Social: Gorgas

DATE Caucasus > Gorgas > Social: Gorgas ←You are here

A large majority of Gorgans speak the same language, practice the same  religion, and claim the  same ethnic heritage. Gorgas, however, does not contain the same type of homogeneous population found in Limaria. While 71% of its residents speak Gorgan as their first language and 83.9% practice the Orthodox Christian faith, 83.8% declared themselves as ethnic Gorgans. Unlike many other countries in the Caucasus, most Gorgans will call themselves Gorgan when asked their nationality instead of another ethnic group or tribe. The effects of two runaway provinces—Zabzimek and South Ostremek—changed Gorgas, as it created many IDPs and forced the Gorgan government to provide additional social services or create new refugee settlements. The tension between Gorgas’ claim on Zabzimek and South Ostremek and the inability to bring them back under Gorgan control, largely due to Donovian support for the runaway republics, influence many Gorgans’ daily lives.

Social Statistics

Measure	Data			Rank
Age distribution (%)	0–14 years: 16.1	15–64 years: 67.6	65 years and up: 16.4
Median age (years)	Total: 38.8	Male: 36.3	Female: 41.3
Life expectancy (years)	Total: 76.72	Male: 73.41	Female: 80.45	62
Literacy rate (older than 15; %)	Total: 100	Male: 100	Female: 100
Population	4,585,874
Population growth rate (%)	-0.326			217
Birth rate (per 1,000)	10.66			181
Death rate (per 1,000)	9.65			68
Net migration rate (per 1,000)	-4.26			157
Urban population (%)	53
Fertility rate (per woman)	1.44			190
Infant mortality rate (per 1,000)	16.22			121
Ethnic groups (%)	Gorgan (83.8); Atropian (6.5); Limarian (5.7); Donovian Arab (1.5); Other (2.5)
Religions (%)	Orthodox Christian (83.9); Muslim (9.9); Limarian Apostolic (3.9); Catholic (0.8); Other (0.8); None (0.7)
Languages (%)	Gorgan (71.0); Donovian (9.0); Limarian (7.0); Atropian (6.0); Other (7.0)
Major diseases	Diarrheal diseases; Typhoid; Hepatitis A; Malaria; West Nile Fever; Crimean-Congo; Hemorrhagic Fever; Meningococcal; Meningitis; Gonorrhea; Syphilis; Hantaviral Fevers; Leptospirosis; Rabies

Population Movement (Migration/IDPs/Refugees)

Conflicts between Gorgas and its two runaway provinces—Zabzimek and South Ostremek— generated 378,000 IDPs within Gorgas and 30,000 additional refugees in Donovia. After the return  of some of the IDPs, about 246,000 ethnic Gorgans remain displaced from the civil wars over the last 19 years. Gorgas will likely maintain its refugee camps for an indefinite period in hopes that one day the IDPs will find the opportunity to return to their own homes.

The conflict 19 years ago between Gorgas and Zabzimek killed 10,000 people and displaced over 250,000 civilians, almost 46% of the pre-war Zabzimek population. Most ethnic Gorgans fled to other parts of the country while some sought refuge in Donovia along with most of the ethnic Zabzimeks displaced by the war. About 40,000 to 50,000 ethnic Gorgans returned to Zabzimek, most to the Kalli district. Due to the threat of Zabzimek violence, about 220,000 ethnic Gorgans could not or refused to return to their Zabzimek homes. The Gorgan government did little for these IDPs and left them to fend for themselves. About 46% of the IDPs live in state or privately owned buildings such as hospitals, hotels, barracks, or sanatoriums not originally designed for long-term habitation. The elderly, children, or the disabled compose most of this group as they cannot afford alternative housing arrangements.

Three years ago, South Ostremek military forces with support from Donovia preempted an attempt by the Gorgan military to reunify South Ostremek with Gorgas. This conflict caused the internal displacement of 162,000 Gorgan civilian supporters to Gorgas and 30,000 ethnic Ostremeks to North Ostremek in Donovia. When Zabzimek saw Gorgas’ military tied up with the Ostremeks and the Donovians, the Zabzimeks seized  the opportunity  to retake the  Kodori Valley, the last Zabzimek territory controlled by Gorgas. This forced 2,000 Kodori Valley residents to flee to other places in Gorgas. Since then, almost all Ostremeks returned to their homes along with all but 26,000 of the ethnic Gorgans that include the Kodori Valley dwellers. Unlike the Zabzimek IDPs, the Gorgan government took positive action for the “new” refugees and built 38 IDP settlements with gardens in primarily the Saurie and Tweedli provinces. About 18,000 of these new IDPs come from South Ostremek, including 5,000 from the Haki District and 2,000 from Kodori Valley. While Gorgas built housing for these new IDPs, the governmental officials did not consult with the IDPs on their location. Those IDPs who did return home found their houses destroyed, barns burned, moveable property stolen, and grazing areas and firewood cutting zones previously used declared off limits. These results made it very difficult for the repatriated IDPs to return to their previous way of life.

While IDPs are plentiful, there are very few refugees in the country. Most of these are ethnic Gorgans that previously lived just over the border in Donovia and fled during the aforementioned conflicts. Migration both into and out of Gorgas is minimal, and usually consists of members of different ethnic groups repatriating to their country of origin.

Population Distribution

Similar to Atropia, just over half (53%) of Gorgans live in urban areas. The urbanization rate in Gorgas, however, trends in the opposite direction, with a net loss of 0.6% per year instead of a positive urbanization rate. About one-third of all Gorgans live in the capital city of Tbilisi, the only Gorgan city with over one million residents. An additional three cities—Kutaisi, Batumi, and Rustavi—contain populations of over 100,000. No other Gorgan cities contain a population of more than 80,000 residents. While control of the capital city is important, it is problematic without a corresponding control of the surrounding countryside.

Demographic Mix

Gorgas possesses the oldest population in the Caucasus region. With a median age of 38.8 years, the Gorgan population is at least seven years older than all other regional countries except Donovia,  with which it is effectively tied. On average, Gorgans live much longer than their neighbors: seven years longer than Limarians; five years longer than Arianians; and 10 years longer than Atropians and Donovians. Gorgas possesses the second-smallest population in the region that is less than 14 years of age, and the largest 65-and-older population. Women represent 53.3% of all Gorgans, and  the percent increases with age as females, on average, outlive males by seven years. Gorgas has about 1,094,390 males and 1,140,758 females in the 16-49 age categories available for military service, with about 1.8 million total fit for military service. Annually, 30,314 Gorgan males and 28,299 Gorgan females reach military age. The Gorgan military might possess the capacity to reach 460,000 personnel. Gorgas will never possess the manpower resources to compete with its historical enemy Donovia, and thus will continue to look for other nonmilitary methods to influence the Caucasus region.

Two partisan groups operate in the vicinity of the Zabzimek-Gorgas border. People’s Liberal Republican Martyrs Group and the Falcon Brothers both contain ethnic Gorgans who remained behind in Zabzimek after the Civil War. These two groups both conduct low-level guerrilla warfare in an attempt to reunite Zabzimek with Gorgas. Both groups will support any attempts by Gorgas to force Zabzimek back under Gorgan control.

Social Volatility

Gorgas suffers from high social volatility because of two separatist regions that want autonomy. Gorgas still considers Zabzimek and South Ostremek as part of Gorgas even though both territories operate independently of the Gorgan government. Donovia assisted both breakaway republics, Zabzimek in the 1990s and South Ostremek more recently in 2008, in their civil wars against Gorgas. Most Gorgans still consider Zabzimek and South Ostremek as theirs, would desire their return, and most likely would support any governmental efforts to accomplish reunification.  Donovia, however, will continue to support the runaway republics as its method to reduce Gorgan influence in the Caucasus region.

Education Level

Gorgas possesses an excellent elementary and high school education system. The Gorgan constitution makes elementary education universal and mandatory for its citizens. Almost every town, village, and settlement contains primary, basic, and secondary schools. Children begin their education in kindergarten and graduate from secondary school at about 17 years of age. Students can continue their education at a university or technical institute. Tbilisi hosts most institutions of higher learning, but a few others operate in the other large Gorgan cities.

Ethnic Diversity

Ethnic Gorgans dominate their country with 83.8% of the population. Gorgans consider themselves as an important political, economic, and cultural group by their connection to ancient Greece, as one of the first nations to adopt Christianity, and through their belief in their importance to the development of Western civilization. While the people may belong to a subgroup with its own unique dialect and culture, the group’s members think of themselves as Gorgans first. Five significant ethnic groups live in Gorgas but do not call themselves Gorgans.

The largest minority ethnic group, Atropians, compose about 6.5% of the Gorgan population. The ability to speak the Atropian language provides this group with its separate social identity. While nominally Shia Muslim, most Atropians rarely practice their religion. Recently, however, more Atropian youth attend foreign-funded madrassas or religious schools that follow the Sunni or Wahabbist Islamic teachings. The Gorgan government will need to continue to watch this latter group to prevent the radicalization of Islam within its country.

Limarians make up the next-largest ethnic minority group at 5.7% of Gorgas’ population, and many Limarians consider Gorgas as their second homeland. Most Limarians reside in one of three geographical areas within Georgia: the capital city of Tbilisi, Sokhumi in Zabzimek, or in the part of Javeki province that touches the Limarian border. Many of the Zabzimek Limarians took up arms and formed their own brigade to fight against the Gorgans in the civil war when Zabzimek declared its independence from Gorgas. Most ethnic Limarians in Gorgas, however, will continue to think of themselves as Limarians first and Gorgans second.

Ethnic Donovians make up about 1.5% of the Gorgan population and about half live in the Tbilisi area. Due to their small size and their wide distribution throughout the country, most ethnic Donovians think of themselves as Gorgans first and Donovians second.

Gorgas considers the Ostremeks and Zabzimeks as ethnic Gorgans, but the minority groups do not. Ostremeks comprise about 3% of the Gorgan population or about 165,000 people. While culturally similar to the Donovians, the Ostremeks are a distinct ethnic group. Ostremeks reside in both southern Donovia and northern Gorgas, but consider the entire area as part of the North Ostremek Republic of Donovia. Most Ostremeks are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi School. The Ostremeks fought a quasi-civil war with Gorgas 19 years ago and, with Donovian help, defeated the Gorgans. A similar fight occurred three years ago when Gorgas tried to bring South Ostremek back under Gorgan governmental control. The Ostremeks will continue to oppose the Gorgan government as they seek to unify their ethnic group under the same government.

Zabzimeks of Limarian heritage make up about 1.8% of the Gorgan population. Most reside in Zabzimek, the autonomous enclave in northwest Gorgas, where they migrated centuries ago after leaving their native Limaria. Zabzimeks assert that they possess a unique genetic heritage that sets them apart from the general Gorgan population. Religion does not play a huge role in the group's identity, but most Zabzimeks regard themselves as Sunni Muslims. Some Zabzimeks practice Christianity, but no churches exist in their province. Nineteen years ago, Zabzimek proclaimed its independence from Gorgas and with Donovian help defeated Gorgas in a civil war that produced massacres and ethnic cleansing of the Gorgan majority. Zabzimeks of Limarian heritage will fight to maintain the regional status quo where they operate as an autonomous "republic" supported by the Donovians.

Religious Diversity

The Gorgan Orthodox Christian faith dominates Gorgas, as 83.9% of the population identify it as their religion. Most Gorgans consider themselves devout but are, in reality, secular. Muslims make up a large minority at 9.9% of the Gorgan population. Just over 6% of Gorgans belong to the Limarian Apostolic Church, the Catholic Church, other faiths, or claim no religion at all.

Common Languages

Over seven in every ten (71%) Gorgans speak Gorgan as their primary language. This serves as a cultural tie that binds the people together. About 9% speak Donovian, 7% speak Limarian, and 6% speak Atropian. Only about 7% of the population speaks any other language as their native tongue. US personnel will need to speak Gorgan or use an interpreter to communicate with the local residents.

Criminal Activity

High levels of criminal activity occur throughout Gorgas; the criminals target foreigners they perceive as wealthy. Almost 75% of all crimes against Americans in Gorgas are violent and include armed robbery, break-ins, carjacking, and kidnapping. When present, Gorgan police will usually assist crime victims. The police, however, usually do not speak English, do not act quickly, and work inefficiently. Gorgas has attempted to reduce police inefficiency and corruption for the past seven years, but with only limited success. US personnel may need to assist the Gorgan government to eliminate illegal activities that interfere with the military mission.

Three groups highlight the variety of criminal activities occurring in Gorgas. Nowhere is corruption driven by organized crime more apparent in the country than in the Gorgan Tourist Association. Officially this group poses as a sophisticated travel bureau catering to an international visitors’ market. In reality it is a cover organization wherein organized criminal elements target wealthy foreigners, while bribing local police officials to experience “delays” and “language issues” when responding to foreigners’ calls for help. A phony nongovernmental organization (NGO) active among Muslim minority communities in Gorgas is the Hawala Assistance Brotherhood. This group cultivates an impression among economically deprived classes that it exists to benefit them as a viable alternative to the country’s formal banking system. In reality, the Brotherhood is a band of loan sharks who engage in extortion, kidnapping, and even murder when borrowers fail to make loan payments on schedule. Finally, the Pan-Caucasus Petrol Distributers is a criminal smuggling and illegal mining ring that pretends to operate as a legitimate business enterprise while actually circumventing government restrictions imposed on Gorgan-Limarian cross-border trading activities.

Human Rights

While the Gorgan constitution guarantees human rights in the country, several organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the US Department of State claim that the Gorgan government either ignores or breaches these rights. The Gorgan government, however, is demonstrating some improvement as it has begun to protect the rights of religious minorities, with a significant drop in attacks against those with different religious beliefs than the majority of Gorgans. The Gorgan government also improved its protection of the freedoms of speech and press with recent laws to decriminalize libel. Many Gorgan IDPs from the civil war with Zabzimek 19 years ago, however, still cannot access satisfactory housing, medical care, or job opportunities. The Gorgan government learned from its previous mistakes and provided settlements for the IDPs generated by the country’s attempt to retake control of South Ostremek three years ago. Unless requested by the Gorgan government, US personnel will probably not be called upon to enforce human rights except as designated by the Geneva Convention and other applicable rules of warfare.

Centers of Social Power

Although family serves as the centerpiece of a Gorgan’s social life, most citizens see themselves as Gorgans first and any other social group second. The extended family develops clientelism, protectionism, and even organized crime in the close-knit group. Gorgans consider third- and even fourth-generation family members as close and expect them to pay their social duty to attend family weddings and funerals. As the second country in the world to adopt Christianity as its state religion, most Gorgans practice their Orthodox faith regularly, although for many this is more a matter of superficial ritual rather than real substance.

Basic Cultural Norms and Values

While Gorgas at one time in the past may have been a military force, it is not today. In the two conflicts fought to return runaway republics back under governmental control, the Gorgan military lost both rather quickly. Zabzimek and South Ostremek received Donovian support, however, to win their quasi-independence from Gorgas. Most Gorgans believe Zabzimek and South Ostremek belong to their country and that their national honor requires the eventual return of the runaway republics to Gorgas. Gorgas sees its major enemy as Donovia and will do anything to hinder the Donovians in any aspect.

Customs and Practices

Meeting & Greeting	Men shake hands and say Gamarjoba (let you win). Do not greet strangers in urban areas. It is alright to smile and greet strangers in rural areas. Friends hug and both kiss the other’s cheek, even among the same gender.
Visiting/ Hospitality	Stand when an elderly person enters a room. Host offers coffee and cookies to guests regardless of financial situation. Hostess may serve food, but not partake unless other women are present. Visitors should not wear shorts.
Manners	Address adults with their professional title and last name; or Address people with Batano (Sir) or Kalbatano (Madam) and their first name. Batano or Kalbatano with a last name is considered very formal. Use first and last names in correspondence and the media. Eat with fork in left hand and knife in right hand. After the Tamada (toastmaster) speaks, males drain their glass and females take a sip of theirs.
Cultural Dos & Don’ts	Men are breadwinners; women take care of the home. You must receive permission from a male relative before speaking to a female. Laws are loosely interpreted. Business clothing is similar to Westerners’. Gorgans dress carefully and value quality clothing. Women should cover their heads with a scarf. The “thumbs-up” sign demonstrates approval.
Gifts	Guests bring gifts—chocolate, flowers, or alcoholic beverages.
Taboos	Do not shake hands across the threshold of someone’s home. Do not decline the offer of an alcoholic beverage—it is considered very rude. Do not ask for more food than initially offered—decline second servings. Do not drink before the toast is offered. Do not dress sloppily, but good jeans are ok. Adult females and teenage girls do not wear shorts in public.
Personal Space	Much less than that of the US.
Displays of Affection	Lip kissing and intimate hugging in public is not approved. Same genders may kiss each other on the cheek.
Marriage Rituals	Unplanned bride kidnapping still occurs, and the family feels shame if the woman returns to her home unmarried. General tendency for later marriage, but a significant number of early age marriages do occur. Unofficial polygamy exists in some Muslim areas. While parents may stay involved, it is more likely that the couple mutually decides on the marriage proposal. After consent by both families, the betrothal ceremony is held where the groom climbs to the top of the bride’s roof and releases a white bird, the guests throw grains of cereal to the house corners, and the bride walks around a pot with oil or wheat three times. A Gorgan wedding is a big celebration with usually hundreds of guests.
Work Week/ Work Hours	Monday to Friday, 40 hours per week with a Saturday-Sunday weekend. Stores usually open at 1000, but close sometime between 1800 and 2000. Restaurants usually open for lunch, but remain open until the early morning hours.
Concept Of Time	More aware of time’s importance than most of the region, but still not like the Western world.
Dispute Resolution	Conflicts between individuals are resolved by families.
Birth Rituals	Grandparents live with the parents to help raise the children due to shortage of daycare providers and kindergartens.
Death Rituals	Beliefs and rituals about death and the afterlife come from a mixture of Christian and Pagan traditions. The people respect the dead and spend much time caring for the graves. Though the people believe in an afterlife, they reduce grief by ritualizing the mourning process.

Summary

Gorgan society is homogeneous as most people belong to the same ethnic group, speak the same language, and practice the same religion. These three traits bind the Gorgans to each other and make almost everyone else an outsider. While Gorgas made some societal progress in recent years, it still finds itself below the living standards of Ariana and Atropia. The relatively ethnically homogeneous Gorgan population creates a situation in which most of its citizens dislike Donovia, want the return of their runaway provinces to their control, and remain leery of most of their other neighbors.