Trusso Gorge
| Trusso Gorge | ||
|---|---|---|
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| location | Georgia | |
| Waters | Terek | |
| Mountains | Greater Caucasus | |
| Geographical location | 42 ° 34 '22 " N , 44 ° 28' 55" E | |
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The Trusso Gorge ( Georgian თრუსოს ხეობა / Trussos cheoba ; Ossetian Тырсыгом / Tyrsygom ; Russian Трусовское ущелье , Trussovskoye uschelje ) is a mountain valley in the Greater Caucasus . It is located on the territory of Georgia in the Qasbegi municipality of the Mtskheta-Mtianeti region and is inhabited by a mixed population of Georgians and Ossetians . In the Trusso Gorge the glaciers of the nearby mountain range rises Kazbek of the river Terek , whose middle and lower reaches to Russia , while on the section just beyond the state border from the darial gorge to the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania belongs.
From central Georgia, the Trusso Gorge can only be reached via the 2379 m high Cross Pass , over which the Georgian Army Road runs. There is no direct road connection to South Ossetia to the west , from which the gorge is separated by the 3800 m high watershed ridge of the Great Caucasus, also known as the Mtiuleti ridge on this section.
The population of the sparsely populated valley traditionally consisted of Ossetians; At the end of the 1980s, around 1,000 people lived in the villages of the Trusso Gorge. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the war over neighboring South Ossetia, ethnic tensions arose between Georgians and Ossetians, which drove many Ossetians living in Georgia to emigrate. In the Georgian census of 2002, the Trusso Valley was practically depopulated and had 47 inhabitants, 45 of whom were Ossetians; By 2011, the population continued to fall to 29, spread over four villages (of 18 still inhabited in the 1980s).
The then President of the Republic of South Ossetia, which is only recognized by a few states, Eduard Kokoity , called in August 2009 for the gorge to be connected to the area controlled by his government. The Trusso Gorge was added to the Georgian heartland under Stalin , although it was historically Ossetian territory. However, the area already belonged to the Ujesd Dusheti of the Tbilisi Governorate at the time of the Russian Empire , from which the later Rajon - today's municipality - Qasbegi emerged, and thus never to the South Ossetian Autonomous Region since its foundation in 1922 .
