Georgia

Georgia (Georgian: საქართველო, romanized: sakartvelo; IPA: [sɑkʰɑrtʰvɛlɔ] (listen)) is a country in the Caucasus region, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north and east by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital and largest city is Tbilisi. Georgia covers a territory of 69,700 square kilometres (26,911 sq mi), and its approximate population is about 3.718 million. Georgia is a unitary parliamentary republic, with the government elected through a representative democracy. Georgia is one of the oldest wine-producing countries in the world; local traditions associated with wine are entwined with Georgia's national identity and have been classified by UNESCO as part of the world's Intangible Cultural Heritage. During the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia, such as Colchis and Iberia. The Georgians officially adopted Christianity in the early 4th century. The Georgian Orthodox Church contributed to the spiritual and political unification of early Georgian states. In the Middle Ages, the unified Kingdom of Georgia emerged and reached its Golden Age during the reign of King David the Builder and Queen Tamar the Great in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Thereafter, the kingdom declined and eventually disintegrated under the hegemony of various regional powers, including the Mongols, the Ottoman Empire and successive dynasties of Persia. In 1783, one of the Georgian kingdoms entered an alliance with the Russian Empire, which proceeded to annex the territory of modern Georgia in a piecemeal fashion throughout the 19th century. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Georgia emerged as an independent republic under German protection. Following the German defeat in WWI, Georgia was invaded by Bolshevik Russia, resulting in the country's eventual incorporation into the Soviet Union in 1922. During World War II, almost 700,000 Georgians fought in the Red Army against the Germans. By the 1980s, an independence movement was established and grew, leading to Georgia's secession from the Soviet Union in April 1991. For most of the subsequent decade, post-Soviet Georgia suffered from economic crisis, civil and secessionist wars in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Following the bloodless Rose Revolution in 2003, Georgia strongly pursued a pro-Western foreign policy; it introduced a series of democratic and economic reforms aimed at NATO and European integration. The country's Western orientation soon led to the worsening of relations with Russia, at one point even resulting in a brief war. Georgia is a developing country classified as "very high" on the Human Development Index. The country is a member of international organizations across both Europe and Asia, such as the Council of Europe, the Asian Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Eurocontrol, OSCE and the GUAM Organization for Democracy and Economic Development.