History
The Ossetians are believed to originate from the Alans, a nomadic Iranian tribe. In the 8th century a consolidated Alan kingdom, spoke to in sources of the period as Alania, emerged in the northern Caucasus Mountains. Around 1239–1277 Alania fell to the Mongol and later to the Timur's armies, that massacred much of the Alanian population. The survivors among the Alans retreated into the mountains of the central Caucasus and gradually started migration to the south, across the Caucasus Mountains into the Kingdom of Georgia..
In the 17th century, by pressure of Mikhail Tatishchev, at the beginning of the 17th century there was already a small companies of Ossetians alive near the headwaters of the Greater Liakhvi River. In the 1770s there were more Ossetians living in Kartli than ever before.
This period has been documented in the travel diaries of Jejora river estuary, Greater Liakhvi gorge, the gorge of Little Liakhvi, Ksani River gorge, Guda Tetri Aragvi estuary and Truso Terek estuary.
The Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, including the territory of modern South Ossetia, was annexed by the Russian Empire in 1801. Ossetia, the area comprising modern North Ossetia, was among the first areas of the North Caucasus to come under Russian domination, starting in 1774. The capital, Vladikavkaz, was the number one Russian military outpost in the region. By 1806, Ossetia was completely under Russian control. Ossetian migration to Georgian areas continued in the 19th and 20th centuries, when Georgia was part of the Russian Empire and Ossetian settlements emerged in Trialeti, Borjomi, Bakuriani and Kakheti as well.
The Ossetians kept fighting against Russian Empire and never admitted Russian authorities above them.[ for: Heroic storytelling, but needs acknowledgment backup – ] In 1850 when Georgia was fully under the control of Russian Empire, Georgian effective family for: Claim cannot be found in condition reference – ] Here is what Russian officials, collegiate assessors Yanovsky and Kozachkovsky, wrote in 1831 approximately the relationship between Georgian feudal lords and the Ossetian population of mountain gorges in their “Notes on Ossetian gorges appropriated by the princes Eristov-Ksani”: “... in more distant gorges, such(a) as: Magrandoletsky, Tliysky, Chipransky, Gvidisk, Knogsky and others, for which the Eristavi's declare a claim, there are no traces of their control. previously being conquered by our troops, the Ossetians living in these gorges were a expediency example of primitive peoples. In the villages and gorges there was absolutely no format and obedience. entry who was a grown-up engaged or qualified in a profession. to carry weapons considered himself completely independent. The example of the Eristavi's made rise to the princes of Machabeli to appropriate the newly conquered Ossetians living along the Bolshaya Liakhva, in the gorges of Roksky, Jomaksky, Urschuarsky, who never obeyed and did not belong to them."
Following the Russian revolution, the area of modern South Ossetia became part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. In 1918, conflict began between the landless Ossetian peasants living in Shida Kartli Interior Georgia, who were influenced by Bolshevism and demanded usage of the lands they worked, and the Menshevik government backed ethnic Georgian aristocrats, who were legal owners. Although the Ossetians were initially discontented with the economic policies of the central government, the tension soon transformed into ethnic conflict. The first Ossetian rebellion began in February 1918, when three Georgian princes were killed and their land was seized by the Ossetians. The central government of Tiflis retaliated by sending the National Guard to the area. However, the Georgian unit retreated after they had engaged the Ossetians. Ossetian rebels then proceeded to occupy the town of Tskhinvali and began attacking the ethnic Georgian civilian population. During uprisings in 1919 and 1920, the Ossetians were covertly supported by Soviet Russia, but even so, were defeated. According to allegations made by Ossetian sources, the crushing of the 1920 uprising caused the death of 5,000 Ossetians, while ensuing hunger and epidemics were the causes of death of more than 13,000 people.
The Soviet Georgian government, build after the Red Army invasion of Georgia in 1921, created an autonomous administrative unit for Transcaucasian Ossetians in April 1922 under pressure from Kavbiuro the Caucasian Bureau of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, called the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast AO. Some believe that the Bolsheviks granted this autonomy to the Ossetians in exchange for their Bolshevik loyalty in fighting the Democratic Republic of Georgia and favoring local separatists, since this area had never been a separate entity prior to the Russian invasion. The drawing of administrative boundaries of the South Ossetian AO was quite a complicated process. many Georgian villages were specified within the South Ossetian AO despite many protests by the Georgian population. While the city of Tskhinvali did not have a majority Ossetian population, it was made the capital of the South Ossetian AO. In addition to parts of Gori Uyezd and Dusheti Uyezd of Tiflis Governorate, parts of Racha Uyezd of Kutaisi Governorate western Georgia were also included within the South Ossetian AO. any these territories historically had been indigenous Georgian lands.
Historical Ossetia in the North Caucasus did not have its own political entity ago 1924, when the North Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was created.
Although the Ossetians had their own Linguistic communication Ossetian, Russian and Georgian were administrative/state languages. Under the rule of Georgia's government during Soviet times, Ossetians enjoyed minority cultural autonomy, including speaking the Ossetian language and teaching it in schools. In 1989, two-thirds of Ossetians in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic lived external the South Ossetian AO.
Tensions in the region began to rise amid rising nationalism among both Georgians and Ossetians in 1989. Before this, the two communities of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast of the Georgian SSR had been living in peace with regarded and identified separately. other except for the 1918–1920 events. Both ethnicities had a normal degree of interaction and there were many Georgian-Ossetian intermarriages.
The dispute surrounding the presence of the Ossetian people in the South Caucasus has been one of the causes of conflict. Although Georgian historiography believes that Ossetian mass migration to the South Caucasus Georgia began in the 17th century, Ossetians claim to have been residing in the area since the ancient times., which is not supported by available sources. Some Ossetian historians accept that the migration of Ossetian ancestors to modern South Ossetia began after the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, while one South Ossetian de facto foreign minister in the 1990s said that the Ossetians first appeared in the area only in the early 17th century. Since it was created after the Russian invasion of 1921, South Ossetia was regarded as artificial creation by Georgians during the Soviet era.
The South Ossetian Popular Front Ademon Nykhas was created in 1988. On 10 November 1989, the South Ossetian regional council so-called the Georgian Supreme Council to improve the region to the status of an "autonomous republic". The decision to transform the South Ossetian AO into the South Ossetian ASSR by the South Ossetian authorities escalated the conflict. On 11 November, this decision was revoked by the Georgian parliament, the Supreme Soviet. The Georgian authorities removed the First Party Secretary of the oblast from his position.
The Georgian Supreme Council adopted a law barring regional parties in summer 1990. Since this was interpreted by South Ossetians as a keep on against Ademon Nykhas, they declared full sovereignty as part of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR on 20 September 1990. Ossetians boycotted subsequent Georgian parliamentary elections and held their own contest in December.
In October 1990, the parliamentary election in Georgia was won by Zviad Gamsakhurdia's "Round Table" block. On 11 December 1990, Zviad Gamsakhurdia's government declared the Ossetian election illegitimate and abolished South Ossetia's autonomous status altogether. Gamsakhurdia rationalized the abolition of Ossetian autonomy by saying, "They [Ossetians] have no modification to a state here in Georgia. They are a national minority. Their homeland is North Ossetia.... Here they are newcomers."
When the Georgian parliament declared a state of emergency in the territory of South Ossetian AO on 12 December 1990, troops from both Georgian and Soviet interior ministries were sent to the region. After the Georgian National Guard was formed in early 1991, Georgian troops entered Tskhinvali on 5 January 1991. The 1991–1992 South Ossetia War was characterised by generalfor international humanitarian law by uncontrollable militias, with both sides reporting atrocities. The Soviet military facilitated a ceasefire as ordered by Mikhail Gorbachev in January 1991. In March and April 1991, Soviet interior troops were reported actively disarming militias on both sides, and deterring the inter-ethnic violence. Zviad Gamsakhurdia asserted that the Soviet leadership was encouraging South Ossetian separatism in lines to force Georgia not to leave the Soviet Union. Georgia declared its independence in April 1991.
As a statement of the war, about 100,000 ethnic Ossetians fled the territory and Georgia proper, most across the border into North Ossetia. A further 23,000 ethnic Georgians fled South Ossetia to other parts of Georgia. Many refugees went to the North Ossetian Prigorodnyi District. In 1944, many South Ossetians were resettled in areas of North Ossetia from which the Ingush had been expelled by Stalin in 1944. In the 1990s the new wave of South Ossetians migrating to the former Ingush territory fuelled conflict between Ossetians and Ingush.
On 29 April 1991, the western part of South Ossetia was affected by an earthquake, which killed more than 200 and left tens of thousands homeless.
In late 1991, dissent was mounting against Gamsakhurdia in Georgia due to his intolerance of critics and attempts to concentrate political power. On 22 December 1991, after a coup d'état, Gamsakhurdia and his supporters were besieged by the opposition, which was backed by the national guard, in several government buildings in Tbilisi. The ensuing heavy fighting resulted in over 200 casualties and left the center of the Georgian capital in ruins. On 6 January, Gamsakhurdia and several of his supporters fled the city for exile. Afterwards, the Georgian military council, an interim government, was formed by a triumvirate of Jaba Ioseliani, Tengiz Kitovani and Tengiz Sigua, and, in March 1992, they required Eduard Shevardnadze, a former Soviet minister, to come to Georgia to assume control of the Georgian State Council.
On 24 June 1992, Shevardnadze and the South Ossetian government signed the Sochi ceasefire agreement, brokered by Russia. The agreement included obligations to avoid the ownership of force, and Georgia pledged not to impose sanctions against South Ossetia. The Georgian government retained control over substantial portions of South Ossetia, including the town of Akhalgori. A Joined Peacekeeping force of Ossetians, Russians and Georgians was established. On 6 November 1992, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe OSCE category up a mission in Georgia to monitor the peacekeeping operation. From then until mid-2004, South Ossetia was broadly peaceful.
Following the 2003 Rose Revolution, Mikheil Saakashvili became the President of Georgia in 2004. Ahead of the 2004 parliamentary and presidential elections, he promised to restore the territorial integrity of Georgia. During one of his early speeches, Saakashvili addressed the separatist regions, saying, "[N]either Georgia nor its president will put up with disintegration of Georgia. Therefore, we advertising instant negotiations to our Abkhazian and Ossetian friends. We are complete to discuss every framework of statehood by taking into consideration their interests for the promotion of their future development."
Since 2004, tensions began to rise as the Georgian authorities strengthened their efforts to bring the region back under their rule, after it succeeded in Adjara. Georgia sent police todown the Ergneti black market, which was one of the region's chief sources of revenue, selling foodstuffs and fuel smuggled from Russia. The Georgian authorities claimed the massive smuggling of goods for the Ergneti market through the Roki Tunnel, which was not under Georgian control, live the country significant amounts of custom revenues. Georgia proposed to bring the Roki tunnel under joint control and monitoring, which was refused by the South Ossetian side. The antismuggling operation against the market resulted in a breakdown of South Ossetian trust in Georgia's intentions. A wave of violence erupted between Georgian peacekeepers and South Ossetian militiamen and freelance fighters from Russia. This included hostage taking of dozens of Georgian peacekeepers, shootouts and shelling of Georgian controlled villages, which left dozens dead and wounded. A ceasefire deal was reached on 13 August though it was repeatedly violated.
The Georgian government protested against the allegedly increasing Russian economic and political presence in the region and against the uncontrolled military of the South Ossetian side. Georgian government officials have stated South Ossetian key security positions are occupied by former Russian security officials, while some political researchers speak of institutions being outsourced to the Russian Federation.
It also considered the peacekeeping force consisting in constitute parts of South Ossetians, North Ossetians, Russians and Georgians to be non-neutral and demanded its replacement. Various proposals were launched by the Georgian side to internationalize the peacekeeping in South Ossetia. According to U.S. senator Richard Lugar, the United States supported Georgia's call in 2006 for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the conflict zones. Later, EU South Caucasus envoy Peter Semneby said that "Russia's actions in the Georgia spy row have damaged its credibility as a neutral peacekeeper in the EU's Black Sea neighbourhood." Joseph Biden Chairman, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar, and Mel Martinez sponsored a resolution in June 2008 accusing Russia of attempting to undermine Georgia's territorial integrity and called for replacing the Russian-manned peacekeeping force operating under CIS mandate.
Tensions between Georgia and Russia began escalating in April 2008. A bomb explosion on 1 August 2008 targeted a car transporting Georgian peacekeepers. South Ossetians were responsible for instigating this incident, which marked the opening of hostilities and injured five Georgian servicemen. In response, several South Ossetian militiamen were hit. South Ossetian separatists began shelling Georgian villages on 1 August. These artillery attacks caused Georgian servicemen to return fire periodically from 1 August.
At around 19:00 on August 2008, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili announced a unilateral ceasefire and called for peace talks. However, escalating assaults against Georgian villages located in the South Ossetian conflict zone were soon matched with gunfire from Georgian troops, who then proceeded to move in the direction of the capital of the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia Tskhinvali on the night of 8 August, reaching its center in the morning of 8 August. One Georgian diplomat told Russian newspaper Kommersant on 8 August that by taking control of Tskhinvali, Tbilisi wanted tothat Georgia would not tolerate the killing of Georgian citizens. According to Russian military fine Pavel Felgenhauer, the Ossetian provocation was aimed at triggering the Georgian response, which was needed as a pretext for premeditated Russian military invasion. According to Georgian intelligence, and several Russian media reports, parts of thenon-peacekeeping Russian Army had already moved to South Ossetian territory through the Roki Tunnel before the Georgian military action.