«Si quelques années avant la guerre, des militants informés des choses internationales, pénétrés des idées fondamentales du marxisme, s’étaient posé la question de savoir quelle serait la première capitale où s’établirait un gouvernement démocrate socialiste, quelques-uns eussent songé à Paris…, d’autres plus nombreux eussent parlé de Berlin ou de Londres, de Stockholm ou de Bruxelles ; mais je gage que pas un n’eût songé à Tiflis, Capitale de la République Géorgienne.»

Emile Vandervelde, Ministre des Affaires Etrangères de la Belgique 1925-1927

Juillet 1921

 

«Refuser de libérer la Géorgie comme on a libéré la Pologne, la Finlande, les populations du littoral Baltique, comme on sera conduit demain par la force des choses à libérer d’autres régions encore, c’est bien pis que commettre un illogisme flagrant…»

«Ses habitants (de Géorgie) connurent un malheur auquel nous autres Belges pouvons d’autant mieux compatir que nous l’avons nous-mêmes maintes fois éprouvé : le malheur d’être en trop bonne place, à celle où chacun vous bouscule pour la prendre.»

«En tout organisant contre une attaque éventuelle la plus énergique résistance, ils ont toujours soigneusement évité jusqu’à l’apparence d’une agression. Ils ne comptaient pour vaincre leurs adversaires que sur la force de l’idée et sur celle de l’exemple. Ils  voulaient que leur petite république manifeste une telle supériorité sur la grande tyrannie que chacun en ait sa conviction faite et sa résolution arrêtée.»

 Louis de Brouckère, sénateur belge 1925-1932

Juillet 1921

 

La Géorgie est le seul Etat socialiste du monde entier. C’est un Etat socialiste qui n’a pas été fondé sur la terreur, la contrainte ou le meurtre, mais sur la démocratie.

Camille Huysmans, Premier Ministre belge 1946-1947, Président de la Chambre 1954-1958

Octobre 1921

Programme

16:30    Registration

17:00-17:15     Opening Remarks

Ms. Anick Van Calster, Director General, Belgian MFA

H.E. Natalie Sabanadze, Ambassador of Georgia

17:15-18:45     Panel Discussion: First Republic and Its Successors

Moderator:

Marc Franco, Senior Associate Fellow, Egmont Institute

Speakers:

Mr. Stephen Jones (1^st republic, Socialism in Georgian colours)

Mr. Tornike Gordadze (Soviet and post-Soviet Georgia)

Ms. Amanda Paul (European Georgia: myth and reality)

Q&A

18:45-19:30 Reception

Speakers Bios

Marc Franco is a senior associate fellow at the Royal Institute of for International Relations (Egmont Institute) in Brussels. He was Adviser for EBRD in Egypt (2012) and previously Ambassador, Head of the European Union Delegation to Egypt (2009-2012) and Head of the European Commission’s Delegation to Russia (2004-2009). In his career at the European Commission, he held various positions including Deputy Director-General of the DG EuropeAid (2001-2004). In the period 1990-1998 he was Head of Unit in the Department dealing with Enlargement. He started his career in the University of Leuven (1969-1971), continued as Associate Expert of the UN in Upper Volta and Senegal (1971-1975), as PhD researcher at the University of Cambridge (1975-1978) and as official of the European Commission (1978-1989).

Professor Stephen Jones received his Ph.D from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1984. He has taught at the universities of California, London, and Oxford.  He was a Research Fellow at Harvard University and a Senior Associate Member at St Anthony’s College, Oxford. Since 1989 he has taught at Mount Holyoke College in the USA. Professor Jones has written over 100 articles and chapters on Georgian and Caucasian affairs.  His books include Socialism in Georgian Colors: The European Road to Social Democracy, 1883-1917 (Harvard University, 2005), War and Revolution in the Caucasus: Georgia Ablaze, (ed., Routledge, 2010), Georgia: A Political History Since Independence (I.B. Tauris, 20012), and The Birth of Modern Georgia: The First Georgian Republic and Its Successors, 1918-2010, (ed., Routledge, 2013).  He is currently working on a book about the Georgian Democratic Republic (1918-21).

Amanda Paul is a foreign and security policy analyst at the European Policy Centre.  Her main areas of expertise include Turkish foreign, security and domestic policy; security and conflict resolution in the Black Sea/Eurasia region, Russian foreign policy in the former Soviet space and EU foreign policy in its Eastern neighbourhood.  As a Senior Policy Analyst at the EPC she is responsible for managing EPC projects related to Turkey; the EUs Eastern Neighbourhood and Caspian region; the Middle East and Gulf region and Jihadist radicalisation. She is also Associate Senior Research Fellow at the International Centre for Policy Studies in Kyiv, Ukraine, where she contributes to research and projects related to Ukraine and the broader region.

Natalie Sabanadze became Georgia’s ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the head of the Georgian mission to the European Union in May, 2013.   Prior to assuming her current position, Sabanadze worked as the senior adviser to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in The Hague. She held a number of posts with the OSCE HCNM, including head of Central and South East Europe section and more recently, head of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia section.  Natalie Sabanadze studied at Swarthmore and Mount Holyoke Colleges in the United States, before obtaining her Master’s in International Relations with distinction at the London School of Economics in 1999. In 2005, she completed her doctorate in Politics and International Relations at Oxford University, where she was a Dulverton Scholar. Sabanadze has written and lectured extensively on questions of post-communist transition, political theory, nationalism, ethnic conflict and national minorities.

Thornike Gordadze is senior advisor for research and education at the French Institute of Higher National Defence Studies  (Paris) and associate professor at Paris Institute of Political Studies  (Sciences-Po). He studied political science and international relations at Sciences Po Paris and Yale University (PhD obtained in 2005). From 2006 to 2010 he was the head of the French research institute on Caucasus in Baku . From July 2010 to November 2012 Thornike Gordadze was Deputy minister of Foreign Affairs and later State Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Georgia. He was Georgia’s chief negotiator on Association Agreement and DCFTA talks with the European Union.

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