Suddenly a Border: Hazelnut Trade across the De Facto Border between Abkhazia and the Zugdidi Municipal Region of Georgia

After the Georgia-Abkhaz conflict that began in 1991, a new border appeared on the Enguri River, where the border of the Autonomous Region of Abkhazia was previously located. This separated the markets in Zugdidi town from the hinterland, where hazelnuts and other agricultural products were produced. In the 2.5 decades since, the variable border regime has created conditions where those who purchase the nuts from producers have had to use a variety of informal means to cope with a difficult and variable border crossing. Those moving these products across the border have had to face a wide variety of changing conditions, including hostilities between Russia/Abkhazia and Georgia, the quality of the annual seasonal harvest, the changing power of criminal groups that prey on cross-border trade, and the work of different institutions, including the border control, municipal authorities, and international groups that engage in mediating activities. This paper focuses on the dynamics of how trade interacts with formal institutions, including borders. The research is based on fieldwork in this region, with observations and interviews of the participants in the aspects of these processes that occur on the Georgian side of the border since 2012

Chapter 1 Dynamics of Bordering in the Post-Soviet Space over the Last 30 years

The disintegration of the Soviet Union changed the status of the borders of its republics: internal administrative borders became international ones that were redefined by treaties between the successor republics, and the former external borders of the Union were similarly redefined. This article shows how these negotiations and further bordering developed differently in the regions of the Baltic States, the western post-Soviet states, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Various influencing factors played out differently: previous social, cultural, and political orders; nation-building efforts; economic and structural linkages; and competing regional and international political projects. Peace has prevailed around most of the borders, and the population has created ways to maintain social relations. However, starting with the conflicts in the Caucasus in the early 1990s, unresolved conflicts over borders of the successor republics have increased

Chapter 1 Dynamics of Bordering in the Post-Soviet Space over the Last 30 years

The disintegration of the Soviet Union changed the status of the borders of its republics: internal administrative borders became international ones that were redefined by treaties between the successor republics, and the former external borders of the Union were similarly redefined. This article shows how these negotiations and further bordering developed differently in the regions of the Baltic States, the western post-Soviet states, the Caucasus, and Central Asia. Various influencing factors played out differently: previous social, cultural, and political orders; nation-building efforts; economic and structural linkages; and competing regional and international political projects. Peace has prevailed around most of the borders, and the population has created ways to maintain social relations. However, starting with the conflicts in the Caucasus in the early 1990s, unresolved conflicts over borders of the successor republics have increased

Transborder Trade

The topic of this issue of the Caucasus Analytical Digest is Transborder Trade. Susanne Fehlings surveys informal trade between the Caucasus and China since the early 1990s; Chen Bram analyses the role of ‘Juhuro’ (the self-described name of the Caucasus ‘Mountain Jews’) post-Soviet Oligarch entrepreneurs in the evolving trade networks in Eurasia; and Ketevan Khutsishvili focuses on the dynamics of how trade interacts with formal institutions, including borders, based on fieldwork researching the hazelnut trade across the de facto Border between Abkhazia and the Zugdidi municipal region of Georgia.ISSN:1867-932

Additional file 1: of A comparative ethnobotany of Khevsureti, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Tusheti, Svaneti, and Racha-Lechkhumi, Republic of Georgia (Sakartvelo), Caucasus

Plants used in Georgia. (FOREST = includes all non garden areas; GARDEN = area where species are cultivated; Arm. = Armenian; Khev. = Khevsurian; Russ. = Russian; Svan. = Svanetian; Phsh. = Pshavian). (DOCX 153 kb