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RUMI Forum hosts event on history of the Caucasus
April 9, 2008
By Matthew Plocher
On April 9, the Washington-based RUMI Forum presented Dr. Charles King and his latest book, The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus. King is Ion Ratiu Professor of Romanian Studies, Professor of International Affairs, and Professor of Government at Georgetown University. He has also written The Black Sea: A History and The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture. At the event, he sought to explain the impetus behind his newest piece of work, and what he hoped it would accomplish.
King has always been fascinated with the Caucasus. He called it a beautiful region at the intersection of Europe, Russia, and the Middle East with a dizzying array of ethnicities, cultures, religious sects, and languages. He acknowledged, however, that the same diversity and complex history he loves has also spurred most of the regions conflicts over the past century. He lamented that when Westerners think of the Caucasus, the violent aspects of its history (ethnic-cleansing, religious warfare, etc.) are all they can picture. His book is an attempt to better explain the region’s history, and bring the discussion past the stereotypical view of ethnic divisions: East vs. West, Muslim vs. Christian, etc. King wants to show that despite being the size of Texas with 70 different ethnic groups and almost as many different languages, the Caucasus experienced large periods of stability as well as discord, and that the cultural diversity didn’t produce xenophobia, but instead a rich and interwoven social fabric and love of art that transcends ethnic boundaries.
One aspect of Caucasus history he wanted to discuss concerned Soviet influence. He described it as both unifying the region through a shared history and experience, while conversely entrenching the ethnic divisions in the region. Apparently, the Soviet Union’s rigorous census made a great deal more out of specific ethnic differences than the people of Caucasus themselves did. Its efforts to promote Soviet citizenship over ethnic identity actually solidified conceptions of ethnic differences between Caucasus neighbors, King said.
In addition to recognizing both the shared and differentiated histories of the region, King wanted to understand the region’s various movements for freedom and autonomy. He said that understanding the movements, with their varying degrees of success and failure, goes a long way toward understanding the divisions that plague parts of the region today. King maintained that a detailed history of those movements might offer additional opportunities to bridge those divides by unearthing shared histories and cultures that may have been forgotten or overlooked. |
