ABSTRACT
Georgia with its five million inhabitants (two thirds of which are Georgians) borders in the north to Russia (Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Chechnya and Dagestan) and in the south to Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan. Georgia is very old, and it has an alphabet of its own (since the fifth century). Georgia was split up in the sixth century, united in the twelfth century, conquered by the Mongols in the thirteenth century, then falling apart and dominated by Turkey and Persia. Georgian princes sought Russian protection and Russia occupied Georgia in the first half of the nineteenth century. The Caucasus has been both a battlefield (between Persia and Turkey) and a buffer zone (Jackson 2003: 116). Self-determination was regained in 1918, ending with the invasion by the Red Army in 1921, and joining Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Transcaucasus Republic of the USSR in 1922, becoming a Soviet Republic in 1936.
