The Caucasus is a region often forgotten, in both history and current foreign policy debates.  Located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it is neither distinctly European nor Asiatic in either culture or politics.  With Russia to the north, Turkey to the west, and Iran to the south, one can imagine the political, cultural, and religious clashes that have occurred in the region over the centuries.  The Persians, Ottomans, Russian Empire, and Soviet Union all fought and ruled over parts of the Caucasus at one point or another.  It rests between the Black and Caspian Seas, and is home to the majestic Caucasus Mountains, including Europe’s highest mountain – Mount Elbrus.  It is a mysterious place – a land as culturally and ethnically diverse as it is geographically.

Throughout the 20th century, the region was both geographically and politically isolated as part of the Soviet Union, and foreigners rarely traveled there.  In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the region has struggled to regain its strength, and has been subject to many regional conflicts.  Today, the Caucasus generally refers to a northern area under Russian jurisdiction, and a southern area consisting of three sovereign and independent states – Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.   It is located in a vital territory, yet it seems that many of us in the West know very little about it and are often guilty of ignoring it.  This is somewhat understandable as the majority of the area only became accessible to the outside world around 20 years ago, but it would be a mistake to continue this trend of ignorance and neglect.  When it was revealed that the Boston Marathon Bomber was of Chechen origin, many Americans immediately confused Chechnya with Czechoslovakia – which doesn’t even exist anymore, and is obviously a completely different place.  While this probably exposes a need for improved lessons in history and geography in American schools it is also a testament to the lack of attention given to the Caucasus region in general and its tumultuous history.

In August 2008, the Caucasus briefly captured the world’s attention as a result of a short conflict between Russia and Georgia over the now Russian occupied territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia – also known as the Five-Day War.  More recently, there has been concern over the region in relation to the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi.  In December 2013, there were two suicide bombings within one day in the Russian city of Volgograd, killing 34 people.  Volgograd is a city that many will likely have to travel through on their way from Moscow to Sochi, hence the heightened concerns over security in relation to the Olympics.  Vilayat Dagestan, a subgroup of the Caucasus Emirate, which is based in the North Caucasus, has claimed responsibility for the attacks.  The Caucasus Emirate has ties with Al Qaeda and has been designated a terrorist organization by the governments of both Russia and the United States.  Thus, we have seen violence of varying character and degree in the area, even within the past decade.

The dispute over Abkhazia and South Ossetia is nothing new, but even recently (January 2014) the Georgian government has complained that Russia has moved its border 11 km further into Abkhazia.  Abkhazia lies about 10 km from Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held.  Thus, this is obviously still a very relevant and contentious issue.  In essence, the Caucasus is a dynamic region with a complicated history.  As such, it would be dangerous to make generalizations about the region, and even more perilous to ignore it.

In January 2012, I traveled to the Republic of Georgia to work as a volunteer English teacher for the Georgian government.  To be perfectly honest, I was extremely unfamiliar with Georgia’s history, politics, and culture upon my arrival in the capital, Tbilisi.  Despite having a degree in history, virtually the only thing I knew about Georgia was that Joseph Stalin was from there.  My only other knowledge of the Caucasus came from a report I did in AP Comparative Government in high school on Chechnya and Shamil Basayev many years earlier.  Basayev, who was killed in 2006, was essentially Russia’s “Osama bin Laden” throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s.  Needless to say, my perception of the region was not very positive, or comprehensive.  So you might be wondering why I went to Georgia in the first place.  I ask myself the same question quite often.  When it comes down to it, I think it was curiosity.  Ultimately, I had one of the most formative and incredible experiences of my life, and I gained many important insights into the August 2008 war as well as into the culture and history of the Caucasus in general.

While many people quickly forgot about the conflict between Russia and Georgia in 2008, it became immediately apparent to me that the conflict had left deep scars in Georgia.  I spent my first week in Georgia in Tbilisi, but was quickly moved to Rokhi, a village in the region of Imereti, about 30 km from Georgia’s second largest city – Kutaisi.  For 6 months I lived with a wonderful host family, who spoke little-to-no English – but they welcomed me with open arms and treated me like one of their own.  If you ever travel to the Caucasus you will find that it is probably the most hospitable region in the world.  You will be treated like a king or a queen at numerous feasts, and you will find yourself engaged in countless traditional toasts with homemade wine, chacha (Georgian moonshine), or cognac.  Strangers will welcome you into their homes, and if you are a male some might even offer you their daughters hand in marriage.  Within my first two weeks in the village I was reminded of the 2008 war, as some of the boys I taught brought me over to a grave near the village church.  It was the grave of a village boy who had fought and died in the war.  Within a few minutes of visiting the grave, a few men walked over with a bottle full of clear liquid.  It was chacha, and they were more than happy to pour me a small cup (in fact they insisted).  We stood there for several minutes as they gave emotional toasts to the fallen soldier in Georgian, and we all finished with the Georgian word for cheers, “Gaumarjos,” which translates literally to “victory.”

In my second week in Georgia, I received a somewhat frantic phone call from a close friend that was also teaching there.  He was living in a village 5 km from Abkhazia.  On a taxi ride home, the car that he was in was stopped at a military checkpoint.  Georgian soldiers almost immediately surrounded the taxi with their weapons at the ready. The soldiers questioned him about his presence in the area.  They were very confused as to why an American would be venturing so close to Abkhazia.  Luckily he spoke basic Georgian and had papers on him that explained why he was in the country, but we were quickly learning that this conflict was far from over and was certainly nothing to joke about.

Over my time in Georgia I was constantly reminded of the war.  My host family’s house had no heating, except for a small space heater and fireplace in the kitchen.  Thus, during the winter I spent much of my time in that room.  It’s not much fun waking up to a room in which you can see your breath, but I was grateful for the space that they gave me.  My host family had a small television in the corner of the kitchen; it was almost always switched to the news, which my host mother watched religiously.  Despite my limited knowledge of Georgian, which grew over time, I picked up numerous stories that focused on the war almost weekly.  There were also frequent advertisements for the film “5 Days of August” – which focuses on the Russia-Georgia war and stars Andy García as Mikheil Saakashvili (then President of Georgia).  The film seemed to stir an emotional response in my host mother, as well as others that visited the house.

Over time I had many conversations with different Georgians about the war, including the host siblings of friends living near Zugdidi, a city of around 75,000, who could remember being quite terrified as military planes flew over their house during those dark days.  Perhaps the most unexpected reference I found to the war was in Gori, Stalin’s birthplace.  I visited the Stalin Museum and the house that Ioseb Jugashvili (his original, Georgian, name) was born in.  It was odd to visit a place dedicated to the memory of Stalin and Stalinism, and to see a statue of him in a public area.  The last exhibit in the museum documented the Five-Day War, and showed pictures of homes in Gori that had been destroyed during the conflict.  It seemed ironic to me that they would pay homage to the recent conflict in a museum that was created by a Stalinist agent to prop up the cult of a dictator and mass murderer – but it also illustrated the complex history of Georgia and the ambivalent sentiment towards both Stalin and Russia within the country.

As my host family spoke very little English, I had to learn to communicate with them, so I worked very hard on my Georgian throughout my time in the country.  Eventually, I was able to have conversations beyond “where is the bathroom” or “what is for dinner,” and on a night when I finally felt comfortable about it I questioned my host father about the conflict.  I asked him if he hated Russia.  He looked at me with a very confused expression and immediately replied no.  He was silent for a second, and I thought I had offended him.  Eventually he explained that he did not hate the Russian people, and in fact had many Russian friends – at one point he had been a soldier in the Soviet Army and had spent some time in Afghanistan.  His problem, he explained, was with Putin and the Russian government.  I had to admire him for that statement, and for making that important distinction.

For many Georgians, the 2008 conflict was simply fought to reclaim territory that was theirs in the first place, and Russia had been far too aggressive and cruel in their response.  To this day, Georgia sees Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of its territory.  Initially, it was hard for me to understand the idiosyncrasies of this as an outsider.  Thus, as a student of history I read more into the conflict and its context in order to gain a more objective perspective.  What I essentially concluded was that Georgia had perhaps imprudently invaded these territories under the false impression that its foreign allies would come to its aid (the United States), and under the conviction that the territories indeed belonged within its borders.  I also learned that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are ethnically and linguistically distinct from both Georgia and Russia, and they both desire independence – not union with Georgia.

I quickly found that Georgia, and the entire region of the Caucasus, was more diverse than I could have possibly imagined.  Georgia is a nation of just under 5 million people, yet there are 3 indigenous languages spoken there (Kartuli or Georgian, Svan, and Mingrelian) and multiple ethnicities.  Eventually I realized that there was no simple answer or explanation to the conflict, and perceptions of its causes were riddled with bias and historical misunderstanding.  I think what this reveals is a need to approach the region with caution, and to take a deeper look at its complex history in order to understand the conflicts and disputes that plague it today.

On my second night in Georgia, I ventured deep into the heart of Tbilisi.  I was with a friend and we had no idea where we were going, but we were simply trying to get a feel for the place.  After about an hour of walking in the frigid cold of a Georgian winter night, we both spotted an Irish flag out of the corner of our eyes.  It was sitting on top of an Irish pub, the Hangar Bar.  A half-Irish and half-Georgian woman who had gone to the University of Virginia owned the pub – it’s a small world.  Interestingly enough, the bar was full of Americans and expats alike.  Many of these people were American military, and this had me very confused.  Why was the American military in Tbilisi?  I was offered a very quick education on this from a friendly US Marine sitting up at the bar.  He explained that he was there, along with other personnel, to train the Georgian military.  The marine explained that he would be there for 3 weeks, and then he would be cycled out and replaced.  Over the course of our conversation it became apparent that America had been doing this for years (it was then 2012).

In 2002 America began sending its soldiers to Georgia to train the military there under what is known as the Georgia Train and Equip Program, which was followed by the Georgia Sustainment and Stability Operations Program – military training programs between the US and Georgia.  I later learned that the some of Georgian military had been deployed to Afghanistan, and Georgia is now the largest non-NATO contributor to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.  Upon learning this fact I immediately thought to myself – first these people were sent there under the Soviet Union, and now under the United States.  Throughout its history the Caucasus has been a staging ground for wider disputes, and its peoples have been caught in the mix.

Thus, it seemed that despite my lack of knowledge of the Caucasus it had captured the attention of the US government and military – and continues to.  As I learned during my time there, Georgia and America are considered best friends.  In fact, Georgians are not afraid to publicly express their love and gratitude towards the United States.  George W. Bush was the first American President to visit the country, and they quickly named the road leading to the Tbilisi airport after him.  In many cases, at various traditional feasts I attended, Georgians attempted to honor me by proposing toasts to President George W. Bush and Senator John McCain (who they are also very fond of).

Hence, while many Americans might have limited knowledge of Georgia and the region that surrounds it, their tax dollars are being spent there and the US is actively growing its military presence there.  Moreover, from a broader perspective, the Caucasus is a region that will likely continue to see violence as extremism continues to gain a foothold there – particularly in areas such as Dagestan, which directly borders Georgia and Chechnya.  It should be noted that despite the unremittingly rocky diplomatic relations between the US and Russia, organizations like the Caucasus Emirate view them both as enemies.  Hence, as the Winter Olympics are just around the corner, it would be a perfect time for one to become more familiar with the Caucasus and its unique beauty and history.