VERA Centre for Russian and Border Studies

Chapter in edited volume: Storm, Karli-Jo (2016). Language, Law and Nation-Building in Georgia. In Rico Isaacs & Abel Polese (eds.), Nation-building and Identity in the Post-Soviet Space: New Tools and Approaches. London & New York: Routledge.

This article unpacks the notion of “homeland” as it has developed in post-Soviet Georgia and Azerbaijan vis-à-vis the Georgian Azeri-Turks of Kvemo Kartli. The author
engages in top-down analysis of homeland-framing in official Georgian-Azerbaijani discourse from 1992-2017 to answer the following query: How and why have leaders of Georgia and Azerbaijan framed their respective territorial states as the vətən, or “homeland”, of Georgian Azeri-Turks since 1991? Findings demonstrate that Georgia’s Azeri-Turk population is effectively caught between the rhetoric of two homelands, one autochthonous, or “organic” (i.e. Azerbaijan), the other allochthonous, or “inorganic” (i.e. Georgia). Both states benefit from the inclusion of Georgian Azeri-Turks into the conception of the “worldwide Azerbaijani Diaspora”, albeit for different reasons; while Azerbaijan grows its politically motivated “worldwide Diaspora”, Georgia benefits from Azerbaijan-sponsored investments within disadvantaged minority communities. Through the triangulation of data from official statements and speeches, original interviews, participant observation, and landscape analysis, this article seeks to shed further light upon the implications of such homeland-framing within the lives, livelihoods, and subject positions of Georgian Azeri-Turks.

Storm, Karli-Jo T. (2019). The Dynamics of Identity Negotiation in a Border Region: The Case of the Georgian Azeri- Turks of Kvemo Kartli. Publications of the University of Eastern Finland, Dissertations in Social Sciences and Business Studies, N. 209. Joensuu: Grano Oy. [Article-based doctoral dissertation, G5.]

A central component of any national imaginary is the extent to which it is or can be made marketable and consumable by audi-ences within and outside of the borders of the territorial state. Physical and symbolic delimitation of the “homeland” – in 2- and 3-D,  on  the  ground  and  on  maps,  in  speech  and  in  individual  thought  processes  -  facilitates  a  certain  degree  of  intra-group  solidarity and out-group wariness. After expanding upon the theoretical utility of the concept of the national imaginary, the author examines the role played by the “ultimate toponym”, that of the bounded and institutionalized nation-state, in reifying dominant national imaginaries in Georgia and Azerbaijan. A further aim of this article is to demonstrate the ways that popular and  elite-centric  conceptions  of  Azerbaijani  and/or  Georgian  nation-hood  stymie  Georgian  Azeri-Turks’  abilities  to  imagine  alternate forms of identification and belonging, using the phantom territory of “Borchali” as a key example.

Citation:
Storm, Karli-Jo T. (2020). “The 'Ultimate Toponym' and National Imaginaries in Georgia and Azerbaijan: Constraining Imaginaries of Borchali among Georgian Azeri-Turks”, Journal of Geography, Politics and Society, 10 (3): 16-28.

A central component of any national imaginary is the extent to which it is or can be made marketable and consumable by audiences within and outside of the borders of the territorial state. Physical and symbolic delimitation of the “homeland” – in 2- and 3-D, on the ground and on maps, in speech and in individual thought processes - facilitates a certain degree of intra-group solidarity and out-group wariness. After expanding upon the theoretical utility of the concept of the national imaginary, the author examines the role played by the “ultimate toponym”, that of the bounded and institutionalized nation-state, in reifying dominant national imaginaries in Georgia and Azerbaijan. A further aim of this article is to demonstrate the ways that popular and elite-centric conceptions of Azerbaijani and/or Georgian nation-hood stymie Georgian Azeri-Turks’ abilities to imagine alternate forms of identification and belonging, using the phantom territory of “Borchali” as a key example.

We describe the apparatus, software, and measurement procedures for a pulsed inductive microwave magnetometer ͑PIMM͒. PIMM can measure the dynamical properties of materials used in recording heads for magnetic storage applications, and it can be used as a general magnetodynamics diagnostic tool. PIMM uses a coplanar waveguide as both a source of fast pulsed magnetic fields and as an inductive flux sensor. Magnetic field pulses are provided by a 10 V, 55 ps risetime pulse generator; a 20 GHz digital sampling oscilloscope is used to acquire the fast pulse data; and orthogonal Helmholtz pairs provide the bias and saturating fields required for the measurement. The system can measure dynamical behavior as a function of several variables, including applied magnetic bias field, magnetic pulsed field amplitude and width, and sample orientation. Using a fast Fourier transform, PIMM can determine the frequency dependence of the complex magnetic permeability, as well as the step and impulse responses of the magnetic system. Data from 50 nm Ni-Fe and rare-earth-doped Ni-Fe thin films are presented.