm 2002 Distributed by the Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University, Box 514, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden Phone +46 18 471 00 00 Fax. + 46 18 69 51 02 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.pcr.uu.se Autonomy and Conflict Ethnoterritoriality and Separatism in the South Caucasus – Cases in Georgia Contents Acknowledgments......................................................................................... vii Maps............................................................................................................... ix The Role of Autonomy for Violent Conflict .....................................................1 1.1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 2 1.2. Autonomy: General Perceptions............................................................................................ 5 1.3. Theoretical Aspects on Autonomy ........................................................................................ 8 1.4. Autonomy and Secessionism ................................................................................................15 1.5. Conclusions .............................................................................................................................19 The Roots of Ethnopolitical Conflict............................................................. 21 2.1. General Research on Ethnopolitical Conflict ....................................................................22 2.2. The Categories of Factors: Underlying Factors versus Catalyzers ..................................25 2.3. Background Factors or Permissive Conditions of Ethnic Conflict.................................27 2.4. Catalyzing Factors or ‘Triggers’ of Ethnic Conflict...........................................................52 2.5. Conclusions .............................................................................................................................58 Communism and Nationalism: Ethnicity in the Soviet Context.................. 61 3.1. The National Question in Marxist Writing.........................................................................62 3.2. Leninist Nationality Theory: Reconciling Communism with Nationalism ....................64 3.3. Leninism in Practice: Korenizatsiia.........................................................................................68 3.4. Stalinism and the National Question...................................................................................77 3.5. The National Question after Stalin......................................................................................83 3.6. The Last Years: from Andropov to Gorbachev ................................................................88 3.7. Conclusions .............................................................................................................................89 Research Design ............................................................................................ 91 4.1. Definitions...............................................................................................................................92 4.2. Causal Effect and Causal Mechanism..................................................................................93 4.3. The “Degrees of Freedom” Problem ..................................................................................95 4.4. Mill’s Method of Difference and Multiple Causality .........................................................96 4.5. Process Tracing.......................................................................................................................99 4.6. Case Selection .........................................................................................................................99 4.7. Sources...................................................................................................................................100 Factors in Ethnopolitical Conflict in the South Caucasus.......................... 103 5.1. Ethnic Groups in the South Caucasus ..............................................................................103 5.2. Factors in Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus .........................................................110 5.3. Summary of the Findings ....................................................................................................124 5.4. Conclusions ...........................................................................................................................127 Political Development in Georgia................................................................ 129 6.1. Georgian Identity and History............................................................................................129 6.2. The First World War and the Russian Revolution ..........................................................136 6.3. The Rise and Fall of the First Georgian Republic...........................................................139 6.4. Soviet Georgia.......................................................................................................................142 6.5. The Georgian National Revival..........................................................................................149 6.6. Independence and Civil War...............................................................................................163 6.7. Picking Up the Pieces ..........................................................................................................170 Explaining Ethnopolitical Conflict.............................................................. 173 7.1. Abkhazia: the Impossible Happening................................................................................173 7.2. South Ossetia: the Power of a Parliament ........................................................................186 7.3. Javakheti Armenians: A Narrow Escape?.........................................................................196 7.4.Azeris of Kvemo Kartli: the Silent Mass............................................................................209 7.5. Ajaria: Regionalism Enforced.............................................................................................214