Conflicts from the perspective of nationalism: case of Georgia

South Caucasus: Regional conflicts and challenges

Abstract

Georgia is a country, with two existing conflicts. The majority of the population thinks that conflicts emerged in the last century. It is believed, that the problem is only political and related to the geopolitical condition. We fully agree with the position according to which the current political conflicts between Georgians and Abkhazians and Georgians and Ossetians has been provoked by Russia in the beginning and moreover for the end of the twentieth century. But, now we try to observe these conflicts from the perspective of Nationalism. According to the current theories, development of such collective-cultural identities, like ethnic groups and moreover the nations depend on many sensitive aspects. Except for economic, political and territorial issues, the most important is faith of common myths and symbols. The birth of nationalism, on which the formation of nation is based, is closely related and even inspired by the cultural conceptualization. In such time the strong feeling of authenticity and therefore neediness of separating from the other ones becomes inevitable. In the 18th century, cultural movement, which aroused in the Kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti, contained important ethno-cultural messages, according to which the Georgian unity sharply was divided from the others. In 19th century Ilia Chavchavadze, the founder of Georgian Nation, tried to rethink and shape new identity perception. However, since 1921, after the sovietization Georgian nationalism entirely was concentrated on the ethnical and religious moments. In the presented paper, considering the historical past, we will try to understand the modern challenges faced Georgian society.