Keeping the Good Status Quo

Op-Ed

Every so often, I hear that the Government of Georgia is not even lifting a finger to move its territorial conflicts from their abominable dead end. Wrong! And here's why: In the wake of the dismantlement of the infamous Soviet Empire, Georgia, due to certain unfavorable circumstances, suffered a severe loss in historical territories, actually, losing one third of its entire landmass. Today, this loss has that dry, formal geopolitical qualification of ‘frozen conflict’.

For the unconcerned international community, it is perfectly frozen, while for all of us here in Georgia, it’s as hot as can be. We have two of them: Abkhazia and so called South Ossetia. ‘So called’ because, for Georgians, it is not Ossetia – neither north nor south. It is Samachablo. That is what this piece of Georgian land was called before the Soviet power overwhelmed the country.

Those two runaway territories continue their wretched existence under the Russian protectorate but without international recognition. In a nutshell, the de facto leaders of Abkhazia and South Ossetia want independence; the Georgian government wants the temporarily lost territories back as soon as possible, something which seems impossible to achieve at this time while the current Russian administration is so supportive of the illegitimate causes of the weakened and exhausted separatists, and not to the liking of the international family of nations. At the same time, the West wants to live a calm, idyllic life without separatist headaches which is quite feasible with the help of ‘frozen conflicts’.

So, what’s happening in the meantime with the current leadership of Georgia? It’s in limbo, doing very little to alter the picture except by restrained participation in hardly functional international geopolitical formats to work on the resolution of the conflicts with affordable moderation.

To answer the question about the attitude of the Georgian government, we might need to consider several hypothetical developments for the situation. First: Let flimsy little Georgia go to war with strong and spacious Russia and fight for the return of the lost lands to the last drop of the Georgian patriotic blood; if needed, let the Georgian people leave their homes and families and take to the woods for guerilla actions to have the Russians eat their humble pie, thus liberating our escapee relatives from the Russian yoke. Would this be possible? I don’t think so: no resources, no power, no will, no readiness and no desire! Second: Let us go down on our knees and crawl from Tbilisi to Moscow, crying and eating out our bleeding hearts while beseeching Russia to give us a friendly hand and take back all Georgia, including the lost territories, so that we may continue the erstwhile slavery – us the slaves and them the slave-drivers – for the price of getting back our Abkhazian and Ossetian brothers and sisters. Would this work? Probably not, because our new cousin the West will likely get angry and drop all that comprehensive assistance keeping us alive and kicking right now, leaving us to the mercy of the returned big brother bear and without a chance of ever seeing NATO or the EU. How about the third version: trying not to upset the apple-cart, at least for the time being? This seems to be the most optimal behavioral paradigm for Georgia, which feels quite at a loss and unclear in which direction to turn. So, let us keep the West happy with our tolerance and patience; let us not refuse the minimum subsistence it provides us; try to present ourselves as an A-student; let time pass and see what the future has in store for us; do not make unnecessary waves; maintain the cherished internal tranquility and let the tired people of Georgia do their affordable best to survive peacefully.

To recap, if this government is doing all that makes life tolerable, let them do it and let’s leave them alone, giving preference to bad peace compared to good war. Why don’t we call it a good status quo which this government is maintaining wisely enough to have a positive effect on us all? Sooner or later, things will change anyway, and what we have today looks much better than what we had in the very recent past.

Nugzar B. Ruhadze