TY - JOUR
T1 - Displacing Blame
T2 - Georgian Internally Displaced Person Perspectives of the Georgia-Abkhazia Conflict
AU - Kabachnik, Peter
AU - Regulska, Joanna
AU - Mitchneck, Beth
N1 - Funding Information:
An earlier version of this research was presented at the 2011 Association for the Study of Nationalities Convention. The authors would like to thank the editors and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. The usual disclaimer applies. This research, entitled ‘Forced Migrants Living in Post-conflict Situations: Social Networks and Livelihood Strategies’, was funded by the National Science Foundation through the Human and Social Dynamics program (No. 0624230). The authors would also like to thank their Georgian collaborators, Nana Sumbadze and George Tarkhan-Mouravi, and the interviewers at the Institute for Policy Studies in Tbilisi, Georgia.
PY - 2012/6
Y1 - 2012/6
N2 - This article analyzes the views of Georgians, focusing primarily on those displaced from Abkhazia, and examines who they blame for the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict and what they think about Abkhazians. How groups assign blame affects the potential for reconciliation. Very different justifications are offered by those affected by conflict. These discourses of legitimation help to explain the conflict, and provide a narrative for the hostilities/war. For Georgian internally displaced persons, the blame for the conflict falls on Russia. For Abkhazians, the blame is placed on Georgians. Although both discourses are different, they each displace blame from themselves and their own agency and actions that played a significant role in the conflict, as well as in some of the atrocities that have been documented to have taken place on both sides.
AB - This article analyzes the views of Georgians, focusing primarily on those displaced from Abkhazia, and examines who they blame for the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict and what they think about Abkhazians. How groups assign blame affects the potential for reconciliation. Very different justifications are offered by those affected by conflict. These discourses of legitimation help to explain the conflict, and provide a narrative for the hostilities/war. For Georgian internally displaced persons, the blame for the conflict falls on Russia. For Abkhazians, the blame is placed on Georgians. Although both discourses are different, they each displace blame from themselves and their own agency and actions that played a significant role in the conflict, as well as in some of the atrocities that have been documented to have taken place on both sides.
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U2 - 10.1080/17449057.2012.675210
DO - 10.1080/17449057.2012.675210
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84862305667
SN - 1744-9057
VL - 11
SP - 123
EP - 140
JO - Ethnopolitics
JF - Ethnopolitics
IS - 2
ER -