A republic or rather a territory with an autonomous statute, included in Georgia, situated in the south-west of this country at the border with Turkey. In it live mostly Adjarians, an ethnical branch of Muslim Georgians.
The latent tensions
between Adjara and the Tbilisi government reach a climax in 2003, after in
power comes Mikhail Saakasvili who wants to shut down the corrupt regime
imposed by the Adjarian leader Aslan Abasidze for the past 20 years.
The ruler of the
self-proclaimed republic orders Adjarian militia to destroy three strategically
placed bridges over the river Choloki that connected Adjara to Georgia in order
to disrupt any physical or juridical tie to Georgia but this gesture brings the
country on the verge of civil war.
The Adjarian separatist
leader is forced by the Batumi demonstrations (the capital of the republic)
from May 2004, which are orchestrated by the Georgian authorities, to run to
Moscow, thereby reestablishing the constitutional order in the place, which
wanted to become the second Abkhazia.
Even so, Adjara’s statute
is still uncertain, the interreligious tensions remaining active, some
influence groups form Ankara and Moscow having been accused of intervening in
Georgia’s internal affairs.
Georgia is an unique case
in the Caucasian region because it insists very much on Euro- Atlantic
integration, on being accepted into NATO in spite of Russian threats.