Georgia: Back to Christiandom and hot action...almost

My arrival from Baku was preceded by political protests that culminated in the use of truncheons, tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons by Georgian police, shutdown opposition media, and declared a state of emergency to stamp-out the protests. While the protests were ostensibly a demand for economic reforms, early elections and the ouster of US ally President Mikhail Saakashvili, the Georgian government claims that they were instigated by Russia, and the Georgian Foreign Ministry expelled several members of the Russian Embassy's staff, declaring them persona non grata on grounds of stirring social unrest and forced the early withdrawal of Russian troops from Batumi.


In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry expelled three Georgian diplomats, citing Georgia's "unfriendly actions." Following the incident, Saakashvili replaced the Prime Minister and advanced Georgia's national elections to January 5, but the violent crackdown, which apparently left hundreds injured, damaged Saakashvili's domestic support and international standing, and hurt the former Soviet Republic's bid to join NATO.


It was a pity that I arrived in Tbilisi via Baku just one day after the state of emergency had been lifted, and now, there is no noticeable evidence that anything out of the ordinary happened here. I was in Turkmenistan when the protests began, and facing the isolation of a travel-imposed news blackout, it was announced to me by our tour guide, a huge Russian and a nine-year veteran of the Soviet Army. He attempted to present the news off-handedly but his excitement was evident, "You know, I was watching the news today, and they are having a revolution in Georgia. They're protesting because of the bad economy. The president there, Saakashvili, he's crazy." When our guide was pressed for 'why crazy,' he remarked, "He is severing Georgia's relationship with Russia, which has been more than 100 years." Of course, in Turkmenistan, all of the western media was blocked and while the block wasn't entirely comprehensive, being in a country that collects passports at internet cafés and is rumored to log the passwords of users, I didn't probe the story too deeply. After the November 7 crackdown, our guide again commented, "Saakashvili has proven that he is nothing but another bloody Kavkaz autocrat!"


Here in Tbilisi, I have casually spoken about it with some locals who are unhappy with what happened, and suggest that the US is responsible for exerting too much influence in Georgia's affairs and thus partly responsible for Saakashvili's heavy hand. Of course, there is an element of petropolitics at play here, as Georgia is a key link in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which among other things is designed to free Europe from the choke-hold of dependence on Russian energy resources. Given Russia's history of abusing its status as an energy supplier (see here, here, and here) as a blunt tool of geopolitics, it is obviously desirable for Europe to have other options and resist Russia's bullying tactics. As Robert Amsterdam writes, "the increased state control over natural resources is inspiring men like Putin and Chavez to reject and denounce the open nature of the global economic structure and seek to build a 'new architecture' that cherishes rent seeking and opacity, and at least tolerates corruption and autocracy."


Signed by the government of Azerbaijan with a consortium of 10 western oil companies (AIOC) in 1994 and christened as the "Deal of the Century", the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline was initially intended to deliver oil (and eventually gas) to Europe from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil field via Baku and Tbilisi, terminating in the Mediterranean Turkish port of Ceyhan, thus obviating Russia. Of course, Russia does not like the BTC pipeline or Georgia's alignment with the West, which promises possible accession to NATO and the EU. Russia has responded to Georgia's westward shift by attempting to derail the BTC project and instigating unrest in Georgia that included peeling away the provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia. There is also an argument that the pipeline provided partial impetus for the second Chechen war, allowing Russia to maintain active troops at the border of its southern neighbor, while Chechen rebels were known to hideout in the Pankisi Gorge, across Georgia's northern border.

In any event, that's the backgrounder on the hot action I just missed, and now, I am trying to figure out something to do that does not include touring religious buildings.

Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline image is courtesy of WikiMedia Commons.