After the Second World War, from 1959 to1989, the number of Armenians living in the entire territory of Georgia decreased from 442.9 thousand to 437.2 thousand people (decrease by 5.7 thousand). During the same period, the number of Azerbaijanis increased more than twice: from 153.6 thousand to 307.6 thousand people. The number of Armenians in Georgia sharply declined in the post-Soviet period. According to the official census of Georgia in 1989 and 2002, the number of Armenians in Georgia decreased by 188,282 people in 13 years.

KeywordsGeorgia Abkhazia South Ossetia Armenians census official statistics dynamics assimilation.

The collapse of the Soviet Union, which had a huge geopolitical significance in recent history, was a stimulus for the outbreak of frozen ethno-political conflicts in its territory, including in the South Caucasus. The “awakening” of the inherited from the USSR and previously hidden conflicts coincided chronologically with the period of Gorbachev's reconstruction and heated up to the maximum after the collapse of the Soviet Union and after the declaration of independence of three new states in the South Caucasus: Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. In the framework of the formation of the modern world order, the world power centers, in particular the Russian Federation and the USA, and the states with a regional role, were actively involved in the multi-layered vortex of the problems of Nagorno Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and naturally, pursuing their interests, they turned the processes of conflict settlement into important tool for managing the situation.

Keywords: South Caucasian ethno-political conflicts Nagorno-Karabakh-Artsakh South Ossetia Abkhazia right of self-determination of nations Georgian-Abkhazian Georgian-South Ossetian Russian-Georgian military operations chauvinism policy peacekeeping forces international law.