REPCO

The deep roots of cultural trauma

Cultural trauma, as theorized by Alexander Jeffrey, manifests not merely as historical memory but as an active force that fundamentally restructures collective identity and shapes policy trajectories. For Georgia and Armenia, this trauma emerges through a complex historical process of civilizational severance – a systematic attempt to disconnect these ancient polities from their natural European cultural sphere. This severance, initiated through Arab invasions but reaching its devastating apotheosis in Turko-Mongolic demographic warfare, presents a unique case study in how cultural trauma shapes national consciousness across centuries.

The initial wave of separation came through the Arab Caliphate's campaigns in the 730s CE under Marwan the Deaf (Murvan Qru). Unlike previous invaders who sought territorial control or resources, these operations represented the first deliberate attempt to isolate these kingdoms from their natural cultural sphere – the Hellenic-Byzantine world that had shaped their development since antiquity. However, both Georgia and Armenia demonstrated remarkable resilience, and by the 13th century, they had achieved a magnificent cultural and political renaissance, reintegrating themselves into the broader European family.

Yet this initial trauma, profound as it was, differed fundamentally in both scope and methodology from what would follow. While the Arab Caliphate's campaigns devastated religious institutions and political structures, they did not attempt the systematic demographic engineering that later powers would employ with ruthless efficiency. The true depth of cultural trauma emerged through the brutal campaigns of Turko-Mongol tribes, who weaponized demographic warfare as their primary tool of imperial control.

Within the Hellenic world

The ancient kingdoms of Georgia and Armenia existed as integral components within the broader Hellenic cultural sphere. This relationship was evidenced through extensive archaeological findings and historical documentation. Greek settlements along the Black Sea coast – Phasis (modern Poti), Dioscurias (modern Sokhumi), Gyenos (modern Ochamchire), and Pitius (modern Bichvinta) – functioned as sophisticated nodes of cultural and commercial exchange. These were not mere colonial outposts but vibrant urban centres that facilitated deep integration between local populations and Mediterranean civilization.

Classical Greek historiography, particularly through Herodotus and Xenophon, consistently referenced these regions, especially Colchis, integrating them into the broader Hellenic narrative. Archaeological evidence reveals the systematic adoption of Greek architectural elements, epigraphic traditions, and material culture throughout both kingdoms, demonstrating profound commercial and cultural integration. The incorporation of these lands into the Hellenic mythological consciousness through the Prometheus narrative – with the Titan bound to the Caucasus Mountains – as well as other legends, reflects this deep cultural mix and the region's fundamental place in classical civilization.

The systematic destruction

Following the Arab invasions, both Georgia and Armenia experienced a remarkable renaissance during the 12th and 13th centuries. Georgia, under Queen Tamar, reached its golden age, expanding its influence from the Black Sea to the Caspian all the while fostering a flourishing of arts, literature and architecture. The epic poem "The Knight in the Panther's Skin" by Shota Rustaveli emerged from this period, exemplifying the sophisticated synthesis of the cultural traditions of East and West. Armenia similarly experienced cultural revival, particularly through the establishment of important centres of learning and the development of unique architectural styles that blended European and local elements.

This period of cultural efflorescence and reintegration with the broader European family, however, was brutally terminated through successive waves of military campaigns by Turko-Mongolic invaders. What followed represents one of history's most systematic attempts at ethnic cleansing and cultural annihilation. Each empire – Mongol, Ottoman and Qizilbash Turkmen – implemented distinct but equally savage methodologies of mass killings and ethnic cleansing, creating a cumulative effect that devastated the demographic and cultural landscape of the region.

The Mongol invasion initiated a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing and execution. Contemporary sources describe their forces constructing pyramids from the severed heads of their victims – a practice that went beyond military conquest to become an instrument of terror and ethnic annihilation. Cities were not merely conquered. Instead, they were methodically purged through mass executions, calculated deportations, and enslavement designed to eliminate the indigenous population.

The Ottoman Empire continued this legacy through centuries of systematic slave raids in western Georgia. This was not merely warfare – it represented calculated human resource extraction, particularly targeting the young population. The demographic impact proved profound, forcing coastal populations inland and fundamentally restructuring society around defensive imperatives against human predation.

The Qizilbash Turkmen forces under Shah Abbas I elevated ethnic cleansing to unprecedented levels. His 1616 campaign against Kakheti combined genocidal mass executions with forced deportations in a deliberate attempt to completely eradicate the Georgian population. This was not mere conquest – it was a calculated extermination policy, with explicit plans for ethnic replacement through the resettlement of Turkic populations. Only Shah Abbas's death prevented the complete implementation of this extermination policy.

Loss of statehood and civilizational reorientation

The ways in which Armenia and Georgia lost their statehood happened in different ways. However, both stemmed from systematic campaigns of ethnic cleansing. Armenia's historical trajectory was brutally altered earlier, facing complete territorial dismemberment under Ottoman rule. Georgia, despite experiencing equally savage attacks, maintained some mountain strongholds and kingdoms through strategic resistance.

Armenia's geographic position made it particularly vulnerable to the systematic erasure of its population. While Georgia's mountainous terrain provided natural defensive positions that enabled some preservation of demographic continuity, Armenia's historical heartland experienced a great amount of ethnic cleansing and replacement. The Ottoman approach to Armenia, beginning with medieval deportations and culminating in the 1915 genocide, represented the ultimate expression of demographic warfare that began centuries earlier.

This differential timing of the loss of statehood profoundly influenced how each nation would later conceptualize Russian power. For Armenia, having already experienced a near-total demographic catastrophe, Russia appeared as potential protection against the Ottoman Empire’s ongoing genocidal policies. Georgia, having maintained statehood through earlier waves of ethnic cleansing, perceived Russia differently. Most of its population viewed this country as the power that finally abolished its ancient state structure after surviving the Arab, Mongol, Ottoman Turk and Qizilbash campaigns.

This crucial difference shaped opposing geopolitical orientations that persist into the present. Armenia came to view Russia as protection against Turkish existential threats, while Georgia's more recent experience of state abolition under Russian rule created deeper scepticism toward Russian influence. Yet both nations share the underlying trauma of centuries of systematic ethnic cleansing and attempted genocide. This created complex layers of cultural memory that continue to shape their development and political choices.

Cultural memory and systemic resilience

The persistence of cultural trauma in Georgian and Armenian societies presents a compelling case for applying systems theory to understand the mechanisms of cultural survival under extreme pressure. These nations exemplify what systems theorists term “autopoietic systems”. These are self-maintaining and self-regenerating cultural organisms that manage to preserve their core identity despite systematic attempts at demographic annihilation. Their response to trauma demonstrates sophisticated “homeostatic resistance”, which maintains essential cultural parameters while adapting to overwhelming external pressure.

Systems theory helps explain how both nations developed complex adaptive mechanisms for cultural preservation in response to centuries of attempted annihilation. These mechanisms operated as interconnected subsystems and involved everything from the preservation of language and religious traditions to the maintenance of distinct architectural styles and literary traditions. Each subsystem reinforced the others, creating what Niklas Luhmann would term "operational closure" while maintaining selective openness to external influences.

The concept of boundary maintenance emerges as particularly crucial in understanding how these societies preserved their European cultural orientation throughout centuries of attempted severance. Despite systematic attempts at demographic replacement and civilizational reorientation, both nations maintained what systems theorists call "structural coupling" with European cultural spheres while developing the internal complexity to resist external pressure. This manifested in the persistence of European architectural forms, literary traditions and religious practices. This remained true even as vast territories experienced complete demographic transformation through systematic ethnic cleansing.

Phase transitions in systems theory further illuminate how these societies managed periods of extreme instability. During periods of intense demographic warfare, both nations demonstrated remarkable capacity for what Prigogine terms "dissipative adaptation". This describes the maintenance of core cultural patterns while reorganizing internal structures to survive external pressure. This explains the remarkable preservation of European cultural orientation despite centuries of systematic attempts at civilizational reorientation through demographic warfare and forced population transfers.

The maintenance of cultural continuity through such extreme pressure represents what systems theorists would recognize as “emergence” – the ability of complex systems to generate new organizational patterns while maintaining essential identity characteristics. Both Georgia and Armenia developed what Holland terms "complex adaptive systems" capable of maintaining cultural coherence all the while adapting to radical environmental changes imposed by successive waves of ethnic cleansing and genocide.

The clash of traumas and existential threat

The current situation facing Georgia and Armenia transcends simple questions of European integration. Indeed, it represents a potential culmination of centuries-old attempts at civilizational destruction through a new and more sophisticated mechanism. This involves the creation of clashing, irreconcilable traumas that could tear these societies apart from within.

This new threat emerges not primarily from external rejection but from the potential development of what might be termed "betrayal trauma", which stems from internal failures to achieve European integration. This particular danger lies in how this new trauma could interact with existing historical traumas to create an impossible dilemma. If Georgia, for instance, fails to achieve European integration due to its own internal political turbulences, the resulting societal trauma would not merely add to existing historical wounds but would create a devastating psychological and social conflict that could prove impossible to resolve.

This scenario represents perhaps the most sophisticated attempt yet at destroying these nations' European identity and statehood. Unlike previous attempts through direct demographic warfare or ethnic cleansing, this mechanism operates by creating internal contradictions that could cause societal disintegration. The genius – and danger – of this approach lies in its ability to turn these nations' strongest survival mechanism, their European cultural orientation, into a source of potential self-destruction.

This understanding carries crucial implications for European policy. While internal reforms in countries like Georgia remain essential, European institutions must recognize that the pace and nature of their engagement has implications far beyond routine diplomatic or economic considerations. Significantly increased assistance and engagement becomes not merely a matter of enlargement policy but a crucial intervention to prevent the creation of new traumas that could interact catastrophically with those from history.

The creation of such irreconcilable internal traumas leading to societal disintegration essentially amounts to Putin's dream in the area. It would accomplish through psychological warfare what centuries of direct military aggression, ethnic cleansing and demographic warfare failed to achieve. By forcing these societies to face an impossible choice between clashing traumas, this approach could finally succeed in destroying their European orientation and independent statehood – a possible outcome that demands urgent recognition and response from European institutions.

Kaha Baindurashvili is an entrepreneur, and researcher exploring the intersections of philosophy, sociology, and geopolitics, with a focus on Eastern Europe and Caucasus. Formerly Georgia’s Minister of Finance, he brings distinct perspective shaped by his experience in public service and academia.