The proposed paper would deal with the ongoing Georgian-Russian conflict and how it is represented and cultivated in the Georgian national narrative. However, Russian interpretation of the same phenomena and events will be also illustrated and analyzed.
Particularly, the presentation will focus on structuring and cultivating the interstate conflict/s over Abkhazia and South Ossetia/Tskhinvali breakaway regions of Georgia. The Georgian national narrative portrays this contestation as a long and recurring conflict that started at least late in 19th century and culminated in early 1990s when Georgia witnessed bloody secessionist civil wars and ethnic cleansings in these regions.
According to Russian and separatist, Abkhaz and Ossetian, interpretations, Russia launched its full-scale military campaign in 2008 to "defend" ethnic minorities from Georgian aggression. Another major goal was/is to neutralize threats on Russia's borders coming from expansionism of Georgia's western "masters" which is to say the US and NATO.
Russian Federation recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and keeps trying to create so-called "new reality" and legalize its presence in these areas; a whole package of defense and border protection agreements with the de-facto Abkhazia and South Ossetia governments allows Russian forces to take control of the security of the "borders" between separatist regions and other parts of Georgia. In this context, peace processes between Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-Ossetian conflicting sides have remained deadlocked and the return of IDPs seems a non-starter.
The instrumentalization of the historical past by political elites is hardly a new phenomenon. Politics of memory became one of the key elements of nationalism and national state. However, in our world characterized as post-truth era, the populist claims to historical truth reached "new heights". The paper will exemplify this atmosphere in the context of Georgia's confrontations with Russia over the separatist regions. For instance, we witness quite frequently how president of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin makes historical justifications about backing up Abkhaz or Ossetian peoples' right for independence. According to him, these minorities were independent countries in historical past and Georgian state should not have any claims to reintegrate the separatist provinces.
