Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-rvbq7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-14T21:29:08.492Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Trapped in the Past: Memories of Georgian Internally Displaced Persons on the Margins of Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2019

Malkhaz Toria ,
Nino Pirtskhalava ,
Elene Kekelia  and
Konstantine Ladaria
Malkhaz Toria*
Affiliation:
School of Arts and Sciences, Memory Studies Center in the Caucasus, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Nino Pirtskhalava
Affiliation:
School of Arts and Sciences, Memory Studies Center in the Caucasus, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Elene Kekelia
Affiliation:
School of Arts and Sciences, Memory Studies Center in the Caucasus, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
Konstantine Ladaria
Affiliation:
School of Arts and Sciences, Memory Studies Center in the Caucasus, Ilia State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: malkhaz_toria@iliauni.edu.ge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

From the early 1990s through the 2008 “Russo-Georgian war,” waves of armed conflicts in the Abkhazia and South Ossetia/Tskhinvali regions of Georgia forced thousands of residents, mainly ethnic Georgians, to leave their homes. More than two decades of protracted internal displacement, marked by tough economic and social problems, led this vulnerable community to a common trap in reckoning with the past: an overwhelming sense of the fundamental ruptures between the idealized past and current, miserable reality. Failures of the displacement policy and “side effects” of numerous humanitarian aid projects hinder internally displaced persons’ social integration and leave them on the margins of Georgian society with almost a singular option: to constantly recall meaningful life in the lost homeland, which they remember as free of ethnic phobias and economic problems. In this article, we suggest that for persons who are internally displaced, memories are defined not only by their past lived experiences and present hardships, but also by the official historical narratives that argue that Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian “endemic” unity and cohabitation was destroyed by Russian imperial politics. Living in constant pain also narrows the future expectations of the internally displaced persons. However, it is the past and the memories that are supposed to be useful in achieving the utopian dream of a return.

Keywords

internally displaced personshistorical narrativecontested narrativesnostalgic memory
Type
Article
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , May 2019 , pp. 429 - 444
Copyright
© Association for the Study of Nationalities 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abaev, Vasili. 1949. Osetinki iazik i folklor [Ossetian language and folklore]. Moscow: Izdatelstvo Akademii Nauk SSSR.Google Scholar
Achugba, Teimuraz. 2010. Etnicheskaia istoria Abkhazov XIX–XX vv. Etnopoliticheskie i migratsionnie aspekti [Ethnic history of Abkhazians in the 19th and 20th centuries: Ethnopolitical and migration aspects]. Sukhumi: Akademia Nauk Abkhazii.Google Scholar
Ahmed, Sara. 1999. “Home and Away: Narratives of Migration and Estrangement.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 2 (3): 329–347.Google Scholar
Anchabadze, Zurab. 1959. Iz istorii srednevekovoi Abkhazii [On the History of medieval Abkhazia]. Sukhumi: Abgosizdat.Google Scholar
Anchabadze, Zurab. 1976. Ocherk Etnicheskoi Istorii Abkhazskogo Naroda [On the ethnic history of Abkhazian people]. Sukhumi: Alashara.Google Scholar
Apkhazava, Noe. 1996. “Kulturul-Etnikuri Procesebi Shida-Kartlis Chrdilo-Dasavlet Natsilshi Uzvelesi Droidan Gvian Shuasaukuneebamde” [Cultural and ethnic processes in northwest of Shida Kartli from ancient times to the Middle Ages]. Osta Sakitkhi [Issue about Ossetians.]. Tbilisi: Pitagora.Google Scholar
Ashkhatsava, Semen. 1925. Puti Razvitia Abkhazkoi Istorii [Directions of Abkhazian history]. Sukhumi: Izdanie Narkomprosa Abkhazii.Google Scholar
Assmann, Jan. 1995. “Collective Memory and Cultural Identity.” New German Critique 65: 125–133.Google Scholar
Assmann, Jan. 2008. “Communicative and Cultural Memory.” In Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, edited by Astrid Erll and Angsar Nünning, 109–118. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Assmann, Jan. 2015. “Memory and Culture.” In Memory: A History, edited by Dmitri Nikulin, 325–350. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Badiou, Alain. 2001. Ethics: An Essay on Understanding of Evil. Translated by Peter Hallward. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Basaria, Simon. 1923. Abkhazia v Geograficheskom, Ethnograficheskom i Ekonomicheskom Otnoshenii [Abkhazia from geographic, ethnographic and economic perspectives]. Sukhum-Kale: Izdanie Narkomprosa CCP Abkhazii.Google Scholar
Bgajba, Oleg, and Lakoba, Stanislav. 2007. Istoria Abkhazii. S drevneishikh vremen do nashikh dnei [History of Abkhazia from ancient to modern periods]. Sukhumi: Ministerstvo Obrazovania RA.Google Scholar
Black, Richard. 2002. “Conceptions of ‘Home’ and the Political Geography of Refugee Repatriation: Between Assumption and Contested Reality in Bosnia-Herzegovina.” Applied Geography 22 (2): 123–138.Google Scholar
Bliev, Mark. 2006. Iuzhnaia Ossetia v kolliziakh Rossiisko-Gruzinskikh otnoshenii [South Ossetia in collision of Russian-Georgian relationship]. Moscow: Evropa.Google Scholar
Bluashvili, Ucha. 2005. Kartul-Osuri Konfliqti. Vin da Ratom Daicko Igi? [Georgian-Ossetian conflict: Who started it and why?] Tbilisi: Tsisnami.Google Scholar
Boym, Svetlana. 2001. The Future of Nostalgia. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement. 2005. Addressing Internal Displacement: A Framework for National Responsibility. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/04_national_responsibility_framework_Eng.pdf.Google Scholar
Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement. 2007. Expert Seminar on Protracted IDP Situations: Summary Report. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/20070621_displacement.pdf.Google Scholar
Dunn, Elizabeth Cullen. 2012. “The Chaos of Humanitarian Aid: Adhocracy in the Republic of Georgia.” Humanity 3 (1): 1–23.Google Scholar
Dunn, Elizabeth Cullen. 2014. “Humanitarianism, Displacement, and the Politics of Nothing in Postwar Georgia.” Slavic Review 73 (2): 287–306.Google Scholar
Ferris, Elizabeth, Mooney, Erin, and Stark, Chareen. 2011. “From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement.” Washington, DC: Brookings Institution–London School of Economics Project on Internal Displacement. https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/From-Responsibility-to-Response-Nov-2011.pdf.Google Scholar
Goody, Jack. 1998. “Memory in Oral Tradition.” In Memory, Darwin College Lectures (No. 10), edited by Patricia Fara and Karalyn Patterson, 73–94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Grono, Magdalena Frichova. 2011. “Displacement in Georgia: IDP Attitudes to Conflict, Return and Justice.” London: Conciliation Resources. https://www.c-r.org/downloads/Displacement%20in%20Georgia_An%20Analysis%20of%20Survey%20Findings_201104_ENG.pdf.Google Scholar
Gvasalia, Jondo. 1996. “Shida Kartli da Osuri Problema” [Shida Kartli and the Ossetian problem]. Osta Sakitkhi [Issue about Ossetians.]. Tbilisi: Osta Sakitkhi.Google Scholar
Inadze, Meri. 1999. Zveli Kolkhetis Istoriis Sakitkhebi [Problems of the history of ancient Colchis]. Tbilisi: Artanuji.Google Scholar
Inal-Ipa, Shalva. 1965. Abkhazi [Abkhazians]. Sukhumi: Alashara.Google Scholar
Ingorokva, Pavle. [1954] 2002. Giorgi Merchule—Karveli Mcerali Meate Saukunisa [Giorgi Merchule—Georgian writer of 10th century]. Tbilisi: Sabchota Mtserali.Google Scholar
Inter-Agency Standing Committee. 2010. IASC Framework on Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution–University of Bern Project on Internal Displacement. https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/system/files/legacy_files/IDP_april2010.pdf.Google Scholar
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. 2014. Global Overview 2014: People Internally Displaced by Conflict and Violence. May. http://www.internal-displacement.org/sites/default/files/inline-files/201405-global-overview-2014-en.pdf.Google Scholar
Itonishvili, Vakhtang. 2002. Narkvevebi Kavkasiis Istoriidan [Studies of the history of the North Caucasus]. Tbilisi: Artanuji.Google Scholar
Janashia, Simon. 1952. “Apkhazta Samepos Istoriidan.” In Shromebi, tomi II [On the history of the Abkhazian kingdom, Works, Volume II], 306–307. Tbilisi: Georgian Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Jones, Stephen F. 2009. “Introduction: Georgia’s Domestic Front.” Central Asian Survey 28 (2): 93–98.Google Scholar
Jorjoliani, Georgi, Levan Toidze, Solomon Lekishvili, and Edisher Khoshtaria-Brosse. 1995. Istoricheskie i Politiko-Pravovie Aspekti Gruzino-Osetinskogo Konflikta [Historical and Political and Legal Aspects of Georgian-Ossetian Conflict]. Tbilisi: Samshoblo.Google Scholar
Kabachnik, Peter. 2012a. “Shaping Abkhazia: Cartographic Anxieties and the Making and Remaking of the Abkhazian Geobody.” Journal of Balkan and Near Eastern Studies 14 (4): 397–415.Google Scholar
Kabachnik, Peter. 2012b. “Wounds that Won’t Heal: Cartographic Anxieties and the Quest for Territorial Integrity in Georgia.” Central Asian Survey 31 (1): 45–60.Google Scholar
Kabachnik, Peter, Regulska, Joanna, and Mitchneck, Beth. 2010. “Where and When is Home? The Double Displacement of Georgian IDPs from Abkhazia.” Journal of Refugee Studies 23 (3): 315–336.Google Scholar
Kabachnik, Peter, Regulska, Joanna, and Mitchneck, Beth. 2012. “Displacing Blame: Georgian Internally Displaced Person Perspectives of the Georgia–Abkhazia Conflict.” Ethnopolitics 11 (2): 123–140.Google Scholar
Kabachnik, Peter, Regulska, Joanna, and Mitchneck, Beth. 2015. “Return or Integration? Politicizing Displacement in Georgia.” In Security, Democracy and Development in the Southern Caucasus and the Black Sea Region, ed. Ghia Nodia and Christoph H. Stefes, 183–204. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Kabachnik, Peter, Mitchneck, Beth, Mayorova, Olga V., and Regulska, Joanna. 2014. “The Multiple Geographies of Internal Displacement: The Case of Georgia”. Refugee Survey Quarterly 33 (4): 1–30 Google Scholar
Kammen, Michael. 1991. The Mystic Chords of Memory: The Transformation of Tradition in American Culture. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Kochieva, Inga, and Margiev, Aleksei. 2005. Gruzia. Etnicheskie Chistki v Otnoshenii Osetin [Georgia: Ethnic cleansing against Ossetians]. Moscow: Evropa.Google Scholar
Kurshitashvili, Nato. 2012. “The Impact of Socially Ir/responsible Resettlement on the Livelihoods of Internally Displaced Persons in Georgia.” Refugee Survey Quarterly 31 (2): 98–118.Google Scholar
Lekishvili, Solomon. 1996. “Rodis Gachnda Termini‚ Samkhret Oseti” [When did the name South Ossetia occur?]. Osta Sakitkhi Issue about Ossetians. Tbilisi: Pitagora.Google Scholar
Lomouri, Nodar. 1998. Apkhazetis Ethnoculturli Istoriidan [On the ethnocultural history of Abkhazia]. Tbilisi: Triada.Google Scholar
Lortkipanidze, Mariam. 1990. Apkhazebi da Apkhazeti [Abkazians and Abkhazia]. Tbilisi: Metsniereba.Google Scholar
Lundgren, Minna. 2015. “Crossing the Border—An Intergenerational Study of Belonging and Temporary Return among IDPs from Abkhazia.” In Security, Democracy and Development in the Sourthern Caucasus and the Black Sea Region, edited by Ghia Nodia and Christoph H. Stefes, 229–248. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Lundgren, Minna. 2016. “Place Matters: Return Intentions among Forcibly Displaced Young Georgians from Abkhazia Living in Tbilisi and Zugdidi.” Caucasus Survey 4 (2): 129–148.Google Scholar
Mallett, Shelley. 2004. “Understanding Home: A Critical Review of the Literature.” Sociological Review 52 (1): 62–89.Google Scholar
Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation of Georgia. 2007. State Strategy for Internally Displaced Persons–Persecuted. Tbilisi: Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation. http://mra.gov.ge/res/docs/2013112112105167523.pdf.Google Scholar
Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation of Georgia. 2014a. Law of Georgia on Internally Displaced Persons–Persecuted from the Occupied Territories of Georgia. http://mra.gov.ge/res/docs/201406171444442634.pdf.Google Scholar
Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation of Georgia. 2014b. Number of Registered IDPs—Statistics by Region. September 17. http://www.mra.gov.ge/eng/static/55.Google Scholar
Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation of Georgia. 2016. 2017-2018 Action Plan. 2016. http://mra.gov.ge/geo/static/9185 Google Scholar
Mooney, Erin. 2011. “From Solidarity to Solutions: The Government Response to Internal Displacement in Georgia.” In From Responsibility to Response: Assessing National Approaches to Internal Displacement, edited by Elizabeth Ferris, Erin Mooney, and Chareen Stark, 179–229. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution-London School of Economics Project on Internal Displacement.Google Scholar
O’Loughlin, John, Kolossov, Vladimir, and Toal., Gerard 2011. “Inside Abkhazia: A Survey of Attitudes in a De Facto State.” Post-Soviet Affairs 27 (1): 1–36.Google Scholar
Papaskiri, Zurab. 1998. Abkhazeti Sakartveloa [Abkhazia is Georgia]. Tbilisi: Agmashenebli Press.Google Scholar
Papaskiri, Zurab. 2010. Abkhazia: Istoria Bez Falsifikatsii [Abkhazia: History without fabrication]. Tbilisi: Izdatelstvo Sukhumskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta Papaskiri.Google Scholar
Papaskiri, Zurab. 2012. Moia Abkhazia: Vospominania i razmishlenia [My Abkhazia: memories and reflections]. Tbilisi: Meridiani.Google Scholar
Salukvadze, Joseph, and Gachechiladze, Revaz, Gogishvili, David, Sichinava, David, Javashvili, Anna, Tugushi, Ketevan, and Bregvadze, Mariam. 2013. Coping with Marginality and Exclusion: Can Refugees Communities Successfully Integrate into Mainstream Urban Societies in Georgia? Tbilisi: Academic Swiss Caucasus Net.Google Scholar
Schacter, Daniel L. 1999. “The Seven Sins of Memory: Insights from Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience.” American Psychologist 54 (3): 182–203.Google Scholar
Schacter, Daniel L. 2015. “Reflection: Memory—An Adaptive Constructive Process.” In Memory: A History, edited by Dmitri Nikulin, 291–297. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Tarkhan-Mouravi, George. 2009. Assessment of IDP Livelihoods in Georgia: Facts and Policies. Tbilisi: UNHCR. https://www.unhcr.org/4ad827b12.pdf.Google Scholar
Toal, Gerard, and Grono, Magdalena Frichova. 2011. “After Ethnic Violence in the Caucasus: Attitudes of Local Abkhazians and Displaced Georgians in 2010.” Eurasian Geography and Economics 52 (5): 655–678.Google Scholar
Topchisvhili, Roland. 1997. Sakartveloshi Osta Chamosaklebisa da Shida Kartlis Etnoistoriis Sakikhebi [On the migration of Ossetians to Georgia and ethnohistorical issues in Shida Kartli]. Tbilisi: Lomisi.Google Scholar
Toria, Malkhaz. 2015. “Remembering Homeland in Exile: Recollections of IDPs from the Abkhazia Region of Georgia.” Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe 14 (1): 48–70.Google Scholar
Totadze, Anzor. 2006. Osebi Sakartveloshi: Miti da Realoba [Ossetians in Georgia: Myths and reality]. Tbilisi: Universali.Google Scholar
Trier, Tom, Lohm, Hedvig, and Szakonyi, David. 2010. Under Siege: Inter-Ethnic Relations in Abkhazia. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). 1998. Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, 22 July, ADM 1.1,PRL 12.1, PR00/98/109. https://www.refworld.org/docid/3c3da07f7.html.Google Scholar
Vaneti, Zakharii. 1936. K. Voprosu Vremeni Zaselenia Iugo-Osetii [On the resettlement of the South Ossetia]. Tbilisi: Georgian Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Wertsch, James V., and Karumidze, Zurab. 2009. “Spinning the Past: Russian and Georgian Accounts of the War of August 2008.” Memory Studies 2 (3): 377–391.Google Scholar
Zerubavel, Eviatar. 2003. Time Maps, Collective Memory and the Social Shape of the Past. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Zetter, Roger. 1999. “Reconceptualising the Myth of Return: Continuity and Transition amongst the Greek-Cypriot Refugees of 1974.” Journal of Refugee Studies 12 (1): 1–22.Google Scholar