In the Caucasus We Count

WiP: The Georgian Question at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, 5 February - Beka Kobakhidze

2014-02-04

American Councils, ARISC and CRRC present the second talk in the Spring 2014 Works-in-Progress Series!

Beka Kobakhidze, Tbilisi State University
"The Georgian Question at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference"

Wednesday, 5 January, 2014 at 6:15pm
ISET, Zandukeli St. 16, Tbilisi, GEORGIA
In 1918, as the First World War ended and the Russian Empire collapsed, Georgia declared its independence. The Peace Conference in Paris in 1919 was intended to draw up a new world map that would summarize the results of the Great War and deal with the Russian problem. The Caucasus and Georgia were part of a project that involved not only the victorious powers’ policy towards Russia, but also the Turkish peace settlement and, most importantly, British interests in the east. If there would be any opportunity for Georgia to achieve recognition of her independence and provisions for her security, it would be in Paris, where the decision makers of world politics were sitting for an entire year. This talk will present how this story played out for the Georgian question. 

Beka Kobakhidze is a doctoral candidate in contemporary Georgian history at Tbilisi State University. He received his BA in History of Diplomacy and International Relations from TSU in 2006 and an MA in contemporary Georgian history in 2009. For the past seven years his research has focused exclusively on the foreign policy of the first Georgian Democratic Republic (1918-21) using Georgian, Russian, British, American, French, Italian, Armenian, and Azerbaijani sources. His research has been supported by a Presidential Grant for young scholars, and he hopes to publish his monograph both in Georgia and in the UK. He is currently working for the European Union Monitoring Mission (EUMM). 
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W-i-P is an ongoing academic discussion series based in Tbilisi, Georgia, that takes place at the International School of Economics (ISET) building (16 Zandukeli Street). It is co-organized by the Caucasus Research Resource Centers (CRRC), the American Councils for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS, and the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC). All of the talks are free and open to the public.
The purpose of the W-i-P series is to provide support and productive criticism to those researching and developing academic projects pertaining the Caucasus region.
Would you like to present at one of the W-i-P sessions? Send an e-mail to natia@crrccenters.org.
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