UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, 7th Annual International Postgraduate Conference

Inclusion Exclusion

16-18th February 2006

Friday 17 February 2:30 – 4:00: Panel F3: Minority Identities

Eleni Sideri (School of Oriental and African Studies): ‘Engendering inclusion and exclusion in Georgia: from family networks to transnationalism’

Savina is an elegant, middle aged woman. Her gracious walking still attracts male attention in the narrow streets of old Tbilisi between the newly opened Chinese restaurants and the old "eklesiebi" (churches). Savina stops in front of the shop-window of a gallery. "We are preparing an exhibition at the Centre and I am always interested for the new blood in arts" she says. Savina was born and raised in Tbilisi, an offspring of a Greek family that had migrated from the Ottoman Black Sea coast to Tsarist Georgia. As she confessed, she wanted to study painting in the well-known "Academy of Arts" in Tbilisi in 1960s. But she failed to do so, because of the "corrupted examination committee". Now she works for an NGO, which organises cultural exchanges between Georgia and Greece. "I am still involved in arts in my way", she admits smiling.

It seems that inclusion and exclusion were always part of Savina’s life, a Greek national and a Soviet citizen; a woman in the male dominated South Caucasus; a Georgian citizen, after the independence of Georgia in 1991, working for a foreign NGO. Nevertheless, they seem more part of Savina’s complex identity, whose experience was often trapped within the bifurcation between Eastern and Western Europe, than two straddling poles. How were these geographical, political and social changes and realignments of borders experienced by the Greek "natsional’nost" of Georgia? My paper will postulate that these "poles" were less bounded territories than ideological constructions, which mutually negotiated their formation and legitimacy. I will historicise the various degrees of "inclusivity" and "exclusivity" in Savina’s life and how at certain historical points, they became opposing poles.

The Soviet nationality policy put emphasis on nationality allowing the development of Greek-ness within bounded territories (Greek kokhoz), in Greek schools (until 1930s), with political representation based on ethnic lines (national quotas). However, the gradual Georgianisation of the Soviet Republic of Georgia often curtailed the opportunities of small nationalities like the Greeks. How did families try to supersede these problems? Intermarriages between Greeks and Russians or Georgians, like in Savina’s case became vital for the allocation of among the Greek families. What was the role of gender in those networks? Independence, however, transformed once more Savina’s life. Her nationality allowed an easier migration to an E.U. country but also access to funding resources, through foreign NGOs. Does this political shift lead to new divisions in Georgia? Today these Greeks are frequently being robed since they are considered "privileged". Even within families of mixed ethnic background Greek women are often being accused of not "behaving properly" when they return home after the migration. How are inclusion and exclusion being domesticised in everyday life? This article based on an one-year fieldwork in Georgia and the collection of women’s life stories will argue that inclusion and exclusion for Georgian women are still in an on-going formation shaped within broader transnational networks and political agendas.