The role of architecture in the Republic of Georgia’s European aspirations

Abstract

Alignment with Europe has been a popular foreign policy objective among post-socialist nations. In the Republic of Georgia, discourse surrounding the country’s Euro-Atlantic orientation surged in the decade after the 2003 Rose Revolution. While such discourse has been examined in the context of political reforms and national security goals, this article foregrounds how it was incorporated into alterations of the built environment. Focusing on the urban transformations of the city of Batumi after the rise to power of the United National Movement government, it demonstrates how architecture served as a tool for selectively rewriting Georgia’s contemporary European identity. This article concentrates on two parallel initiatives to transform Batumi into a contemporary European city: the reconstruction of portions of the Old City and the new development along the seaside boulevard. Using evidence collected through qualitative methods, it further highlights the contradictions that emerged during this process of redevelopment and rebranding, as the state balanced initiatives for new development with other post-revolutionary state-building objectives, such as political reform and tourism-market production. Accordingly, it unpacks the various national and international politico-economic forces at play in the process of developing Batumi into the image of a contemporary European city.

Keywords:

• Georgia
• European identity
• architectural symbolism
• nation branding
• post-Soviet urbanism

ORCID

Suzanne Harris-Brandts http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8575-1986

Notes

1. Since 1995, some 27 countries have officially declared their interest in European Union membership, with 16 accepted as of 2016. In 1995, Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU. Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia joined in 2004; Bulgaria and Romania in 2007; and Croatia in 2013. As of 2016, there are five official candidate countries: Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey. There are also six Eastern Partnership States that are potential candidates: Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo are also considered potential candidates.

2. On various occasions, President Saakashvili mentioned all of these cities as inspiration for Georgia (“Georgia: Saakashvili Says Switzerland” 2010; “Saakashvili: Georgia is Next Singapore” 2010).

3. For more on Tanzimat reforms more broadly, see Weiker (1968).

4. Between 1992 and 2000, Georgia received $778 million in American democracy promotion, development, and humanitarian aid. It therefore became the second-largest per capita recipient of American funding, after Israel (Jakopovich 2007, 213). Between 2001 and 2003, the USA allocated $269 million for democracy promotion in Georgia, more per capita than any other post-Soviet nation (Mitchell 2008, 4). Georgia further received some €420 million in aid from the EU between 1992 and 2004, the majority funding projects for improved democracy and governance outcomes (Tudoroiu 2007, 320).

5. A difference between the two statues is that the Batumi version is more opulently gold plated, instead of cast in bronze like the Bologna version.

6. President Saakashvili (2011) himself underscored this connection in a speech delivered at the opening of the statue of Medea in Batumi.