Russian Duma might discuss Ossetian genocide of 1920

In recent times, the Russian media has been speculating about possible recognition of the alleged genocide of Ossetian people in 1920 allegedly committed by the Georgian government of Mensheviks. It is clear that this step would be Russia’s response to the Georgian parliament's recognition of the Cherkyz genocide committed by the Russian empire in the 19th century. It may be that a new genocide recognition battle between Georgia and Russia is underway.

The recent step of recognizing the Cherkyz genocide by the Georgian parliament was actually aimed at teasing Russia, because it seemed unlikely that it would yield any sort of serious reaction. In reality Moscow is thinking of responding in the same way and now has started considering the possibility of recognizing the Ossetian genocide of 1920. Analyst in Caucasian issues Mamuka Areshidze said that he had anticipated such moves and that he had been warning of the possible repercussions of Georgia's recognition. The term genocide has been intensively used by both Georgian and Russian sides discussing their relations with other ethnic entities. Georgians claimed that Russians had supported genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population in Abkhazia towards the end of the 20th century. Moscow claimed that Georgians organized genocide of Ossetian population and therefore it was obliged to interfere and send its troops to Tskhinvali region in August 2008. The term has been endemic in relations between the countries. The analyst think that in Georgia the issue of 1920 Ossetian genocide will be less convincing and it will fail much like the allegations of genocide in 2008 when it claimed that over 2000 Ossetians were killed by Georgians but it transpired that only a couple of dozen people had been killed, most of whom were military.

In 1920, the Russian Bolsheviks triggered unrest in the central Georgian region of Java with the target to provoke bloodshed and therefore justify the Red Army's entry into Georgia. But the Georgian armed forces suppressed the military activities of Ossetians, Russian Bolsheviks were kicked out from Georgian territory and on May 7, 1920 Georgia and Bolshevik Russia signed a peaceful agreement. Reports about the numbers killed in the Ossetian rebellion against Georgia varied. Russians exaggerated their amount so the exact number of those dead during the conflict is not properly identified but it was definitely not genocide. However the Kremlin wants to respond to Georgia’s recognition of Cherkyz genocide and that is the major reason for activating this issue which, if it continues, could trigger further accusations with the Chechens and Ingush likely to come on to the agenda. The rather tasteless match of genocide recognition between Georgia and Russia carries on.