Representation of Russian-Georgian 2008 war in the Eyes of Georgia: A critical geopolitical perspective

Sharing the historical background, and the same borders in terms of geographical location, Georgia and Russia, have been a core connective bridge. After the demise of the USSR, main ambition for Russia was to retain its influence in the Post-Soviet countries, had instigated a major problem to its neighbors, and particularly to Georgia. The newborn state had been inspired with the western values, which consequently evolved a desire to decrease the pro-Russian attitude and increase the Western-based views by joining NATO alliances. Theses aspirations resulted a dislike to its Big neighbor country, which subsequently developed to a Red Line between Georgian-Russian relationship and caused the unexpected, yet inevitable, August War. Different perspectives about the August war, have been reviewed; Nevertheless, less attention has been paid to the point of view of the main victim, Georgia. As a result, this study aims to review the Georgian statecraft's construction and conceptualization of the 2008 August war. The thesis explores and examines the Georgian perspective of the Five days war, and provides Georgian statecraft discourse analysis of the events related to the Russian invasion from a critical geopolitical perspective. It has been concluded, regarding the Georgian discourse analysis and everyday performance of the statecraft, that the Russian military intervention in the Georgian territory was an "Aggressive military intervention" and "Attack on the West" in order to control the energy resources of Europe. The Georgian statecraft's discourse defined Russia as "Aggressors", "Barbarians of the 21stcentury" and "Occupiers". This war pictured Russia as an enemy to the Georgian statehood and sovereignty, that had broken the international norms, beside the Western values.