A brief look at South Ossetia

In continuing our blog discussion on the disputed territories and states of Europe we're heading back to the Caucuses. This time we're going to focus on South Ossetia, a state that has a few backers in the international community but one that Georgia still claims as part of its territory. Like most of the other Caucuses states that we've talked about this week, much of the current state of affairs has to do with the break up of the Soviet Union and deep historical issues that predate the communist empire by centuries.

The Ossetians were a people group that are believed to have descended from the Alani tribes, one of the many barbarian hoards that poured into parts of the Roman Empire when everything out east went haywire because of the Huns and other massive tribes that messed up the old social order. The Ossetians became Christianized through Byzantine and Georgian influences during the early Middle Ages. But, like the Alani from whence they came they too were pushed out of their homeland by a massive group of barbarians, the Mongols. When the Mongols started pouring eastward the Ossetians settled into what became known as Ossetia, which today is split into roughly two halves, North Ossetia-Alania, a federal subject of Russia and South Ossetia, the de facto independent state that is disputed by Georgia. This split occured during the late Middle Ages, early Modern period when the northern Ossetians fell under Russian rule and the Southern ones came under Georgian power. Both enjoyed refuge from the Mongols in this set up so all was well and dandy.

Eventually though, South Ossetia became part of the Russian Empire in 1801 with the rest of Georgia. This lasted until the Bolshevik uprising when North Ossetia sided with the Bolsheviks and Georgia sided with a breakaway communist group called the Mensheviks. Some Georgians accused the South Ossetians of being Bolshevik supporters and a series of South Ossetian rebellions sprang up between 1918-1920. Eventually though the Bolsheviks would control the whole Soviet Empire and the relative peace and normality that existed between Ossetians and Georgians would resume, basically unabated until the end of the Soviet Era.

As the USSR was crumbling there was a surge of nationalism within much of the Soviet Empire and the Ossetians and Georgians were no different. South Ossetia didn't mind being part of a new nation of Georgia so long as they retained the autonomy they had enjoyed under Soviet dominion. Georgia however was looking to annex all of its historical boundaries and create a unified state. South Ossetians bucked at a call for Georgian to be the only nationally recognized language and conflict soon broke out when Georgia removed any autonomy for South Ossetia. The 1991-92 South Ossetian war witnessed atrocities committed by both Georgian and South Ossetian militias. In 1992 a cease fire was reached between Georgia and South Ossetia because the Georgians feared a full scale military conflict with Russia who was backing South Ossetia. It was this war and the genocidal tendencies within that really fueled the current state of affairs in the Georgian-South Ossetian relations.

All was relatively quiet for 12 years until in 2004 tensions flared up again. Georgia created a South Ossetian government within the Georgian capital of Tblisi in order to gain more control over the region. South Ossetians, especially those in the region's capital of Tskhinvali railed against this power grab. Georgian troops came in and stormed a black market operation that crippled the South Ossetian economy and fought against South Ossetians and Russian "freelance" fighters. Somehow I think the term mercenary here would be appropriate. The fighting was short-lived but atrocities furthered the rift between South Ossetia and Georgia.

In 2008 fighting flared up again. A quick cease-fire was announced but Georgian troops rolled in right before the cease-fire was supposed to come into effect. They did this, according to Georgian sentiments because of a growing number of Russian military troops and vehicles in the region. In the attack on Tskhinvali a number of Russian peacekeepers were killed. The day after Russia came into the region and steamrolled the Georgian forces. As this was happening, Russia entered into Georgia proper by way of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia and Russia came to a cease-fire, but South Ossetia was left as a de facto independent state. Unfortunately though the capital of Tskhinvali was left in ruins and nearly 40,000 people had been killed or displaced by the short war. Today, South Ossetia operates as its own independent state and efforts to rebuild the capital are underway, albeit slowly.

A Brief History of Kosovo

The Republic of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008 and has been recognized by 91 member states of the UN to date. It borders the Republic of Macedonia to the south, Albania to the west and Montenegro to the Northwest. On its north and East is Serbia, who still claims Kosovo to be part of its sovereign territory, albeit controlled by the United Nations. Further confusing the Balkans region is North Kosovo, a disputed area of Kosovo which both Kosovo and Serbia claim to be their own, but is primarily made up of Kosovar Serbs and runs like Serbia within Kosovo.

Ok to recap, we have Kosovo which is inside of Serbia and is de facto independent but still claimed by Serbia and within Kosovo is North Kosovo which is claimed by both Kosovo and Serbia but is run by Kosovar Serbs in conjuction with Serbia. Got it? Unfortunately, a brief look at this trouble filled Balkan nation doesn't offer any simpler understanding of its history.

Kosovo was occupied in its earliest times by prehistoric tribes, meaning people that didn't write their history down, not cavemen. Although, Kosovo did have a pretty cool prehistoric past. But, in the 1st century AD, the Roman Empire took over the region that would become Kosovo in the 1st Century AD and called it Moesia Superior. When the Western Roman Empire began to fall apart due to hoards of barbarians coming up against some pretty terrible rulers of the Late Western Empire a bunch of Slavic people began to migrate to the area. This was during the 6th and 7th centuries. After all this Slavic shifting the area became part of the Bulgarian Empire that arose to challenge Constantinople as a power in the region. But, the Byzantine Empire flexed their muscles and wrenched control of the region back from the Bulgarians.

The Kosovars however were not easily managed and had a penchant for bucking under Byzantine rule. They bounced back and forth allying themselves with Serbian rules and Bulgarian ones so long as they didn't have to pay homage to the Eastern Emperors. Finally this culminated in the powerful but short-lived Serbian Empire. It's patently unfair to call them short-lived but they're in roughly the same region as their contemporaries the Byzantines. Every one seems short-lived compared to them no? But, under the Serbian Empire, Kosovo became the spiritual center of the Serbian Kingdom. It was under this point in Kosovo history that the famous Battle of Kosovo pitted the Serbs against the burgeoning Ottoman Empire. The Serbs and Kosovars fought valiantly and decimated the Ottoman Army. Unfortunately the Serbs were also decimated and unlike the Ottomans did not possess massive reserves of fighting men to the east. Eventually because of the lack of manpower the Serbian Empire and thus, Kosovo would become part of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century.

The Ottomans brought many changes, especially the Islamic faith. Ethnic Serbs clung to Christianity but their neighbors the ethnic Albanians generally converted. (This is of course an over simplification but for the sake of brevity one that must be made). This created a tinderbox effect and would have extremely long and devastating consequences. In the late 19th century and early 20th century nationalism was added to the already present religious tensions of the region. Muslim Albanians fought against the Ottoman Empire for more autonomy while many Christian Serbs wanted out. As Kosovo had both of these parties the place was on eggshells to say the least. Then, World War I broke out. Eventually out of the ashes, Yugoslavia would take over the area once owned by the now defunct Ottoman Empire.

The confusing and muddled history of Kosovo continued into the Yugoslavian days as Yugoslavia moved from monarchy to communist state. Many parts of Yugoslavia got their own their own special status as a Socialist Republic within the nation. Serbia was one of them, but Kosovo (inside the SR Serbia) got its own autonomous position as a province. This kept tensions high and as Yugoslavia began to disintegrate Serbia tried to assert its authority over much of the dying nation. Slobodan Milosevic rose to power and in basic response to this Kosovo first declared itself a separate socialist republic within Yugoslavia and then its own independent state. This led to war in the 1990's that witnessed some horrific atrocities and ethnic cleansing in the war between primarily Muslim Albanians and the Christian Serbs. For much of the 1990's Kosovo called itself the Republic of Kosova, but it was only internationally recognized by Albania. In 2000 the region became controlled by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, the status which Serbia still recognizes it. But, The Republic of Kosovo declared its independence from both the UN and Serbia in 2008.

And that is a brief, probably far too brief, but basic understanding of where Kosovo stands in Modern European History. Unfortunately the conflict between Kosovo and Serbia seems to be still brewing under the surface. Just yesterday a story emerged that Serbia was blocking Kosovo in the neutral buffer zone because Serbia was unhappy with the commercial goods moving north out of Kosovo. It is minor incidents like these that could lead to a further escalation of the long standing crisis that could erupt into another confusing and unfortunately bloody war, rife with ethnic and religious divisions.

A very brief history of Modern Abkhazia

The next few weeks of Podcasts (which I think I said would start on Sunday, but our episode days will be Fridays not Sundays, that way every one will have something to look forward to) will be focusing on the end of the Prehistoric period and moving into a bit more of the historical period. Of course, it's not the historical period per se, but we'll be entering into the Bronze Age and have a much better trove of information to draw on. However, this week on the Blog we're going to be focusing on some of the "states" of Europe that are either not fully recognized internationally or are dependencies of other nations with enough amounts of autonomy to warrant a Label by this humble Blog. We'll start with Abkhazia.

Abkhazia is located in the Northwestern corner of Georgia. I say this because Georgia feels that Abkhazia is part of its territory, not because I am backing up Georgia's claim to the territory. I'm neither backing it or denying it. But, Abkhazia is only recognized by a number of nations as being its own state, three tiny island nations in the Pacific, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Russia. Russia's recognition of Abkhazia caused Georgia to claim that Abkhazia is a "Russian occupied territory". Tensions between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia have been at a boiling point since the break up of the Soviet Union. In a war from 1992-93 after the breakup of the Soviet Union, Abkhazia went to war with Georgia. The result of the war was a victory to the Russian and Armenian backed Abkhazia over Georgia. During and after the war 200,000 - 250,000 ethnic Georgians living within the territory of Abkhazia were either killed or forced into mass exodus in what has been labeled an ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia. In 1998 some ethnic Georgians within Abkhazia started a guerrilla war against Abkhazia that officially lasted for about six days, but continued into the early 2000's.

I wondered if this conflict was limited to Modern European History or if it had deeper roots. I researched to find more information on this breakaway region and scantly recognized state. The origin of the Abkhaz people is somewhat disputed, as could be guessed because of the ongoing conflict. The 1st Century Greek writer Strabo labeled the primary group living in the current region of Abkhazia as the Zygii. But in the late 8th century a kingdom popped up on the map known as the Kingdom of the Abkhazes when it gained independence from the Byzantine Empire. It lasted for a little over a 120 years before being married into and absorbed by the larger medieval Kingdom of Georgia. The Georgians and Abkhaz people seemed to get along well enough in the early medieval period because they teamed up against the Seljuk Turks and expelled them from the Georgian lands. However, by the 15th century, when the Kingdom of Georgia erupted into the civil war that would be its eventual downfall, the Principality of Abkhazia, a Georgian feudal entity, sided against Georgia. Abkhazia would go on to become a relatively autonomous part of the Ottoman and the Russian empires before becoming a full fledged part of the Russian Empire in 1864.

But it was under the Soviets when things flared up again to take a turn for the worst. During the Soviet era Abkahzia was under the dominion of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Many of the Abkhazia elite became dismayed at the "Georgianization" of Abkhazia and demanded to be transfered from Georgian dominion to Russian dominion as many as three times, in 1957, 1967 and again in 1978. This seems to be a continuing strife that ripples through the Northern Caucus regions as both South Ossetia (another Georgian breakaway region) and Abkhazia continue to look toward Russia as Georgia begins to look increasingly westward. So, there you have it, a very brief history of the modern Abkhazia and its historical reference points.

On this day in History, The Battle of Rovine

The highly unstable region of Wallachia (modern day Romania) grew out of a rebellion against the first king of Hungary sometime in the late 13th, early 14th century. This independence was all fine and dandy but they found themselves in the middle of constant competition for land. The Hungarians, the Serbian Empire, the Bulgarians, the encroaching Ottomans and even the decrepit Byzantines were all players in the area. But at the time of the Battle of Rovine, May 17, 1395, Wallachia was about as stable as she was ever going to get, under the good care of the Warlord Mircea the Elder. But, the good warlord had managed to enrage the Ottoman Empire by aiding the Christian Hungarians against the Muslim Turks.

Well, Sultan Bayezid I wasn't too thrilled with this and took up 40,000 men and impressed 8,000 or so Serbian vassals to go up into Wallachia to teach Mircea a lesson. Mircea was able only to muster 10,000 troops so he avoided open conflict for awhile until the jig was up on May 17. The battle was fought along the banks of the Argeș River in Southern Romania in a spot where the numbers game wouldn't absolutely hobble the overmatched Wallachians. As the Ottomans and Serbs advanced, the Wallachians unleashed a hail of arrows that decimated Ottoman lines. After another hail of arrows the Wallachian cavalry came in and caused mass panic. Some of the Ottomans fled over the Danube to the south. The most powerful lord of the Serbs at the time, Marko Mrnjavčević was killed in battle. But, many Wallachian troops were lost in the fighting. While the Ottomans and Serbs were thoroughly routed, the undermanned Mircea was forced to flea Wallachia after the battle. The Ottomans were able to install an usurper to throne named Vlad Uzurpatorul (I'll let you guess what Uzurpatorul means...). Within three years time Mircea was able, with the backing of the Hungarians to crush Vlad and retake Wallachia. During his reign over Wallachia, Mircea consistently stopped the onslaught of Ottomans crossing the Danube. And, at a time of political turmoil in the Ottoman Empire, teamed up with some fellow Christians and actually marched into Ottoman territory. At the height of his power, Mircea was actually able to install his candidate as a co-Sultan of the Ottomans. For all of his success against the Empire though, Mircea was wise and made peace, ensuring the independence of Wallachia for a short spell.

The Early Days of Stara Zagora

Stara Zagora is a city of about 200,000 people, making it Bulgaria's sixth most populated city. Officially, Stara Zagora got its name in 1875, but the city's history stretches back at least 8,000 years. In the meantime the city has had a host of names depending on who was in control. The city was held by Neolithic peoples, who if they had a name for the area weren't kind enough to jot it down for us. Prior to the Roman arrival the city was held variously by Greeks and Thracians, who called the city Beroe. In 106 AD the Roman provincial city was founded and named Augusta Traiana. Some time in the 4th century the city was renamed Beroe and was a center for Christianity in the Balkans. That named lasted until the city caught the eye of the Byzantine princess Irene, and the city became known as Irinopolis. When the Bulgarians broke from the Byzantines the city was re-re-re-re-refounded (give or take 2 re's) as Vereya (or Bereya or Beroya, presumably after the earlier name Beroe). As a city in the Bulgarian Empire, it was an important financial center. In a later installment of the various Bulgarian kingdoms of the Middle Ages it was called Boruy. When the Ottoman Empire captured it, the city was called Eski Zagara, which means the Old Fortress of Zagora. When the Bulgarians gained their independence the city was renamed again to Zheleznik, but was shortly renamed Stara Zagora. During this shuffling of names, one of the areas of the city called the Bereketska Mound was continually inhabited from about 6000 BC - 1200 AD. The Bereketska Mound is just one a whole treasure chest full of archeological sites in one of Europe's longest inhabited city.

The Bereketska Mound is about one of a hundred or so mounds in the area that contain burial items dating back to the Neolithic period. The Azmashka Tomb was one of the earliest sites in Southeastern Europe to receive a full archeological treatment. It has produced a wealth of data and artifacts, including the Venus Figurine to the right. Stara Zagora is also host to the Metchi Kladenets, one of, if not the earliest copper mine in Europe. The copper that was mined there produced copper tools that were traded all over the region, some traveling as far north as the Volga River in Russia. In addition to all these Neolithic Artifacts, there are great collections of Classical Thracian, Roman, Byzantine, Medieval Bulgarian, Russian and Ottoman artifacts, but we'll save these for later.