Greeks in Georgia
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The Greek diaspora in Georgia is estimated at between 15.000 and 20.000 people (15.166 according to the latest census[1]) down from about 100.000 in 1989.[2] The community has dwindled due to the large wave of repatriation to Greece (though few had ancestors who were ever citizens of the Greek state), as well as emigration to Russia. The community has established the Union of Greeks in Georgia and there is a Cultural Centre and a newspaper entitled Greek Diaspora. [3]
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[edit] History
The Greek presence in Georgia is attested to the 7th century BC, as part of the Old Greek Diaspora and has traditionally been concentrated in the Black Sea coast. The English name of the country (which is called Sakartvelo in Georgian) is Greek in origin and means agriculture.[4] Their numbers were increased in the 18th century when the Georgian monarch Erekle II invited 800 Greek artisans with their families to come from Asia Minor and work at the silver and copper plants in Akhtal and Alaverdi. [5] Another wave arrived to Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire, as refugees in the period 1821-1831, fleeing the persecutions of the Ottoman Turks after the Greek War of Independence. [6]
Ethnic Greeks were deported from Abkhazia in 1949-1950. They were allowed to return in the late 1950s, however their number never reached pre-deportation level.[7]
Most of the Greeks fled Abkhazia (mostly to Greece and Russia) during and after the 1992-1993 war so that their number dropped from 14.664 in 1989 to just 1.486 in 2003.[8] Greece carried out a humanitarian operation (Operation Golden Fleece) evacuating 1,015 Greeks who had decided to abandon their homes in Abkhazia on August 15, 1993.[9]
[edit] Issues
Until thirty years ago Greeks made up 70% of the 30,000 strong population of the Georgian city of Tsalka. Today about 2,000 remain, mostly elderly, as most chose to migrate to Greece. Many Greek Georgians returning to the country for Greek Easter find their homes looted or occupied by squatters, mostly immigrants from other regions of the country, who refuse to allow them entry. Consequently the number of Greeks returning to Georgia has decreased. Some have claimed that the difficulties they face in reclaiming the homes are part of a deliberate attempt by the Georgian government to uproot the community in favour of ethnic Georgians. [6] Instances of violence, related to the above have sometimes resulted in the death of elderly Greeks while more have been injured. [6] In 2005 the Council of Greeks in Georgia has appealed to the World Council of Hellenes, SAE, registering their fear caused by the increasing instances of previously rare ethnic violence against them. The matter was also discussed in the parliament of Greece. [10]
[edit] References
- ^ State Statistics Department of Georgia: 2002 census (retrieved 5 April 2008)
- ^ Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР. Грузинская ССР (1989 All-Union Census, ethnic groups by the republics of USSR, Georgian SSR) (Russian)
- ^ Hellenic Republic MFA: The Greek community in Georgia
- ^ George Prevelakis, Finis Greciae or the Return of the Greeks? State and Diaspora in the Context of Globalisation, p.4
- ^ CA-C.org: The Greeks of Georgia: Migration and socioeconomic problesm
- ^ a b c EurasiaNet: Georgia's Greeks: Trying to come home
- ^ Otto Pohl, J. (1999). Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949. Greenwood Publishing Group, 119-128. ISBN 0313309213.
- ^ 2003 Census statistics (Russian)
- ^ Kathimerini, The anniversary of Operation Golden Fleece to evacuate diaspora Greeks from war in Abkhazia, Dionyssis Kalamvrezos
- ^ HRI: The hardships of the Greeks in Tsalka
[edit] See also
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