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GEORGIA’S AZERBAIJANIS: PROBLEMS OF CIVILIAN INTEGRATION
Mamuka KOMAKHIA
Mamuka Komakhia, M.A. in International Relations; research associate with the United Nations Association of Georgia NGO (Tbilisi, Georgia)
Georgia is a polyethnic country; according to the 2002 population census, 16 percent of its population belongs to ethnic groups other than Georgian. Azerbaijanis are the most numerous among them; they live mainly in compact groups and have nothing to do with Georgia’s public and political developments, which makes it hard to integrate them into Georgian society. The velvet revolution of November 2003 brought to power new leaders who have already launched radical reforms. So far, there have been no visible changes in the civil integration of ethnic minorities.
Migration and Distribution
In Georgia, Azerbaijanis mainly live in the historical-geographical province of Kvemo Kartli in the southwest corner, in Kakheti and Shida Kartli (in the east), as well as in Tbilisi and Rustavi. The majority of them are Shi’a Muslims, though there are Sunnis as well. Driven by military and political circumstances, their ancestors came from Persia and Turkey in the late feudal period with the aim of settling down in the southeastern provinces of Georgia. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the number of Azeri migrants was much smaller than of other ethnic groups. In the latter half of the 20th century, their number started to grow at a fast pace, until finally they outnumbered all the other ethnic groups that had moved to Georgia. In Soviet times, the birthrate among the Azerbaijanis was one of the highest: while in 1989 there were 16 newborns per 1,000 Georgians, the figure for Azerbaijanis was 28 per 1,000. In the 1990s, this factor attracted the close attention of the nationalist forces; the republican media carried articles expressing displeasure with the rapid natural numerical growth of Azerbaijanis.
Judging by the results of the population census of 2002, the number of Azerbaijanis in Georgia dropped to 284,761, even though their share in the total population increased to 6.5 percent. According to the All-Union population census of 1989, Azerbaijanis were the……………..
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