“The historical events that
happen in people’s formative years leave a permanent imprint on people’s
memories” concluded one
of the founding fathers of classical sociology, Karl Mannheim, in
1952. Georgian teenagers today remember
living in a country where electricity failures and lack of money for basic
needs were common everyday issues. Their perceptions are as dramatic as the
perceptions of adults, especially for IDPs from the separatist region of
Abkhazia. The experiences of young IDPs represent one of the most salient
topics in Georgia’s post-Soviet history – an unexpected and often tragic
reality the country has had to face since the 1990s. Since the issue is, to
date, largely understudied by historians and social scientists, all we can rely
on to learn more about these experiences are the narratives of IDP youth
themselves. These narratives are closely connected with various aspects of
post-Soviet transformation.
One of the aims of the recent Memory, Youth, Political
Legacy And Civic Engagement (MYPLACE) project’s work package ‘Interpreting the Past: The construction and
transmission of historical memory’ in Telavi was to reveal how IDP
youth view the history of Georgia and, specifically, the period of the war in
Abkhazia. Some questions examined were how young IDPs and their lives are
viewed by their non-IDP peers, and how close or how distant these two groups are
from each other. Through participant observation in a non-academic partner
institution (YMCA-Telavi), expert interviews, and focus group discussions with
young people, CRRC researchers tried to shape outlines of history and
self-identification that prevail among youth. Young respondents, however, often
needed additional explanations when questions about ‘official’ vs. ‘unofficial’
interpretations of history were asked.
At the beginning of the 1990s,
people in Georgia had to deal with separatist movements for autonomy, the rise
of militarized criminal groups and the outbreak of strife between supporters
and opponents of the newly elected president. Although most of the young people that were questioned by MYPLACE did
not remember life in Abkhazia (many of those born in Telavi had never been to
Abkhazia), they admitted to having a very strong self-identification with the
IDP group and often did not see themselves and their families staying in Telavi
forever. Rather, they saw themselves returning to Abkhazia at some point after
the conflict is resolved.
Young respondents also did not
expect the ongoing IDP situation to last for such a long time. There was an
overwhelming and long-lasting hope that IDPs would spend a much shorter time
away from their homes, and that they would be able to return home relatively
soon. Even today this myth of a quick return plays a very important role in the
self-identification of the respondents and members of their families. Very
young respondents who have spent their entire lives in Telavi are also reluctant
to consider Telavi to be their true home. This shows that this group of IDPs is
not fully integrated into Telavi society, in spite of having lived there for two
decades.
According to official rhetoric, they
should eventually be given the possibility to return to their homes in Abkhazia
once the conflict is resolved and their security is guaranteed. However, there
is no realistic estimate of when (and if) this could actually happen (Internal
Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2012).
Discussing this experience with
teenagers enables us to see the process of transmission of memory (mostly
within families) regarding important and painful historical events. At the same
time, we are able to observe the attitudes of young people (both IDP and
non-IDP) towards the processes which have occurred in Telavi during recent
years.
A schoolteacher from Telavi
mentioned that many of the tragic events that she has read about in her world
history books (e.g., territorial conflict, civil war, IDPs, political terror) have
all happened in Georgia within the past 20 years. One of the difficult challenges
for today’s Georgia is to encourage IDP youth to redefine themselves in the new
environment, give them opportunities and encourage them to find their place in
current Georgian history.
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