CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Ghvinjilia, Natia |
|---|---|
| Title | Becoming a 'Minority': Questions of Belonging for Ethnic Georgians in Abkhazia's Gali District |
| Summary | The collapse of the Soviet Union precipitated the eruption of a number of ethnic conflicts on the periphery of the former empire that remained unsolved to this day. The Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, often referred to as ‘frozen’ conflict, is among the bloodiest. Before the 1992-1993 war, Georgians were the biggest ethnic group in Abkhazia; today, only the Gali district, found in the southern corner of the de facto Republic of Abkhazia across the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL), has such a majority. For close to three decades, Gali’s Georgians have lived an unusual reality, continuing their lives in this unrecognized state. The existing literature on the conflict has explored the human rights violations suffered by this minority, yet a gaping hole has been left regarding how almost three decades of conflict, frozen or otherwise, has affected the identity and sense of belonging of the Georgians of the Gali district. Coupling semi-structured interviews with locals in the context of an extensive historical overview, this research explores Gali’s Georgians sense of belonging and attachment towards their district and community – if and how belonging develops and affects conflict-affected societies residing near the ‘border.’ |
| Supervisor | Kovács Mária M. |
| Department | Nationalism Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/ghvinjilia_natia.pdf |
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