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. TENSIONS OVER GEORGIA What side are we on? . By Alex Rondos    Published: May 8, 2008 Georgia is under threat of partial occupation by...

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TENSIONS OVER GEORGIA

What side are we on?
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By Alex Rondos   Published: May 8, 2008

Georgia is under threat of partial occupation by Russia and thus has become a moral lightning rod for the West. All the demons of our 20th-century history are bubbling up again in this embattled outpost of Western interests.

 If Western nations do not soon intercede, there is a serious risk that a small war will occur on the eastern edge of Europe. It will be bloody. It will sour relations with Russia and damage strategic Western interests. It will divide the European Union between the complacent original members and the nervous new members on Russia's borders. Countries in the Caucasus and beyond the Caspian will abandon any hope of a strategic link to the West.
One would have thought such vital interests might shake people into action.
But there is more. If we let things drift, we will extinguish a small flame of our Western values in a part of the world that we all too easily dismiss.
 When I imagine our values, I do not think of their attendant bureaucracies - NATO and the European Union. I have in mind the simple notion that we stick by those who struggle to find their freedom and to emulate us. We do so with a largeness of spirit because in their struggle they will make mistakes.
Here lies our moral crisis. We all take such pride in developing our democracies and liberal economies. We promote them throughout the globe. The United States hectors with the confidence of a missionary. The EU insists on "values and practices" with the relentlessness of a corporate auditor. Yet, when the entire project comes under threat, we run for cover, hiding behind something called realism. This debases true realism and sullies our values.
What is happening in Georgia today is powerfully redolent of the 1938 Sudeten crisis. Then, "interests" prevailed over action; we rationalized our moral dereliction.
Today, in a different setting, we have to navigate our way to an accommodation with a resurgent Russia - and we do need this - while we stand for something more than the strategic politics of the harlot. If we fail in our own moral confidence, we will sow the seeds of a more general corrosion in our body politic. This is why Georgia matters.
In the last few weeks, Moscow has announced a series of military and legal steps that amount to the gradual occupation of Abkhazia, a separatist territory recognized by international law as part of Georgia.
Russia says it is protecting its citizens. But this is a fake diaspora that Moscow has manufactured in the past two years by illegally giving Russian passports to Abkhaz residents. This constitutes a mockery of the "right to protect."
 Russia also has increased its troop presence in Abkhazia, breaking all past agreements. The parallels with the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus are striking. That terrifying equation, for those of us from smaller countries, of military power and ethnic manipulation being met by Western acquiescence is being replayed in Georgia.
The Georgians have repeatedly appealed for international attention. Tepid diplomatic jargon and generic calls for restraint have been the response. These appeals for restraint are interpreted by Moscow as a euphemism for indifference.
Meanwhile, Georgia has presented proposals that could easily form the basis of a resolution with the Abkhaz, granting them extraordinary constitutional and economic rights within Georgia. These have been ignored by Moscow, in turn rejected by the Abkhaz, and, barely given serious acknowledgement by Western governments.
As a result, a domestic territorial dispute has now escalated into an ominous conflict between one very large country and its small neighbor.
We must step back from the brink. Serious diplomacy is needed now. Sterile negotiating formats created by the United Nations, in which Russia is no longer a disinterested party but has a veto, merely prolong the tension.
The EU should review whether its visa regime with Russia is being abused by Moscow's handout of passports in Abkhazia. Real talks need to start between Georgian authorities and Abkhaz leaders.
I have had to listen in shame in numerous European capitals to the variations on why we should discount Georgian alarm. Do they really matter? Why don't they simply cut a deal and give up some of their territory? Aren't these Georgians rather emotional? Aren't they just crying wolf?
The more sinister variant is: We really can't afford to irritate the Russians. Also: Georgians need to perfect their democracy before we jeopardize our interests. We have all heard such talk at other historical junctures. I certainly have, as a Greek, to the great cost of my own country.
 Caught between our own European merchants of a petty-minded realism and the purveyors of political purism, this little country risks being lost to everything that we stand for. If there is room in our political soul for honor and self-respect, then we must move quickly beyond our indifference and casuistry to minimize the risk of future shame.
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Alex Rondos, a former ambassador of Greece, advises the government of Georgia.
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