Going Caucasian: Tbilisi Wooing White Africans

[Ray]

Going Caucasian: Tbilisi Wooing White Africans

05 March 2011
By Paul Rimple

White South African farmers may become Georgia's newest ethnic minority. In an effort to boost its agricultural potential, Georgia is wooing Boers dissatisfied with South Africa's land reform policies to come till fertile Georgian land at next-to-nothing prices. Their expertise, it is believed, can turn around a feeble agricultural sector.

Of course, not everybody agrees.

Georgia's reactionary opposition accuse the first lady, Sandra Roelofs, of lobbying on behalf of the Boer's Dutch origins, while Georgian farmers wonder why the government is offering help to foreigners instead of locals. Mariam Jorjadze, from the agricultural organization Elkana, told the BBC that although a small number of farmers could bring investment opportunities, a large influx would create tensions with local farmers.

The South African Transvaal Agricultural Union is trying to sell the idea to disgruntled Boers and thinks that as many as 1,000 South Africans could end up in Georgia. Last October, one group was given a whirlwind tour, which included grape harvesting, wine tasting, a rugby match between the farmers and Georgian officials, and a tour of the Georgian motor vehicle department in Rustavi. Interior Minister Vano Merabishvili presented each member of the delegation a personalized license plate and a Georgian international driving license, processed in a mere 10 minutes.

The news has caught the attention of white supremacist web sites like the Council for Conservative Citizens and Stormfront.org, which see this as a white South African exodus in the making, only forum commentators can't agree on whether Georgia is a white enough destination. Some note it is "Caucasian," while Russian supremacists warn of Georgia's racial and religious differences.

The ethnic differences are not lost on Georgians. Even though Georgia prides itself on its multi-ethnic makeup, an evident chauvinistic streak does exist. When Labor Party secretary Giorgi Gugava says he fears an ensuing ethnic imbalance at the possible arrival of Boers, he reflects a paranoia that is shared across party lines.

Georgia is still dragging its heels over the repartition of Meskhetian Turks, who were deported en masse in 1944. Since 1999, when Georgia agreed to repatriate its former citizens, only 1,000 have returned. Some 9,000 more have been waiting several years for their applications to be reviewed.

Nevertheless, Georgia is pinning its hopes on the Boers. Whether the Boers will come through remains to be seen because none of the 90 Afrikaners who have visited Georgia have committed themselves yet.

Paul Rimple is a journalist in Tbilisi.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opini...ian-tbilisi-wooing-white-africans/432117.html

Background of the Area

Georgia, Ossetia, Abkhazia, Adjaria...

By glazou on Monday 11 August 2008, 12:09 - General - Permalink

Ossetia, Abkhazia, Adjaria... Georgia... The Caucasus has always been a melting pot of populations, languages and religions as well as a region known for smuggling. The linguistic diversity of the Caucasus is probably something Americans cannot understand. Three valleys at walking distance can use three different languages, belonging to totally distinct linguistic groups.

Georgia (საქართველო) is also where the oldest remains of a european homo erectus have been found. 1.6 to 1.8 million years in the past...

The Georgian language is rather isolated in the world's linguistic landscape. A few theories link it to Basque, Burushashki and Na-Dené indian languages (making the Dené-Caucasian superfamily) but I must say the link with Basque and Burushashki must be extremely tiny - and extremely old - if it exists at all... Back to Georgia, the name of the most famous hotel in T'bilissi is "Iberia", named after the ancient name of the kingdom of Georgia. Does it ring a bell ? Not sure it's related to Iberians of the south-west europe though...

The first Georgian writing system (Asomtavruli) was allegedly created by Pharnabaz the 1st, first king of Georgia, in the 4th century A.C, and is now extinct.. Georgian now uses a more modern script called Mkhedruli. A third script, Khutsuri, was only used in religious writings.

Ossetians are not Georgians, they are indo-europeans. Their ancestors are the Alans, who spoke an iranian language and settled in Ossetia during the 7th century AC. North-ossetians were islamized long ago while South-ossetians joined georgian orthodox christinianity. Most of modern Ossetians are orthodox christians, while christianity is the official religion of Georgia since year 327 ! Ossetic uses the cyrillic script even if the georgian script was also used to note Ossetic. Back in the 7th century, Ossetians settled in areas that were already Karbad, Georgian or Vainakh (Chechen, Ingush, ...).

Abkhazia is another region of Georgia, at the north-west corner, along the Black Sea. Abkhazian is a very complex caucasian language, and its writing system is a modified cyrillic script. Abkhazs are christians. Their capital, Sukhumi, was founded by the Greeks... Abkhazia had a majority of caucasian (mingrelians) inhabitants with only a minority (17%) of Abkhazs before the 1993 conflict with Georgia.

Adjaria is a region of Georgia touching Turkey. Adjars were muslims until the final collapse of USSR. Then the region became a part of Georgia, making people adopt georgian christianity but a rough 30% of Adjars are still Sunni Muslims. They speak a caucasian dialect called Guruli, related to Georgian.

If you except reasons that are absolutely not political, ethnical or religious (the South-Ossetian leader is thought to be linked to the russian maffia, the Adjar leader was an autocrat dreaming of becoming a local czar), there are a few facts :

* Abkhazia, South-Ossetia and Adjaria have been georgian regions for at least two thousand years, despite of invasions, ruling empires and other religious changes,
* Adjars are ethnically and linguistically closely related to Georgians,
* Abkhaz is a caucasian language, and Abkhazia is not seeking Russia's support based on ethnical relationship,
* Ossetic is an indo-european language. South-Ossetia has always been a part of Georgia but Georgians were a minority group in South-Ossetia (30%) while Ossetians represented roughly 70% of the population. Ossetians settled in the region so long ago, and so many changes happened in the region that only the soviet division of North-Ossetia and South-Ossetia prevented Ossetians from having their own territory.

Personal conclusions:

1. Adjaria and Abkhazia will very hardly be ever recognized internationnally...
2. the conflict between South-Ossetia and Georgia is ethnic, linguistic, religious and is backed by the maffia.
3. Russia has a lot of interests in Ossetia, a rich region, and the fact Ossetians are orthodox christian indo-europeans in a very diverse Caucasus where islamic fundamentalism can find settlements is wonderful for Russia.
4. the Caucasus has always been a mess, and it's not going to change any time soon...

http://www.glazman.org/weblog/dotclear/index.php?post/2008/08/11/Georgia-Ossetia-Abkhazia-Adjaria

The key player is Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs (born December 23, 1968) who is the Dutch-First Lady of Georgia, the wife of President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili. She acquired Georgian citizenship in January 2008 and is now a dual Dutch-Georgian citizen.

She was born in Terneuzen, Netherlands.

Given the mix that represents the population of Georgia and the fact that South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Adjaria not suitably disposed to be a part of Georgia and with the drubbing Georgian Army was subjected to by the South Ossetians, it will take much to bring these breakaway provinces back into the Georgrian fold.

What makes the issue more tenuous is the fact that these breakaway regions have a backing of Russia.

It is obvious that Sandra Elisabeth Roelofs is keen to ensure that her unstable husband, President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili remains in office for a greater duration as have Georgia as a bulwark to Russia as desired by the US, which in the first place propped Saaskashvilli in office. And that is not feasible if the demographic equation is not tweaked.

What could be better for her than have her own (Dutch) proliferate amongst the Georgian population? While native Dutch may not be amenable to shift base, the racist Boers who rue the loss of the white supremacy in South Africa, proves to be the ideal Dutch to inhabit Georgia and proliferate. Being white racists, they would be more aggressive since they would not like to be displaced a second time by Russian, if the latter invades and hence would fight relentlessly.

While the idea may be ideal for Saaskashvilli and his wife, this move to import the Boers by giving them greater concessions that are not given to the locals, it will only breed resentment.

Therefore, Georgia would become a greater tinderbox that it is right now.

Maybe that would be the ideal scenario that the US and West wants wherein they can intervene and make their presence permanent.

 

[sandeepdg]

I don't think the people of Georgia will some one from an alien land come to their country and exploit them, just because the first lady comes from a similar origin as the Boers. And if this thing does take place and the situation goes out of hands, then the native population will be more violent against this group than the blacks in South Africa were, I believe.

 

[amoy]

So Georgia has a great potential to be another Poland got caught up in btwn 2 blocs - firstly btwn Nazi Germany and USSR, then Soviet Union and the West in the cold war

 

[Ray]

There is a greater game in play.

The US has a role in all this.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

There is a greater game in play.

The US has a role in all this.

I agree if Georgia wanted they could have worked with Ukranian farmers; not farmers from another continent.