Claws of the Crab: Georgia and Armenia in Crisis - Hardcover

Brook visited the Caucasus during 1991-92 as its two newly independent republics, Georgia and Armenia, sought to stave off chaos. In Georgia, on the brink of civil war, President Zviad Gamsakhurdia's neofascist posturing and extreme nationalism, which had isolated the country and brought it to a cultural standstill, gave way to the more democratic policies of former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze, who chaired a ruling council to foster progressive government. In Armenia, Brook ( L.A. Lore ) found a proud, austere people whose homeland, pulverized by the 1988 earthquake, was further strained by an uprising in Nagorno-Karabakh (an Armenian enclave surrounded by Azerbaijan), by Azeri massacres and blockades, and by a diaspora that drew away much of Armenia's brightest people. This compelling blend of exotic travelogue and astute reporting delineates peoples of the former Soviet empire struggling to transform political hothouses into cohesive nation-states. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.