Tragic Anniversary: 14 Years Since Conflict Between Georgia and South Ossetia Began

The origins of this conflict date back to the early Nineties when South Ossetia and Abkhazia, autonomous regions of Georgia back when it was part of the USSR, broke away from Georgia after violent armed conflicts.

The independence of the two self-proclaimed republics was not recognized by Georgia's government, and a ceasefire was maintained thanks to Russian peace-keeping forces deployed in the two regions.

After the so-called Rose Revolution of 2003 - when Mikheil Saakashvili became the new Georgian president - Georgia started to enjoy increased support from the US while its relations with Russia began to deteriorate.

In 2008, Georgia tried to change the South Ossetia situation by force of arms, but its efforts were thwarted by the stiff resistance mounted by South Ossetian forces and Russian peace-keepers, and by the rapid arrival of Russian armed forces who entered the fray under the orders of Russia's then-President Dmitry Medvedev.

The conflict, during which Russian forces entered Georgian territory and systematically destroyed the country’s military infrastructure, thereby forcing Tbilisi to stand down, ended in a matter of days.

On 16 August, Medvedev and Saakashvili signed a treaty agreeing on the conflict’s peaceful resolution.

The agreement was arranged with the help of then-President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, (at that time, France held the EU presidency) and then-Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin.

The six points of the agreement included full cessation of hostilities; free access to humanitarian aid; no recourse to the use of force; the withdrawal of Georgian military forces to their bases; the withdrawal of Russian forces to where they had been stationed before the conflict; and the opening of international talks on enduring security in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Although a number of western media outlets claimed during the conflict that Russia had launched an attack against Georgia, an EU investigation led by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini established that the conflict was in fact initiated by Georgia.

Georgia continued to regard South Ossetia and Abkhazia as its breakaway provinces but Russia recognized their independence shortly after the hostilities ended.

These days, the independence of these self-proclaimed republics is also recognized by Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria. However, the majority of western powers seem to have followed the US' lead by refusing to recognize South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.