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|language =Georgianlanguage

|president =Mikheil SaakashviliGiorgi Margvelashvili

|pm =Lado GurgenidzeMamuka Bakhtadze

'''Georgia''' is a country in the [[Caucasus]] just north of eastern [[Turkey]] and south of [[Russia]], other neighbouring countries are [[Armenia]] and [[Azerbaijan]]. It was formerly in the [[Soviet Union]] until given independence in 1991. Georgia's capital is [[Tbilisi]]. The current President Tensions are very high with neighboring Russia over the status of two provinces ([[Abkhazia]] and [[South Ossetia]]). Georgia has sought [[NATO]] membership for protection, but has been turned down. The United States is generally favorable toward Georgia, but does not want the pro-Western Mikhail Shikashviliconflicts there to escalate or cause a serious reputure between Moscow and Washington. It was the second country in the world, after [[Armenia]], to adapt Christianity as its state religion in AD 319.

*President -- Mikheil SaakashviliPresident—Giorgi Margvelashvili*Prime Minister -- Zurab NoghaideliMinister—Mamuka Bakhtadze*Speaker of Parliament -- Nino BurjanadzeParliament—Irakli Kobakhidze*Foreign Minister -- Gela BezhuashviliiMinister—Davit Zalkaniani*Defense Minister -- David KezerashviliLevan Izoria*Interior Minister -- Vano Merabishvili Giorgi Gakharia*State Minister of Georgia for Conflict Resolution -- David Bakradze

Nearly four years after the Rose Revolution, the Georgian government has implemented an impressive program of governance reform, anti-corruption measures, and democratic institution building. The Saakashvili government has been criticized for concentrating too much power within the executive branch of government. However , in 2006, Parliament passed sweeping local government reforms designed to decentralize power to the regions and give local governments increased authority. Successful local elections were held in October 2006 to elect officials to fill new positions throughout Georgia created by these reforms. Georgia has received high marks from the World Bank and others on the government's aggressive anti-corruption campaign. Democratic institutions were strengthened as public service reform gained momentum and judicial reform was acknowledged as a priority. Constitutional amendments signed into law in 2006 increased the independence of the judiciary; further reforms have aimed at increasing respect for and strengthening the rule of law. In July 2007, legislation banning ex parte communication was passed, prohibiting parties to a case from communicating with judges during the pre-trial investigation period as well as during the trial. Legislation requiring the Ministry of Justice to establish a legal aid office was also passed, making available assistance and representation in court proceedings to those who request it. The Georgian legislature has instituted political reforms supportive of higher human rights standards, including religious freedoms that are enshrined in the constitution. The government has launched an aggressive campaign to combat trafficking in persons.

In January of 2005, Georgian President Saakashvili put forth a proposal to give autonomous status to South Ossetia within Georgia. The United States welcomed President Saakashvili's initiative to resolve the conflict through peaceful means and continues to look for ways to encourage a lasting resolution of the conflict. An alternative leader in South Ossetia emerged in November 2006, when ethnic Georgian Dmitry Sanakoyev was elected in an unrecognized, de facto presidential election by the ethnic Georgian population. Sanakoyev has set up an alternative government in Kurta, South Ossetia.

The Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia was one of the most prosperous and envied locations in the former Soviet Union. The political turmoil after independence from USSR had a catastrophic effect on Georgia's economy. The cumulative decline in real GDP is estimated to have been more than 70% between 1990 and 1994, and by the end of 1996, Georgia's economy had shrunk to around one-third of its size in 1989. Today, the largest share of Georgia's GDP is produced by agriculture, followed by trade, manufacturing, and transport. Georgia's main exports are metals and ores, wine, nuts, and aircraft.

The banking sector is becoming more open to competition from foreign-owned banks. The sector is relatively stable, and is supplying more credit to domestic businesses. Credit from Georgian banks to the economy was 15% of GDP in 2005, compared to 10% in 2004--still 2004—still low, compared to the average in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland for 2005, which was 36%.

*Industry: Types--steelTypes—steel, aircraft, machine tools, foundry equipment (automobiles, trucks, and tractors), tower cranes, electric welding equipment, fuel re-exports, machinery for food packing, electric motors, textiles, shoes, chemicals, wood products, bottled water, and wine.

Georgia's recorded history dates back more than 2,500 years. Georgian, a South Caucasian (or "Kartvelian") language unrelated to any other outside the immediate region, is one of the oldest living languages in the world, and has its own distinctive alphabet. [[Tbilisi]], located in the picturesque Mtkvari River valley, is more than 1,500 years old. In the early 4th century Georgia adopted [[Christianity]], the second nation in the world to do so officiallyafter [[Armenia]]. Georgia has historically found itself on the margins of great empires, and Georgians have lived together in a unified state for only a small fraction of their existence as a people. Much of Georgia's territory was fought over by [[PersianEmpire|Persian]], [[RomanEmpire|Roman]], [[ByzantineEmpire|Byzantine]], Arabinvaders under [[Islam]], [[Mongol]], and [[Ottoman Empire|Turkish ]] armies from at least the 1st century B.C. through the 18th century. The zenith of Georgia's power as an independent kingdom came in the 11th and 12th centuries, during the reigns of King David the Builder and Queen Tamara, who still rank among the most celebrated of all Georgian rulers. In 1783 the king of Kartli (in eastern Georgia) signed the Treaty of Georgievsk with the Russians[[Russia]]ns, by which Russia agreed to take the kingdom as its [[protectorate]]. In 1801, the Russian empire began the piecemeal process of unifying and annexing Georgian territory, and for most of the next two centuries (1801-1991) Georgia found itself ruled from [[St. Petersburg ]] and [[Moscow]]. Exposed to modern European ideas of nationalism while under Russian tutelagerule, Georgians like the writer Ilya Chavchavadze began calling for greater Georgian independence. In the wake of the collapse of tsarist [[tsar]]ist rule and war with in Russia due to the Turks[[October Revolution]], the first Republic of Georgia was established on May 26, 1918, and the country enjoyed a brief period of independence under the Menshevik presidentprime-minister, Noe Zhordania. However, in March 1921, the [[Communist]] Russian Red Army re-occupied the country, and Georgia became a republic of the [[Soviet Union]]. Several of the Soviet Union's most notorious leaders in the 1920s and 1930s were Georgian, such as [[Joseph Stalin]], [[Sergo Orjonikidze]], and [[Lavrenti Beria]]. In the postwar period, Georgia was perceived as one of the wealthiest and most privileged of Soviet republics, and many Russians treated the country's [[Black Sea ]] coast as a kind of Soviet Riviera. On April 9, 1991, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Georgia declared independence from the U.S.S.R. as one of a string of former Soviet republics to do so after the fall of Communism in Russia.

Beset by ethnic and civil strife from independence in 1991, Georgia began to stabilize in 1995. The separatist conflicts in Georgia's regions of [[Abkhazia ]] and [[South Ossetia ]] remain unresolved, although cease-fires are were in effectfor more than a decade. In Abkhazia, the Commonwealth of Independent States (in fact, only Russian forces) maintains maintained a peacekeeping force, and the United Nations maintains an Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), both of which monitor compliance with the 1994 cease-fire agreement. In South Ossetia, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has had the prime role in monitoring the 1992 cease-fire and facilitating negotiations.===South Ossetia and conflict with Russia===South Ossetia, on the Russian border, is about the size of Rhode Island, but has fewer than 70,000 inhabitants. During the Soviet era, it had autonomous status within the Georgian SSR. Therefore, when Georgia became independent in 1991, South Ossetian leaders sought to achieve their regions own independence from Tbilisi.

In 1991 and early 1992, the Georgian military launched an offensive to destroy the South Ossetian secession. The ragtag Georgian Government stakes much army was defeated by a combination of its future on local Ossetian fighters and irregulars from Russia. In 1993, Georgia went to war again, this time to prevent the revival of Abkhazians in the ancient Silk Road as a Eurasian transportation corridor, using northwest from following the Ossetian example. That conflict also ended in defeat for Georgia's geography . Both provinces have remained functionally separate from Georgia ever since, with their own parliaments, economies, educational systems, and armies—as well as a bridge powerful narrative of valiant struggle against Georgian tyranny. The provinces have turned to Russia for protection from Georgia. [[File:S-ossetia1.jpg|thumb|310px]] In early August, 2008, Georgia sought to re-establish its control over the transit breakaway enclaves of goodsAbkhazia and South Ossetia. This led to a five-day war, including oil involving a Russian invasion not only of those areas, but of Georgia itself complete with a massive bombing campaign. Several hundred Georgians were killed and gasthousands of refugees on both sides were displaced.<ref>Charles King, between Europe "The Five-Day War: Managing Moscow after the Georgia Crisis," ''Foreign Affairs'' 2008 87(6): 2-11, online at [[EBSCO]]</ref> Cease-fires were finally established and AsiaRussian forces eventually withdraw from Georgia itself, but not from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which Russia has said will become independent nations. Georgians are renowned for their hospitality The whole Georgia situation has led to quickly souring relations between Russia and artistry the West. Moscow argues that if Georgia can break away from the Soviet Union, then South Ossetia can likewise break away from Georgia. Georgia says the territory involved belonged to Georgia centuries ago. A 9-month [[European Union]] (EU) investigation into the 2008 war in dancethe Caucasus concluded in Sept. 2009 that Georgia triggered the war, theaterbut that Russia had prepared the ground, musicbroke international law by invading Georgia as a whole and that Russia-backed South Ossetian militias conducted ethnic cleansing of Georgian civilians. The conclusions, compiled by diplomat Heidi Taglivini, found that while there was evidence that regular Russian troops as well as volunteers and designmercenaries had entered South Ossetia in Georgia before the start of the conflict on Aug.7, no evidence was found of the full-scale Russian invasion to which Georgia said it was responding.  George has sought membership in [[NATO]] so that the alliance can protect it from Russia. However NATO finds that Georgia falls short of its baseline measures for democratization and military modernization and that the recent war in Georgia raises additional complications regarding an escalation of tensions between Russia and NATO.<ref>Travis L. Bounds, and Ryan C. Hendrickson, "Georgian Membership in NATO: Policy Implications of the Bucharest Summit," ''Journal of Slavic Military Studies'' 2009 22(1): 20-30</ref>