The Issue of Ottoman Georgians in Akaki Tsereteli's Journalism ("To Ottoman Georgians")

Abstract

In Akaki Tsereteli's rich artistic thought, a special place belongs to his important publicism, in which many pressing issues are brought to the fore, which shows the unified Georgian national spirit and must be considered in a single context to show the integrity of the country. This issue is discussed in Akaki Tsereteli's journalistic letter "To the Ottoman Georgians", written in 1875-77, where the issue of non-Muslim Georgians in one part of Georgia is conveyed with painful lines, but still it preserves the national spirit and is still Georgian in its essence.
Akaki Tsereteli talks about the issue of divided Georgianness in a journalistic letter to "Ottoman Georgians" and it shows Georgians who have different beliefs but are still united. According to the author's note, although the perverse fate has lost the nation's centuries-old unity, split it in two, separated it by faith, ... but the plague and the disease are still together, one and the same.
The issue raised by the author in the named journalistic letter was not only problematic and important in previous centuries, but even today it is painfully felt in the worldview of every Georgian and represents the pain of the whole country. This problem runs through the history of Georgia like a red line, having become its political, social, religious and cultural problem, it has also become the subject of modern research, which is still looking for ways to solve it.
Akaki Tsereteli's analytical journalistic letter clearly shows the belief that the religious condition, language, history... of the Ottoman Georgians are united and inseparable from the rest of Georgians and shows the indivisibility of the country and the nation on a unified national path.
Thus, Akaki Tsereteli's publicist letter to the "Ottoman Georgians" stands in the service of the idea of the national integrity of Georgia and aims at the way of the country's state settlement.

The topic is relevant and has great theoretical and practical value, as many of Akaki's journalistic letters are unstudied and need to be investigated in terms of the problems raised in them, the essence and purpose reflected in them. One of these problems is the analytical issue, which does not lose its relevance not only in Akaki's era, but also today, it needs to be revived, looked at and analyzed with new eyes. The problem, of course, should be understood first of all in a unified national perspective, which should also be considered in the context of the Christian part of the whole world.