Caucasia: Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan

Caucasia is located around the rugged spine of the Caucasus Mountains, which stretch from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea. (The language map in Figure 5.31 serves as the map for this subregion.) Culturally and physically, this region includes a piece of the Russian Federation on the northern flank of the mountains as well as the three independent states of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, which occupy the southern flank of the mountains in what is known as Transcaucasia. Transcaucasia is a band of subtropical intermountain valleys and high volcanic plateaus that drop to low coastal plains near the Black and Caspian seas (see Figure 5.1).

In this mountainous space the size of California, live more than 50 ethnic groups—Armenians, Chechens, Ossetians, Karachays, Abkhazians, Georgians, and Tatars, to name but a few—most speaking separate languages (Figure 5.31). The groups vary widely in size, from a few hundred (for example, the Ginukh in Dagestan) to more than 6 million (the Turkic Azerbaijanis). Some are Orthodox Christians, many are Muslims, some are Jews, and some retain ancient elements of local animistic religions. All these groups, including Chechens and others who live in Russian Caucasia (see Figure 5.31; see also the discussion on political conflict in Caucasia), are remnants of ancient migrations. For thousands of years, Caucasia was a stopping point for nomadic peoples moving between the Central Asian steppes, the Mediterranean, and Europe. Other ethnic enclaves were created more recently by the Soviet-instigated relocation and then return of minorities (the Tatars and Chechens, for example). The region’s history as a global meeting place, together with the mountainous topography that has fostered isolated self-reliance, has resulted in the ethnolinguistic patchwork that is Caucasia. Today, many Caucasians maintain ties to Europe, Russia, and North America, where hundreds of thousands of emigrants from the region live. The trend of emigration intensified after the Communist era, which has led to the depletion of an able-bodied workforce and brain drain; but it has also had some positive effects, as those living abroad have sent remittances back to people in the Caucasian countries.

As a result of external political maneuvering and boundary making, members of a single ethnic group may now live in several different Caucasian states or in the internal republics of Russia. Because of their strong ethnic loyalties, this pattern can result in persistent conflict (Figure 5.32). After the Soviet collapse, the three culturally distinct states of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia each gained independence as nation-states. Unlike in most other parts of the former Soviet Union, the move to nation-state status resulted in ethnic warfare. Very quickly, several ethnic groups within these already tiny states took up arms to obtain their own independent territories. The Abkhazians and the South Ossetians took up arms against Georgia. The Christian Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh (an exclave of Armenia located inside Azerbaijan) fought against the Muslim majority; 15,000 people died before a truce was signed in 1994. On the Russian side of the border, separatists in Chechnya took up arms for political independence (see page 272). Although the ethnic strife across Caucasia has some local causes, it has often been instigated by the greater powers that surround Caucasia—Turkey, Russia, Iran—who are focused on their own national agendas: access to strategic military installations or to agricultural and mineral resources. The historic animosity between the nations of Armenia and Turkey is particularly prominent; it dates back to the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I, a tragic event that Armenia wants Turkey to accept, unsuccessfully so far, as genocide. 118. MUSLIMS IN OIL-RICH AZERBAIJAN GROW INCREASINGLY RESTIVE

Access to oil and gas reserves has recently been another source of conflict in Caucasia. Estimates of Caspian Sea oil reserves vary widely, from 28 billion to 200 billion barrels, but getting the oil and gas out of Caucasia safely and into the world market is a major problem (see Figure 5.14). Pipelines, trucks, and ocean tankers all have to pass through contested territory or across difficult terrain. The routing of necessary infrastructure involves considering which countries are at odds with each other. Regional governments and Western oil companies have built a pipeline from Azerbaijan (where most of the oil is located) to the Black Sea, where the oil can easily be shipped to Europe. Transit through Chechnya is problematic because of Chechnya’s conflict with Russia. There are now pipelines through Caucasian Russia, and new ones are under construction. A pipeline also carries oil from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.