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Travel to Georgia — Unbiased reviews and
great deals from TripAdvisorGeorgia
| Georgia National name:
Sak'art'velo President: Mikhail
Saakashvili (2004) Prime
Minister: Grigol Mgaloblishvili (2008) Minister of State: Avtandil Jorbenadze
(2001)
Current government officials
Total area: 26,911 sq mi (69,700 sq
km) Population (2008 est.): 4,630,841
(growth rate: –0.3%); birth rate: 10.6/1000; infant mortality
rate: 16.7/1000; life expectancy: 76.5; density per sq mi: 66
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Tbilisi, 1,440,000 (metro. area), 1,240,200
(city proper) Other large cities:
Kutaisi, 268,800; Batoumi, 145,400; and Sokhumi, 110,300 Monetary unit: Lari
Languages:
Georgian 71% (official), Russian 9%, Armenian
7%, Azerbaijani 6%, other 7% (Abkhaz is the official language in
Abkhazia)
Ethnicity/race:
Georgian 83.8%, Azeri 6.5%, Armenian 5.7%,
Russian 1.5%, other 2.5% (2002)
Religions:
Orthodox 84%, Islam 10%, Armenian-Gregorian 4%,
Catholic 1% (2002) Literacy rate:
100% (2004 est.) Economic summary:
GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $20.5 billion; per capita $4,700. Real
growth rate: 12.4%. Inflation: 9.2%. Unemployment:
13.6% (2006 est.). Arable land: 11%. Agriculture:
citrus, grapes, tea, hazelnuts, vegetables; livestock. Labor force:
2.02 million (2007 est.); industry 20%, agriculture 40%, services
40% (1999 est.). Industries: steel, aircraft, machine tools,
electrical appliances, mining (manganese and copper), chemicals, wood
products, wine. Natural resources: forests, hydropower,
manganese deposits, iron ore, copper, minor coal and oil deposits;
coastal climate and soils allow for important tea and citrus growth.
Exports: $1.24 billion (2007 est.): scrap metal, machinery,
chemicals; fuel reexports; citrus fruits, tea, wine. Imports:
$5.2 billion (2007 est.): fuels, machinery and parts, transport
equipment, grain and other foods, pharmaceuticals. Major trading
partners: Turkey, Turkmenistan, Bulgaria, Russia, Armenia, UK,
Azerbaijan, Germany, Ukraine, Canada, U.S. (2006). Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 544,000 (2007); mobile cellular: 2.4 million (2007). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 7, FM 12, shortwave 4 (1998).
Television broadcast stations: 12 (plus repeaters) (1998).
Internet hosts: 30,193 (2007). Internet users: 332,000
(2006). Transportation: Railways:
total: 1,612 km (2006). Highways: total: 20,247 km; paved:
7,973 km; unpaved: 12,274 km (2004). Ports and harbors:
Bat'umi, P'ot'i. Airports: 23 (2007). International disputes: Russia and Georgia
agree on delimiting 80% of their common border, leaving certain small,
strategic segments and the maritime boundary unresolved; OSCE
observers monitor volatile areas such as the Pankisi Gorge in the
Akhmeti region and the Argun Gorge in Abkhazia; UN Observer Mission in
Georgia has maintained a peacekeeping force in Georgia since 1993;
Meshkheti Turks scattered throughout the former Soviet Union seek to
return to Georgia; boundary with Armenia remains undemarcated; ethnic
Armenian groups in Javakheti region of Georgia seek greater autonomy
from the Georgian government; Azerbaijan and Georgia cannot resolve
the alignment of their boundary at certain crossing areas.
Major sources and definitions
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Geography
Georgia is bordered by the Black Sea in the
west, by Turkey and Armenia in the south, by Azerbaijan in the east, and
Russia in the north. The republic also includes the Abkhazia and Ajara
autonomous republics and South Ossetia.
Government
Republic.
History
Georgia became a kingdom about 4 B.C. and Christianity was introduced in A.D. 337. During the reign of Queen Tamara
(1184–1213), its territory included the whole of Transcaucasia.
During the 13th century, Tamerlane and the Mongols decimated its
population. From the 16th century on, the country was the scene of a
struggle between Persia and Turkey. In the 18th century, it became a
vassal to Russia in exchange for protection from the Turks and
Persians.
Georgia joined Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1917 to
establish the anti-Bolshevik Transcaucasian Federation and on its
dissolution in 1918 proclaimed its independence. In 1922, Georgia,
Armenia, and Azerbaijan were annexed by the USSR and formed the
Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1936, Georgia became a
separate Soviet republic. Under Soviet rule it was transformed from an
agrarian country to a largely industrial urban society.
Georgia proclaimed its independence from the
USSR on April 6, 1991. In Jan. 1992, its leader, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was
sacked and later accused of dictatorial policies, the jailing of
opposition leaders, human rights abuses, and clamping down on the media. A
ruling military council was established by the opposition until a civilian
authority could be restored. In 1992, Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet
Union's foreign minister under Gorbachev, became president.
In 1992–1993, the government engaged in
armed conflict with separatists in the breakaway province of Abkhazia. In
1994, Russia and Georgia signed a cooperation treaty that authorized
Russia to keep three military bases in Georgia and allowed Russians to
train and equip the Georgian army. In 1996, Georgia and its breakaway
region of South Ossetia agreed to a cessation of hostilities in their
six-year conflict. With little progress in resolving the Abkhazia
situation, however, parliament in April 1997 voted overwhelmingly to
threaten Russia with loss of its military bases, should it fail to extend
Russian military control over the separatist region. In 1998, the U.S. and
Britain began an operation to remove nuclear material from Georgia,
dangerous remains from its Soviet years. A darling of the West since his
days as the Soviet Union's foreign minister, Shevardnadze was viewed far
less favorably by his own people, who were frustrated by unemployment,
poverty, cronyism, and rampant corruption. In the 2000 presidential
elections, Shevardnadze was reelected with 80% of the vote, though
international observers determined the election was marred by
irregularities.
In 2002, U.S. troops trained Georgia's military
in antiterrorism measures in the hopes that Georgian troops would subdue
Muslim rebels fighting in the country. Tensions between Georgia and Russia
were strained over the Pankisi Gorge, a lawless region of Georgia that
Russia said had become a haven for Islamic militants and Chechen
rebels.
In May 2003, work began on the Georgian section
of the enormously ambitious Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which runs
from Azerbaijan through Georgia to Turkey. The pipeline opened in July
2006.
Massive demonstrations began after the
preliminary results of the Nov. 2003 parliamentary elections. The
opposition party (and international monitors) claimed that the elections
were rigged in favor of Shevardnadze and the political parties who
supported him. After more than three weeks of massive protests,
Shevardnadze resigned on Nov. 30. Georgians compared the turn of events to
Czechoslovakia’s “velvet revolution.” In Jan. 2004
presidential elections, Mikhail Saakashvili, the key opposition leader,
won in a landslide. The 36-year-old lawyer built his reputation as a
reformer committed to ending corruption, and in his first three years as
president, Saakashvili made significant progress in rooting out the
country's endemic corruption and embarked on a series of reforms.
Saakashvili's ongoing difficulty has been reining in Georgia's two
breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, both of which are strongly
supported by neighboring Russia.
Saakashvili's popularity took a hit in November
2007 when some 50,000 demonstrators gathered outside parliament in Tbilisi
and demanded early elections and his resignation. The opposition accused
Saakashvili of abusing power and stifling dissent. After three days of
protest, Saakashvili deployed riot police, who used tear gas and rubber
bullets to break up the demonstrations, and delcared a state of emergency.
Parliament voted 149 to 0 to approve the state of emergency. The
opposition in the 235-seat Parliament boycotted the vote, however.
Saakashvili later announced that a presidential election would be held in
January 2008, and he resigned to run in the race. Saakashvili won the
election, taking 52.8% of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff. Voters also
voted in a referendum in favor of joining NATO.
The United Nations declared that a Russian
fighter jet was responsible for destroying a Georgian reconnaissance
aircraft on April 20, 2008, which may end Russia's role as a neutral party
in the territorial dispute between Georgia and Abkhazia.
On August 7, 2008, Georgian soldiers attacked
South Ossetia, a breakaway enclave in Georgia that won de facto
independence in the early 1990s. Separatists in South Ossetia retaliated,
and about a dozen troops and civilians died in the battles. Fighting
between the two sides has been sporadic since Mikheil Saakashvili was
elected president of Georgia in 2004 and sought to resume control over the
region. On Aug. 8, Russia sent 150 tanks into South Ossetia to support the
separatists. On Aug. 9 and 10, Russia intensified its involvement by
moving troops into Abkhazia, another breakaway region, and launching
airstrikes at Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. In addition, Russian
launched an airstrike in Gori, Georgia, killing about 1,500 civilians. The
fighting prompted thousands of people in South Ossetia to flee their
homes. Speculation ensued that Russia's aggressive tactics were taken to
gain control of Georgia's oil and gas export routes.
On Aug. 12, 2008, Russian president Medvedev
ordered an end to military action in Georgia, although fighting continued.
On Aug. 13, Russian tanks occupied Gori, a strategic town 40 miles from
Tbilisi, and hundreds of Russian soldiers crossed the border into South
Ossetia. Leaders of EU nations, the United States, and NATO warned Russia
to end the conflict in Georgia. On Aug. 14, in reaction to Russia’s
incursion into Georgia, Poland, after months of stalling, agreed to allow
the United States to install an anti-missile system on its soil. Russia
said that Poland could face retaliation. On Aug. 16, Medvedev signed a
revised cease-fire, but Russian troops remained in Georgia. Georgia
demanded that a provision in the original agreement be amended to allow
only those Russian peacekeepers who were in Georgia before the hostilities
began to remain. The deal was tentative at best.
On Aug. 19, Russian troops began to slowly
withdraw from Georgia. On Aug. 25, Medvedev agreed to officially recognize
South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent regions, heightening tensions
between Russia and the West. On Aug. 29, Russia and Georgia severed
diplomatic ties from each other. It was the first time Russia had done so
with one of its former republics, which gained independence in 1991. On
Sept. 17, Russia signed treaties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which
gave the breakaway regions a pledge of military assistance from Russia and
granted Russia the right to build and improve military bases in Abkhazia
and South Ossetia.
On Oct. 8, 2008, Russia began its withdrawal of
troops from Abkhazia and South Ossetia in accord with the cease-fire
timeline brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy in early August. The
withdrawal was observed by 200 European Union members. Almost 8,000
Russian troops will remain in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
On Oct. 22, 2008, the South Ossetian parliament
approved President Eduard Kokoyty's nominee Aslanbek Bulatsev as prime
minister.
On Oct. 27, 2008, Mikheil Saaksahvili replaced
Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze with Grigol Mgaloblishvili, Georgia's
ambassador to Turkey. The move came about three months after Georgia's war
with Russia that devastated Georgia's infrastructure. On Nov. 1, 2008,
parliament confirmed Grigol Mgaloblishvili as prime minister in a 98 to 11
vote.
See also Encyclopedia: Georgia
U.S. State Dept. Country Notes:
Georgia
State Department for Statistics www.statistics.ge/ .
Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson
Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
More on Georgia from Infoplease:
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