EurasianStudies_0110..

January-March 2010 JOURNAL OF EURASIAN STUDIES Volume II., Issue 1.
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Rising Tensions
Developments in the recent years have indicated tough posturing by the courtiers of the region. The
tensions have not only confined to bilateral level, but it has acquired multiple dimensions involving
multiple players with conflicting alignments. The year 2007 has witnessed a spurt in this trend.
Following a meeting of CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) secretaries in Bishkek on 21
September 2007, Nikolai Bordyuzha, the secretary-general of CSTO told journalists that the
organization's members are concerned by ‘militant statements’ of intent expressed by South Caucasus
officials to resolve ‘frozen’ conflicts by resorting to military force. According to him, the increase in
defence spending planned by Georgia and Azerbaijan constitutes a ‘serious threat’ to CSTO members.
(Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty News line 21 September 2007)
The Russian-Georgian rivalry too has played an important role in the rising tensions in the region. In
the Tkvarcheli incident, the Georgian forces entered in the name of ‘counter-terrorist operation’
Abkhazia’s Tkvarcheli district and allegedly attacked an Abkhazian army training camp, killing two
Russians, and taking 6 Abkhazians and Armenians to Tbilisi where they were put behind bars. In
another incident, on the night of 27 September 2007 dispatches began to arrive for the mass shootings on
the southern outskirts of Tzkhinvali, the South-Ossetian capital by automatic weapons, heavy machine
guns, grenade throwers, and mortars. Almost simultaneously, attacks were launched on the northern
outskirts of the South-Ossetian capital, adjacent to the Georgian village of Tamarasheni, where Georgian
troops and police had entered before in violation of all previous agreements. Several residents of
Tzkhinvali were wounded. And even though the shooting appears to have stopped, there is no
guarantee that it would not be resumed. Unlike previous events of the kind never stopping since 2004,
this time South Ossetian troops opened return fire and the government of Abkhazia decided to deploy
several auxiliary contingents at its border with Georgia. The Russian media’s increasing advocacy to
recognize the de facto states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia provoked such an action from Georgia.
According to some analysts, Georgia has taken such a step in order to divert attention from domestic
instability. In this context, it can be mentioned that the charges labelled by Ex-Defence Minister Irakli
Okruashvili against President Mikheil Saakashvili has become an issue of public debate about the
integrity of administration at Tbilisi. It can be further noted that the president had imposed emergency
in the whole country in the first week of November 2007 amidst huge protest. There have been frequent
attacks on private media such as Imedi. Radical Georgian leaders such as Kitovani have made statements
like, ‘peaceful unification of Georgia is impossible. The problems of Abkhazia and South Ossetia can
only be solved in war.’ Washington’s earlier praise of Georgia as the ‘democracy standard bearer’ might
have ensconced Georgian leaders to take such a drastic action to assert their rights over de facto
republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Saakashvili’s reelection as president in 5 January 2008 elections
would like further strengthen Georgia-US relations and feed to suspicions of further worsening of
Georgia-Russia relations.
Like Georgia, Azerbaijan too has recently raised bellicose tactics over Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Its
emerging economy due to energy resources has paved the way for hardcore policy towards the issue,
not only in terms of public display of sabre-rattling but also in terms of increasing defence budget. The
problem is that there are no Azeri enclaves in Nagorno-Karabakh and the buffer zone where weapons
could be delivered the way Tbilisi authorities do in the Kodor Gorge and Liakhv corridor. Owing to this
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