The political semantics in the scientific terminology (the example of the war in Georgia 2008)

Abstract

In August 2008 the armed confrontation between Georgia and the Russian Federation took place. Initially the war waged on the area of the separatist Republic of South Ossetia and afterwards it extended on Abkhasia, the coast of the Black Sea and the central Georgia. The belligerent states used tanks, artillery and air forces. Casualties reached several hundred killed. The above-events are determined in the historiography in a lot of ways. There is an inconsequent attitude and lack of accuracy among authors in the selection of the terminology. Political aspects of used definitions are not taken into consideration. Controversies are already at the choice: the war or the conflict. The scale of used measures indicates the war, however, the prestigious Department of Peace and Conflicts Research of the University in Uppsala taking into consideration the mathematical number of the killed, classifies the events in Georgia as a minor armed conflict. The use of the term “conflict” has its political context, because plays down the significance of the Russian intervention to the a few days' episode and the conflict in the Caucasian region has lasted practically for several dozen years. The greater political meaning has adequate “calling” of the war. The use of definitions referring to Ossetia as the area, the reason and the belligerent of the war raises the rank of this separatist republic and simultaneously marginalizes the Russian part. However, the usage of the name Russo-Georgian War is a domain of supporters of the Georgian version of events. The definition “the War in Georgia 2008”, in spite of that it best defines the essence of the matter and is politically most neutral, is used occasionally.