SUMMARY
Georgia was recognized as an independent state in December 1991. Prior to this the country had been part of the former Soviet Union.
In April 1991, the Georgian parliament issued the declaration of independence and Zviad Gamsakhurdia was elected first President of the independent Republic of Georgia on 26 May 1991. Gamsakhurdia had been a key figure in Georgia’s struggle for independence. Despite Georgia’s declaration and the election, the Soviet Union did not recognize Georgia’s independence. Thus, until the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the international recognition of Georgia as an independent state on 21 December 1991, the self-proclaimed Republic of Georgia is seen as a non-state actor by UCDP.
The newly independent state experienced substantial turmoil during the last days of 1991 as president Gamsakhurdia was ousted in a bloody coup by an anti-government alliance. The coup d’état was commandeered by a Military Council headed by Tangiz Sigua (a former Minister of the economy), Tengiz Kitovani (head of the National Guard) and Jaba Ioseliani (Commander of the paramilitary group Mkhedrioni). As a result of the coup, Gamsakhurdia sought refuge abroad.
The Military Council, now renamed the State Council, decided in March 1992 to invite former First Secretary of the Georgian Communist Party and Foreign Secretary of the Soviet Union, Eduard Shevardnadze, to return home and restore order and political legitimacy to Georgia. A couple of days later he became Chair of the State Council and Parliament. Shevardnadze was endowed with broad powers, but his political base and position was relatively weak. What is more, the state as such had no army of its own and Shevardnadze was dependent upon support from Kitovani, Ioseliani, and their forces National Guard and Mkhedrioni.
Shevardnadze gained more power in October 1992, when he was elected president by the Georgian population. He subsequently began to outmaneuver the coup-makers by coopting some and pitting others against one another. However, despite intentions to create a unified national army, Shevardnadze was still relatively dependent upon the paramilitary forces when it came to military and defense matters. The attempts to build a new Georgian national army in 1994 and 1995 were, among others, hampered by a high amount of draft evasions.
Shevardnadze was reelected in 1995 and his Union of Citizens of Georgia bloc received close to a majority of the parliamentary seats. Again, in the October 1999 parliamentary elections and the April 2000 presidential elections, Shevardnadze and the Union of Citizens received fresh electoral mandates.
Shevardnadze remained in power until 2003, when he resigned as a result of manipulation of parliamentary elections, collapsing popular support and the nonviolent uprising, the “Rose Revolution”. Nino Burjanadze served as an acting head of the state until the leader of the Rose Revolution, Mikheil Saakashvili, was elected president in January 2004. In addition to bringing Saakashvili to power, the Rose Revolution also brought the United National Movement to power as well as a stronger European discourse to Georgian politics.
President Saakashvili was shortly confronted by growing opposition. Opposition protests erupted in late 2007 and, after calling for early elections, Saakashvili stepped down as president in November 2007. He subsequently won the presidential election held in January 2008 and his United National Movement won a majority of the seats in parliamentary election in May.
During his presidency, Saakashvili focused on keeping the country together in the face of secessionist movements. However, soon after Saakashvili’s victory in 2008, the tensions rose in South Ossetia.
In 2012, a new coalition, known as Georgian Dream, led by billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, won the parliamentary elections. Saakashvili remained in office until the end of his second presidential term in 2013. He was succeeded by Giorgi Margvelashvili who was supported by the Georgian Dream coalition.
