Other large cities:
Kutaisi, 268,800; Batoumi, 145,400; and Sokhumi, 110,300
Monetary unit: Lari
Languages: Georgian 71% (official), Russian 9%, Armenian
7%, Azerbaijani 6%, other 7% (Abkhaz is the official language in
Abkhazia)
Ethnicity/race: Georgian 83.8%, Azeri 6.5%, Armenian 5.7%,
Russian 1.5%, other 2.5% (2002)
Religions: Orthodox 84%, Islam 10%, Armenian-Gregorian 4%,
Catholic 1% (2002)
Literacy rate:
100% (2004 est.)
Economic summary:GDP/PPP (2007 est.): $19.65 billion; per capita $4,200. Real
growth rate: 12%. Inflation: 11%. Unemployment:
13.6% (2006 est.). Arable land: 11%. Agriculture:
citrus, grapes, tea, hazelnuts, vegetables; livestock. Labor force:
2.02 million (2007 est.); industry 20%, agriculture 40%, services
40% (1999 est.). Industries: steel, aircraft, machine tools,
electrical appliances, mining (manganese and copper), chemicals, wood
products, wine. Natural resources: forests, hydropower,
manganese deposits, iron ore, copper, minor coal and oil deposits;
coastal climate and soils allow for important tea and citrus growth.
Exports: $1.24 billion (2007 est.): scrap metal, machinery,
chemicals; fuel reexports; citrus fruits, tea, wine. Imports:
$5.2 billion (2007 est.): fuels, machinery and parts, transport
equipment, grain and other foods, pharmaceuticals. Major trading
partners: Turkey, Turkmenistan, Bulgaria, Russia, Armenia, UK,
Azerbaijan, Germany, Ukraine, Canada, U.S. (2006).
Communications: Telephones: main lines in
use: 544,000 (2007); mobile cellular: 2.4 million (2007). Radio
broadcast stations: AM 7, FM 12, shortwave 4 (1998).
Television broadcast stations: 12 (plus repeaters) (1998).
Internet hosts: 30,193 (2007). Internet users: 332,000
(2006).
Transportation: Railways:
total: 1,612 km (2006). Highways: total: 20,247 km; paved:
7,973 km; unpaved: 12,274 km (2004). Ports and harbors:
Bat'umi, P'ot'i. Airports: 23 (2007).
International disputes: Russia and Georgia
agree on delimiting 80% of their common border, leaving certain small,
strategic segments and the maritime boundary unresolved; OSCE
observers monitor volatile areas such as the Pankisi Gorge in the
Akhmeti region and the Argun Gorge in Abkhazia; UN Observer Mission in
Georgia has maintained a peacekeeping force in Georgia since 1993;
Meshkheti Turks scattered throughout the former Soviet Union seek to
return to Georgia; boundary with Armenia remains undemarcated; ethnic
Armenian groups in Javakheti region of Georgia seek greater autonomy
from the Georgian government; Azerbaijan and Georgia cannot resolve
the alignment of their boundary at certain crossing areas.
Georgia is bordered by the Black Sea in the west, by Turkey and Armenia
in the south, by Azerbaijan in the east, and Russia in the north. The
republic also includes the Abkhazia and Ajara autonomous republics and
South Ossetia.
Government
Republic.
History
Georgia became a kingdom about 4 B.C. and
Christianity was introduced in A.D. 337. During
the reign of Queen Tamara (1184–1213), its territory included the whole of
Transcaucasia. During the 13th century, Tamerlane and the Mongols
decimated its population. From the 16th century on, the country was the
scene of a struggle between Persia and Turkey. In the 18th century, it
became a vassal to Russia in exchange for protection from the Turks and
Persians.
Georgia joined Azerbaijan and Armenia in 1917 to establish the
anti-Bolshevik Transcaucasian Federation and on its dissolution in 1918
proclaimed its independence. In 1922, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan
were annexed by the USSR and formed the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist
Republic. In 1936, Georgia became a separate Soviet republic. Under Soviet
rule it was transformed from an agrarian country to a largely industrial
urban society.
Georgia proclaimed its independence from the USSR on April 6, 1991. In
Jan. 1992, its leader, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was sacked and later accused of
dictatorial policies, the jailing of opposition leaders, human rights
abuses, and clamping down on the media. A ruling military council was
established by the opposition until a civilian authority could be
restored. In 1992, Eduard Shevardnadze, the Soviet Union's foreign
minister under Gorbachev, became president.
In 1992–1993, the government engaged in armed conflict with separatists
in the breakaway province of Abkhazia. In 1994, Russia and Georgia signed
a cooperation treaty that authorized Russia to keep three military bases
in Georgia and allowed Russians to train and equip the Georgian army. In
1996, Georgia and its breakaway region of South Ossetia agreed to a
cessation of hostilities in their six-year conflict. With little progress
in resolving the Abkhazia situation, however, parliament in April 1997
voted overwhelmingly to threaten Russia with loss of its military bases,
should it fail to extend Russian military control over the separatist
region. In 1998, the U.S. and Britain began an operation to remove nuclear
material from Georgia, dangerous remains from its Soviet years. A darling
of the West since his days as the Soviet Union's foreign minister,
Shevardnadze was viewed far less favorably by his own people, who were
frustrated by unemployment, poverty, cronyism, and rampant corruption. In
the 2000 presidential elections, Shevardnadze was reelected with 80% of
the vote, though international observers determined the election was
marred by irregularities.
In 2002, U.S. troops trained Georgia's military in antiterrorism
measures in the hopes that Georgian troops would subdue Muslim rebels
fighting in the country. Tensions between Georgia and Russia were strained
over the Pankisi Gorge, a lawless region of Georgia that Russia said had
become a haven for Islamic militants and Chechen rebels.
In May 2003, work began on the Georgian section of the enormously
ambitious Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which runs from Azerbaijan
through Georgia to Turkey. The pipeline opened in July 2006.
Massive demonstrations began after the preliminary results of the Nov.
2003 parliamentary elections. The opposition party (and international
monitors) claimed that the elections were rigged in favor of Shevardnadze
and the political parties who supported him. After more than three weeks
of massive protests, Shevardnadze resigned on Nov. 30. Georgians compared
the turn of events to Czechoslovakia’s “velvet revolution.” In Jan. 2004
presidential elections, Mikhail Saakashvili, the key opposition leader,
won in a landslide. The 36-year-old lawyer built his reputation as a
reformer committed to ending corruption, and in his first three years as
president, Saakashvili made significant progress in rooting out the
country's endemic corruption and embarked on a series of reforms.
Saakashvili's ongoing difficulty has been reining in Georgia's two
breakaway regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, both of which are strongly
supported by neighboring Russia.
Saakashvili's popularity took a hit in November 2007 when some 50,000
demonstrators gathered outside parliament in Tbilisi and demanded early
elections and his resignation. The opposition accused Saakashvili of
abusing power and stifling dissent. After three days of protest,
Saakashvili deployed riot police, who used tear gas and rubber bullets to
break up the demonstrations, and delcared a state of emergency. Parliament
voted 149 to 0 to approve the state of emergency. The opposition in the
235-seat Parliament boycotted the vote, however. Saakashvili later
announced that a presidential election would be held in January 2008, and
he resigned to run in the race. Saakashvili won the election, taking 52.8%
of the vote, enough to avoid a runoff. Voters also voted in a referendum
in favor of joining NATO.
