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On the eastern border of the Black Sea adjacent to the Caucasus Mountain range rests a country of 5 million people on a land rich in history, agriculture, literature, superb wine and stunning beauty....... the Republic of Georgia.
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Georgia is situated in the central and western parts of Transcaucasus, beyond the CaucasusMountains. It is bordered by Turkey, Russia , Armenia and Azerbaijan. Its territory is about 69,700 square kilometres, and the length of its borders totals 1969 km. It boasts such natural riches as iron and coal, copper and manganese, and numerous curative mineral springs, such as Borjomi, Sairme, and Nabeglavi. Its gushing rivers represent a huge hydroelectric potential.
By reason of difficult relief, Georgia's climate zones are very different: from continental to subtropical. There are the palms, eucalyptuses, liana-entwined jungle of Colchis, the snowy mountain peaks; pine- and beech-clad slopes of the Greater and Lesser Caucasus ranges; the steppes of the Yori Plateau covered with beard grass; the orchards of Kartli and the world-famous vineyards of Kakheti, the fatherland of many Georgian vines. There are plantations of tea, citrus trees, tung and subtropical plants in Adjaria, Guria, Imereti and Megrelia, and the alpine pastures of the upland regions of Svaneti, Tusheti and Khevsureti. |
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Archaeologists and historians have established that Georgia was one of the regions which saw the emergence and development of primitive man and the origins of civilization. Stone implements fashioned during the Palaeolithic Age have been found here. The people of Georgia were amongst the first in the Caucasus to master the smelting and casting of metals, first copper and bronze, then, as early as the 9th-7th centuries B.C., iron. During then Bronze Age large tribal confederations were formed here, the basis for the first Georgian states; Colchis (6th century B.C.) in western Georgia and Kartli (Iberia) (4th century B.C.) in the east. The tradition of the unified state was preserved in subsequent centuries, all through the Middle Ages, with old cities formed in the Hellenistic period continuing to grow, and new centers of culture appearing -- Mtskheta, Uplistsikhe, Vani, Gori, Shorapani and others. Even before 337, when Christianity was made the official religion in the Kingdom of Kartli (and subsequently in the entire territory of Georgia), an alphabet had been developed and a written language had appeared. Georgia's path through the centuries and the millennia was arduous and troubled. Like a magnet its lands attracted hordes of conquerors. The Georgians had to fight for their independence against Greeks and Romans, Parthia and Byzantium, Khazars and Arabs, the hordes of Genghis Khan and Tamerlane and the armies of Persia and Turkey. |
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In April 1991, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia adopted a declaration to re-establish the independence of the state of Georgia. Georgia is at present an independent republic. On July 31, 1992, it became the 179th member of the United Nations. Since 1993, it has been a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). After elections held on November 5, 1995, Georgians made their choice and elected from 6 candidates Mr. Eduard Shevardnadze as President of Georgia and a new Parliament of Georgia including 233 members. Chairman of the Parliament is Mr. Zurab Zhvania. The adverse political events had their parallel in economics, though the country started independence in relatively favorable conditions. Thus, before separating from the Soviet Union, Georgia had a well developed industrial sector. Principal activities were in engineering, food and other consumer goods industries, chemicals, cement, ferro-alloy, fuel pipes, fertilizers, aircraft manufacture, and computers. |
