114 Ë Renewal
complete independence of the Caucasian Republics and the establishment of an alliance between
them.³³In September 1922, in connection with anti-Bolshevik rebellions in Georgia, European
socialists and Georgian émigrés led the League of Nations to adopt a unanimous res-
olution calling for the “normalization” of the Georgian political situation (i.e., the
restoration of Georgia’s independence) according to international law and by peaceful
means. In 1924, in view of the uprisings in Georgia of that year, the League of Nations
adopted the same call as its 1922 resolution.³⁴
Some countries were more sympathetic than others toward the aspirations of the
Caucasian émigrés. France, for example, as the Georgian government-in-exile hoped,
allowed Georgia’s diplomatic legation in Paris until 1933, thus continuing to recognize
Georgia as an independent state. In a conversation with Noe Zhordania in 1921, French
Prime Minister Aristide Briand emphasized that France would not abandon Georgia
and that it wanted to “encircle Russia by Caucasian states.”³⁵Although Briand’s desire
was not to be ful lled, Paris did provide a refuge for the Georgians abroad.
Warsaw, equally receptive, hatched its own political strategies to use the Cau-
casians against the Soviet Union. Poland and the Caucasus (Georgia in particular) had
a close history: many Polish patriots had been exiled to Georgia by the Tsarist gov-
ernment, and many Georgian revolutionaries (including Zhordania) had studied in
Poland. Sympathizing with the Poles, they supported the Polish cause, while Poland
in turn supported the Georgian cause. Already in 1920 the two countries had attempted
to forge a political-military alliance against Russia (see p. 93). In October 1924, under
the aegis of the Polish ambassador in Turkey, Roman Knoll, a Committee for Caucasian
Confederalists was set up in Istanbul for unifying Caucasian émigré political groups.
Although the Armenians did not join, there was representation by Georgian National
Democrats, such as Davit Vachnadze and Mikheil Tsereteli (former representative of
Georgians in Berlin during World War I), Azeris (Hosrovbek Sultanov, the former min-
ister of war of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic), and Northern Caucasians, such
as Vassan-Giray Dzhabagi and Alikhan Kantemir. The Committee declared that vic-
tory would be possible only if the Caucasians formed a united and confederate state
to be supported by European states. By linking the committee to the Georgian Social
Democrats, Azeri Musavats, and supporters of Said Shamil from the Northern Cau-
casus, Poland dreamed of creating a Union for the Liberation of the Caucasus. This
union in turn was to be linked to the Ukrainian and Turkestan (Central Asian) orga-
33 Anita L.P. Burdett, ed.,Caucasian Boundaries: Documents and Maps 1802–1946, v. 1 (London:
Archive Editions, 1996), 763–68. See also Mitat Çelikpala, “The North Caucasian Émigrés between the
World Wars.”International Journal of Turkish Studies, 9, no. 1–2 (2003), 290. The French original is in
Mamoulia,Les combats indépendandistes des Caucasiens, 358–361.
34 Mamoulia,Les combats indépendandistes des Caucasiens, 69 and 86.
35 Mamoulia,Les combats indépendandistes des Caucasiens, 45.