Article

2004-03-14 Caucasus

Tensions rising between Georgia and Ajaria

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Posted by Paul Moloney 2004-03-14 7:13:06 AM|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Ajarians= Georgian-speaking Muslims, who conveted from Orthodox Christianity under the rule of the Ottomans. No surprise, in other words.

Posted by closet neo-con 2004-3-14 12:16:32 PM|| 2004-3-14 12:16:32 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 You mean the Ajarian leadership is paid off by the Kremlin and are staying bought.

Posted by Hiryu 2004-3-14 12:55:28 PM|| 2004-3-14 12:55:28 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Adjarans (they apparently prefer dropping the "i") are indeed Muslim Georgians, but most Western sources are outdated in describing them as a majority within their own autonomous region. By all contemporary accounts, they are a substantial minority.

An anectodal example comes from "Living With Caucasians," a blog written by some American expatriates living in Tbilisi. Just a couple weeks before Shevardnadze got his pink slip, Mary Neal wrote:

When we were in Batumi, we were allowed by the very gracious imam to tour the one (1) mosque in the city of 140,000 or so. He said that on Fridays, he usually sees about 1,500 people in attendance. [edit some fairly logical demographic assumptions] ... then that would represent a population of, say, 7,500 observant Muslims. This does not constitute a majority of the population of Ajara.

And, on the Sunday when we toured Batumi, the formerly R.C. church, St. Mary's I think it was, which has been reconsecrated Orthodox, was packed. I mean packed, and it's a big church.

... I can't imagine that rural folks outnumber urbanites. Even if the rural population has a far greater proportion of Muslims, I still can't get the numbers to show that the vast majority of Ajarans are Muslim. But I keep reading this (as if it's the reason the autonomous region is autonomous, and as if it's going to stay that way forever).

As a political entity, Adjara in the here-and-now is probably best described as a mafia state, the personal fiefdom of Aslan Abashidze ... and the ball is firmly in HIS court.

Whether or not he successfully manipulates Adjaran/Muslim aspirations to further his own political survival (as, say, Slobo did with Serbian nationalism) is another question. No single overarching personality was behind the Abkhazian uprising, but I've read that ethnic Abkhazi accounted for less than a quarter of Abkhazia's pre-1992 population. Abkhazian secession was -- again -- driven largely by local ethnic Russians and other "Russophile" nationalites (other Slavs, Armenians, Pontic Greeks, etc.).

Obviously, this is all short on statistics and long on anecdotal evidence. Any 'Burgers got some stats?

Posted by Another Dan 2004-3-14 2:46:14 PM|| 2004-3-14 2:46:14 PM|| Front Page Top

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