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Our Sweet Phobias
Aleko Tskitishvili, Editor’s Opinion
“Stand Up, Malkhaz, Abkhaz Has Come!”
Don’t Think I am joking! These
stupid words are from the songs written for Georgian soldiers. To tell
the truth, I have not listened to this song; my friend told me several
years ago that our soldiers sing this song when marching. For a long
time I thought it was a joke and could not believe it before I saw the
quotation of Adolf Hitler in one of the advertising rolls on TV-Company
“Sakartvelo” funded by the Defense Ministry of Georgia. "It
must be thoroughly understood that the lost land will never be won back
by solemn appeals to the God, nor by hopes in any League of Nations,
but only by the force of arms – Adolf Hitler", the stupid voice
is heard in the advertisement and it aims to increase “military spirit”
of young reservists. Particularly stupid stress falls on the name of
Adolf Hitler in the ad as if he was any of famous and honorable
Georgian people Ilia Chavchavadze or Ivane Javakhishvili instead black
stain of the humanity and bloody monster. My colleague Giorgi Janelidze
prepared a special video-roll about this advertisement and I advise you
to see it on: http://www.hridc.tv/index.php?a=view&id=336&lang=eng
After
seeing this advertisement on “Sakartvelo TV” I believed that Georgian
soldiers really sang this song in the army and still sing it: “Stand up
Malkhaz, Abkhaz Has Come.” Just
imagine young generation is inspired with the fear of Abkhaz people
while Abkhaz people have also been afraid of Georgians for several
years already. I
think when we are speaking about phobias, first of all, we should blame
ourselves and not Russia in every problem resulted from those phobias;
Russia with its state policy aims to instill similar phobias in our
brains. Our
failure mostly results from these phobias. We seem to have genetic fear
of somebody coming and eating us up. Unfortunately, it is not true only
about Abkhaz people. We are afraid of Turkish Meskhs whom we do not
recognize as Georgians and call them Turks. We are afraid of Georgians
from Fereidan who have particular love for their historical homeland;
though we also call them Tatars because of subconscious fear. It is
well-known fact that many people who repatriated in Georgia from
Fereidani returned back to Iran and said they preferred to be called
Gurjs in Iran than Tatars in their homeland. And so, our energy is spent on phobias which could have been spent on love, unification and integration. I
have been reading the discussion on online-forums; users mostly speak
about the blood-color and genetics of Abkhaz people; they say real
Abkhaz is Georgian and there is a different tribe –Absuas who settled
in Georgia long ago and they are bad guys. This
is anthropological discussions full of hatred and far from reality on
which we have spent total 20 years. All this time, we have never wished
to shake hands with at least one Abkhaz and to hear his sorrow and
opinions. We
should not create our opinions about entire Abkhaz people in accordance
to the statements of Ardzinba, Baghabsh and Khajinba; like they should
not think the position of entire Georgian society is equal to the
positions of Saakashvili or Irakli Okruashvili. Despite
the stupidity established in our country, I still hope that both
nations – Georgian and Abkhaz peoples - still have power and resource
to find ways to each other. If genetics is the main point, resource of
reconciliation shall be encoded in both nations instead fear of each
other. I hope
because of century-long relations. Maybe we will read our classic
literature once more – “Haki Adzba” by Leo Kiacheli and “Tutor” by
Akaki Tsereteli. It
was time when Georgian people trusted their most precious people and
belongings to Abkhaz people – their children were brought up by Abkhaz
people and according to this tradition their sons were brothers of
Georgian men brought up in their families. Nowadays, we might dislike
the fact that in “Tutor” by Akaki Tsereteli Georgian hero betrayed
Abkhaz friend; that means Abkhaz man was more honest person than
Georgian one. Although the topic of this poem is not relations between
different ethnicities, historical reality is very well described in it;
we see what relations we had in the 19th century. Please,
read “Haki Adzba” once more – in it Abkhaz man is very faithful to his
friend and he dies for him without thinking. In this novel, role of
Russia is also very well described; how it entered Abkhazia with blood
and death and starts intrigues to destroy century-long co-existence
and relationship. These intrigues are those wires now stretched on Enguri River now at the so-called border. Unfortunately,
after the bloodshed in 1990s we did not have any compromising policy in
regard with Abkhaz people. These years passed in gun-blazing and
pseudo-romantic dreams to drink water in Psou River. It
is clear that Russia is aggressor, occupant and soon Abkhazia and South
Ossetia will join Russian Federation; that means much time is not left
before these lands are completely occupied. It is clear that it is
tragedy for Abkhaz and Ossetian peoples because it means complete
Rusification and disappearance for them. But what do we offer better to Abkhaz and Ossetian peoples? We are just waiting for them to realize the situation; we are singing stupid songs and live on the delirium of Hitler. You
will agree with me that it is unserious position and maybe we should be
more sensible. Otherwise, if we really manage some day to liberate
Abkhazia from Russian occupation, there we will find only ruins of
houses of both Georgians and Abkhazs.
2 Mar. '10 ...back
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