Ossetians in Trialeti
Encyclopedia
Ossetians
The Ossetians are an Iranic ethnic group of the Caucasus Mountains, eponymous of the region known as Ossetia.They speak Ossetic, an Iranian language of the Eastern branch, with most also fluent in Russian as a second language....
, settling the central Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
districts of Khashuri
Khashuri district, Georgia
Khashuri is a district of Georgia, in the region of Shida Kartli.- External links :* , Statoids.com...
and Borjomi
Borjomi
Borjomi is a resort town in south-central Georgia with a population estimated at 14,445. It is one of the districts of the Samtskhe-Javakheti region and is situated in the northwestern part of the region in the picturesque Borjomi Gorge on the eastern edge of the Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park...
, historically part of the Trialeti
Trialeti
Trialeti is a mountainous area in central Georgia. In Georgian its name means "a place of wandering". The Trialeti Range is a part of the greater Trialeti Region....
province. The Ossetians resettled there in the 19th century from Samachablo
Samachablo
Samachablo is a Georgian historical district in Shida Kartli, Georgia, which currently lies entirely within the disputed South Ossetia Region. The name Samachablo derives from the Georgian aristocratic family of Machabeli who once held possession of the area...
, South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast
South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast
The South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was an autonomous oblast of the Soviet Union created within the Georgian SSR on April 20, 1922. Its autonomy was revoked on December 10, 1990 by the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR, leading to the First South Ossetian War...
at the time of USSR.
In 1922, after the conflict between the Georgian
Democratic Republic of Georgia
The Democratic Republic of Georgia , 1918–1921, was the first modern establishment of a Republic of Georgia.The DRG was created after the collapse of the Russian Empire that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917...
government forces and Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
-sympathizing Ossetian rebels, and the forcible Sovietization of Georgia, the recently created South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast
South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast
The South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast was an autonomous oblast of the Soviet Union created within the Georgian SSR on April 20, 1922. Its autonomy was revoked on December 10, 1990 by the Supreme Soviet of the Georgian SSR, leading to the First South Ossetian War...
within the Georgian SSR claimed the villages, mainly settled by Ossetians in Trialeti as its exclave - to no avail, however.
In 1989 there were 38,000 Ossetians in the region, living in 134 villages. They had been incorporated into the Georgian society with a high degree of intermarriages with Georgians. During the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War, the area was unaffected by armed confrontation, but many Ossetian families had to flee rising ethnic discord to South Ossetia and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
's North Ossetia-Alania
North Ossetia-Alania
The Republic of North Ossetia–Alania is a federal subject of Russia . Its population according to the 2010 Census was 712,877.-Name:...
.