Democratization process in post-independence Georgia

After declaring its independence in 1991, Georgia had to deal with the same problems as the former Soviet bloc countries. Nation-state building and the transition to a free-market economy were basically the common problems of the former Soviet bloc countries. However, in addition to these, Georgia experienced a civil war in the first years of its independence that led to the deterioration of its territorial integrity, the democratization process was interrupted, and finally, the failure to maintain its territorial integrity for many years became its most important issue. The color revolutions that began in the early 2000s in the former Soviet bloc countries took place with the participation of civil society organizations, activist student groups and the civilian population in order to protect democracy against authoritarian regimes. In the process, which Georgia joined with the 2003 Rose Revolution, people took to the streets after disputed elections and voiced their demands for fairer elections. The Rose Revolution is an important turning point in Georgia's political history. Georgia's long-standing Russian-oriented state tradition came to an end and a transformation process started under the leadership of Saakashvili to become a more democratic and modern state in Western norms. With its geopolitical position Georgia has become an important country for energy transit and has started to develop strategic cooperation projects with the countries in the region. However, after Georgia officially declared its desire to integrate with the West in its National Security Concept in 2005, Russia intensified its activities to provoke the territorial integrity issue in Georgia in order to maintain its influence in the region. Indeed, the August 2008 war proved once again that Russia does not respect Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Western countries, especially the US, supported Georgia to continue the democratization process, but did not actively intervene in the solution of the problem. Even today, Georgia's territorial integrity is the most sensitive and important issue.