Ossetians

In France, a piece of stag horn is thought to be a preservative against witchcraft and disease, while in Portugal, ox horns fastened on poles are placed in melon patches to protect the fruit from withering glances.

Among the Ossetes, a tribe of the Caucasus, the women arrange their hair in the shape of a chamois horn, curving forwards over the brow, thus forming a talismanic coiffure, and when a Muslim takes his child on a journey, he paints a crescent between its eyes, or tattoos the same device on its body.

The modern Greek, too, adopts the precaution of attaching a crab's claw to the child's head.

In northern Africa, the horns of animals are very generally used as amulets, the prevailing idea being everywhere the same, namely, that pronged objects repel demons and evil glances.

There's all kinds of nationalist stuff and royalist stuff and, um, you know, uh, but, but still, the Jewish question comes up in each and every one of these things.

Not the Germans, not the Arabs, not the Armenians, not the Georgians, not the Ossetians, not the Turks, um, but the Jews.

The only ones who have this particular feature.

Um, but now, you know, you w- the kids are taught that there is no such thing as ethnicity.

That's true.

Yes, from the very beginning, we worked with many journalists from the entire region, including Abkhazian, South Ossetian, and Karabakhian journalists.

Especially for journalists from Abkhazia and South Ossetia, it cannot be taken for granted that they decide to cooperate with a media outlet based in Tbilisi.

It requires a degree of trust and a degree of sensitivity.

That's an example and a creative solution.

The entire story was about a Georgian IDP.

There was not really South Ossetian component.

We didn't have Ossetian respondents.

They're still occupying it now.

People who live in South Ossetia are issued Ossetian passports as a breakaway separatist country that's supported and recognized only by Russia, and it's part of Russia's attempt to reassert post-Soviet, uh, authority in these areas.

And some analysts have said, and, and I was at the National Security Agency in 2008 when this happened, that perhaps Russia was rehearsing its invasion of Crimea by invading Georgia in 2008, because they used very similar tactics in the way that they occupied South Ossetia versus Crimea, and people might, who are interested should go check that out.

But this is a problem because Russia and Ivanishvili are closely aligned.

the way I have the chronology here anyway.

Ossetians never bothered us that much, to be honest.

Ossetians were...

So it's funny.

Listen, Georgians have this weird thing.

We don't really count Ossetians as Georgians.

It was never a problem for us, but Abkhazia was a huge problem because Abkhazians were in minority.

Georgians is like Georgian Georgians were in majority in Abkhazia.

There's all kinds of nationalist stuff and royalist stuff and, um, you know, uh, but, but still, the Jewish question comes up in each and every one of these things.

Not the Germans, not the Arabs, not the Armenians, not the Georgians, not the Ossetians, not the Turks, um, but the Jews, the only ones who have this particular feature.

Um, but now, you know, you w- the kids are taught that there is no such thing as ethnicity.

There is no such thing as any kind of, um...