CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 133

ZURAB TARGAMADZE
CONFLICTS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF
NATIONALISM: CASE OF GEORGIA 1
Abstract
Georgia is a country, with two existing confl icts. The majority of the population
thinks that confl icts emerged in the last century. It is believed, that the prob-
lem is only political and related to the geopolitical condition. We fully agree
with the position according to which the current political confl icts 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 confl icts 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 sensi-
tive aspects. Except for economic, political and territorial issues, the most im-
portant 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 under-
stand the modern challenges faced Georgian society.
Keywords: Nationalism, Nation, Identity and History of Georgia.
Introduction
As we know, any type of community has a bouquet of values on which
is their collective intellectual being is based. In case of nationalism, the
sentiments like this covers with many diff erent, but interconnected mo-
ments, which makes ideological fundament for the shaping of national
1
The work is a part of the project (DO/351/1-10/14) Georgian Identity: Historical Aspects
(18 th century), sponsored by Shota Rustaveli National Foundation 2013-2014 Doctoral pro-
gram grant.
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