კოსოვო, აფხაზეთი, ცხინვალის რეგიონი – თანამედროვე კონფლიქტური რეგიონების ისტორიული განვითარების საერთო და განმასხვავებელი ტენდენციები: XIX საუკუნის დასაწყისიდან XX საუკუნის 20-იან წლებამდე

Abstract

In Georgian scholarly Kosovo’s history has not been broadly studied and researched. Especially little has been done in terms of the comparative studies of Kosovo, Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions’ conflicts. Generally, the interest about this topic throughout Georgian society has been rising after February 2008, when the independence of Kosovo was declared by the United Nations. This event significantly reflected on the political situation in the Georgian breakaway regions. The main goal of this work is the comparative analysis of Kosovo, Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region’s conflicts. To achieve this goal, the article will focus on the historical period from the beginning of the 19th century till 1920s. The period during which, the main political, cultural, ethnic and demographic processes took place in Kosovo as well as in Abkhazia and Georgian – Shida Kartli – region: evolving Serbian and Albanian national movements on the Balkans, as well as the newly born Georgian national movement emerging in the Tsarist Russian empire in the 19th century, combined with the international and regional policy in these regions. These factors, finally defined the nature of the conflicts on the Balkans as well as in the Caucasus, which were to arise lately in the 20th century. Using various sources and scholarly literature, this paper attempts to examine the main common and distinctive aspects and characteristics of these conflicts. It aims to construct a broader scientific picture of the main peculiarities these modern conflict regions might share in the past. It will focus on the main political and geo-political factors surrounding these regions and examine to what extent the political circumstances in these regions were actually determined by the changing nature of the international relations and world policy by that time.