Ethnicity and Territory in the Former Soviet Union: Regions in Conflict by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, International Relations, General
ISBN: 9780714652269
Google: 7vjb-0eZ-wcC
Goodreads: 9211208
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1999-06-01T00:00:00+00:00

Ajaria and the Ajars

The region known as Ajaria is located in the south-western part of Georgia. Its western border is the coastline of the Black Sea, to the south is Turkey, and to the east and north lies the rest of Georgia proper. The jurisdiction of Ajaria passed from the Ottoman to the Russian Empire to Turkey to Georgia, then finally to the Soviet Union. Ajaria’s importance as a region can be traced to the latter part of the nineteenth century when Russia developed the capital Batumi, which became the third largest city in the province of Transcaucasia. As an important strategic and economic port and industrial centre, Batumi provided international rail and sea access, and oil pipelines were later constructed to Baku (Akiner, 1986: 243). In 1922 Ajaria became an ASSR subordinate to the Republic of Transcaucasia. In 1936 it was subordinated to Georgia, when Georgia achieved full Union Republic status separate from Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Ajarian ASSR was an anomalous entity of the USSR. Whereas most of the autonomous entities were established on the basis of language or nationality, Ajaria was afforded autonomous status on the basis of religion.12

As mentioned above, the Ajars of Georgia were not considered a national minority for most of the Soviet period. Rather Ajars are considered to be ethnic Georgians, although they profess Islam as their faith. Conversion to Islam occurred during Ottoman rule from the sixteenth to the late nineteenth century. Ajars remain committed to Islam and there are few interfaith – Islamic-Christian – marriages (Bennigsen and Wimbush, 1986: 208). In the 1926 census, the Ajars were provided with their own national category, which distinguished them from the Georgians. This category was dissolved for the 1939 census, despite the fact that some continued to identify themselves as distinct from Georgians more broadly.13 During this early Soviet period, Islam in Ajaria was severely repressed with mosques and religious schools closed and Islamic names georgianized. Derlugian called it ‘a time of calamitous ethnic homogenization’ that, for the most part, seemed to have succeeded (Derlugian, 1995: 33–5). As a consequence of the georgianization policies most Ajars were assimilated and came to recognize themselves as Georgians.

Because the census category for Ajars ended in 1926, it is difficult to estimate the number of Ajars. The 1989 census indicates that the Ajar Republic contained a total population of 381,000. Of this population, ‘Georgians’ constituted 317,000. The number of Ajars, or Muslim Georgians, in this last figure has been estimated to be around 130,000–160,000, or 34–42% of the regional population (Bennigsen and Wimbush, 1986: 208). Consistent with the non-migratory patterns of other Georgians, the total number of Ajars living outside Ajaria is very small.14 In terms of national histories the Ajar-Georgian relationship is complicated because most Ajars today see themselves as Georgian. Georgians, in contrast, are reluctant to accept Ajars as belonging to the wider ‘Georgian’ identity due to religious differences. For most Georgians, Georgian means being Christian. The Ajars are Muslim and are, therefore, not considered ‘real’ Georgians.

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