The war ended with a Dagomys Agreement, signed on 24 June 1992, which established a joint peacekeeping force and left South Ossetia divided between the rival authorities.

Ossetian migration to the region began in the 13th and 14th centuries and is believed to be connected to the fall of Kingdom of Alania in the North Caucasus to the Mongols and later to Timur's armies.

[6][8] In the 17th century, under pressure from the Kabardian princes, Ossetians started a second wave of migration from the North Caucasus to the Kingdom of Kartli.

Following the breakdown of the Tsarist regime in Russia, Ossetians allied with the Russian Bolsheviks, fighting a war against the newly independent Menshevik Georgia.

[11] It is believed that the SAOA was established by central Soviet government in exchange for Ossetian loyalty and support of Russian Bolsheviks in their fight against Georgian Mensheviks.

In April 1990, a law on the 'Delimitation of Powers' was passed by the USSR Supreme Soviet, which equalized rights of autonomies with those of the union republics.

[18] Gorbachev warned Georgia that if it tried to leave the "brotherly union", it would face problems in the regions on its own territory.

An anti-Georgian sentiment began to grow in South Ossetia and Abkhazia with clandestine and open support from Moscow.

The Ossetian and also Abkhaz separatists began to voice demands against Georgia, and received the arms and financial assistance from the Kremlin.

[4] On 12 December 1990, gunmen driving a car in Tskhinvali opened fire from a submachine gun, killing three Georgians and wounding two in what has been described as a terrorist attack and an act of ethnic violence.

The hostages were released only after police set free a local man arrested for illegal possession of a firearm.

On 7 January, the Soviet President Mikheil Gorbachev ordered all armed formations to leave the region except those of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On 9 January, the Georgian Supreme Soviet held an extraordinary session and declared Gorbachev’s decree as "interference into Georgia’s internal affairs".

[41] The war in South Ossetia remained remarkably static, if brutal, throughout its course and had several peaks of intense fighting.

On 23 March 1991, the chairman of Russia's Supreme Soviet, Boris Yeltsin, met Gamsakhurdia in Kazbegi, northeast Georgia, and agreed to push for efforts to withdraw Soviet troops from South Ossetia and create a joint Georgian-Russian police force to restore peace in the region.

[43] In May 1991, an agreement was signed between Georgia, North Ossetia, the USSR, and the RSFSR to create a Joint Commission to resolve the conflict.

A Joint Commission failed to be re-established after the summer vacation and the August Coup in Moscow, and the fighting resumed.

As the National Guard was in the active state of mutiny against the President and Georgia was on the brink of civil war, only a few detachments followed the order, and they were repelled by the South Ossetian militia.

Taking advantage of political paralysis in Tbilisi, on 19 January 1992 the separatists organized a referendum on Ossetian-controlled territories on proclaiming independence or joining Russian Federation.

Using its newly-obtained weapons and in particular artillery, Georgian National Guard and Mkhedrioni forces began a siege of Tskhinvali and outlying villages.

Independent sources confirm that the Russian army assisted and supplied the Ossetian rebels during the conflict.

[3] In March 1992, Eduard Shevardnadze assumed duties as the chairman of Georgia's ruling State Council.

[45] In early June, Georgians advanced further towards the direction of the Tskhinvali and caputed the village of Teki in the vicinity of the city.

On 10 June 1992, chairman of Georgia's State Council Eduard Shevardnadze and North Ossetian President Akhsarbek Galazov agreed on a ceasefire and a joint commission to monitor the situation, but the agreement collapsed soon, and fighting concentrated around the village of Teki.

The left-wing and nationalist groups called for an anti-Georgian policy and annexation of South Ossetia into the Russian Federation, while the democrats supported Georgia's territorial integrity.

[1] The Georgian media reported that Georgia and Russia were on the brink of war and that the relations between the countries "had never been so tense".

[47] On 24 June 1992, the Dagomys Agreement was signed between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze.

At the same time, Georgian paramilitaries began similar retaliations and Ossetian civilians fled to Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia.

[50] The flow of refugees into Northern Ossetia aggravated the tense ethnic situation there and played a significant role in the Ossetian–Ingush conflict.