ABSTRACT
Georgia discerns itself from its Transcaucasian neighbours in one main aspect: its ethnically heterogeneous population. Whereas Armenia is now basically a monoethnic state after the forced exodus of its Azeri population, Azerbaijan harbours Lezgin, Kurdish Talysh as well as Russian populations. Azeris nevertheless make up for just over 90 per cent of the country’s population. Georgians, on the other hand, compose no more than 70 per cent of the Georgian population according to the 1989 Soviet census. Moreover, the term Georgian is used to denote people speaking a Kartvelian language, including Georgian proper as well as sub-ethnic groups speaking related Kartvelian languages, such as the Mingrelians and the Svans, as well as the Muslim Georgians, the Ajars-all groups whose identity is fairly strongly Georgian but with a remaining separate and distinct identity. A narrower definition of ethnic groups-albeit a very narrow one-would hence imply an even smaller proportion of Georgians. Totally, over 80 ethnic groups are represented in Georgia, something which is nevertheless not rare in the former Soviet Union. The ethnic break-up of Georgia of 1989 is as follows:
As is clear from the table, the largest minorities in Georgia are the Armenians, the Russians, and the Azeris. These have nonetheless not been a major problem,
except for the enduring fear of disturbances among the Armenians, who live homogeneously in the Akhalkalaki district on the Armenian border-over which a war was fought in 1918 between the independent Georgian and Armenian republics. Among the Russians, a tendency toward out-migration emerged in the 1980s, very much due to the anti-Russian atmosphere in Georgia at the time. Azeris have basically remained calm; a provocation in 1989 consisting of false reports of ethnic clashes between Georgians and Azeris in southeastern Georgia almost led to a mobilization of the Georgian National Movement and a ‘march on Marneuli’ similar to the march on Tskhinvali of November of the same year. However, this was averted by calming influences within the movement and direct contacts with the Azerbaijani Popular Front.1 In recent years, sabotage activities on energy and other supplies to Armenia passing Georgian territory have been blamed on the Georgian Azeris.
