The mistake is that those who live there they are only 1/3 of the population lived there. But this is known. What is possibly unknown to many is that Abkhaz (those who called themselves so) population was only 1/6 of whole population of Abkhazia. So why not to give everybody chances to vote? But this is not what Abkhaz want. They even do not accept if voting supports simply independence – they need to keep there apartheid they had before the conflict and after (now they are 2/9 of the population or even less).
Their demand is to legalize apartheid by constitution whether they are the part of Georgia, independent or a part of Russia – this means no matter whi lives in Ankhazia – rulers must be Abkhaz. What Russia needs? To support the apartheid leader and control – this they already have currently.
But being part of Russia is too challenging – you may gain but can also fail – they also know well Russians. You may understand the problem of Abkhaz and may sympathize them also like me – they are really in a trouble. In more real sense most of Abkhaz don’t care about their ethnic, cultural and educational problems – because most of them are more Russians than Abkhaz. They don’t speak their language and almost forgot their tradition.
Please look in the letters of my friends:
http://www.t-i.org.uk/
http://online.wsj.com/article/
6 comments:
When most of Abkhazia was denuded of its native population in the wake of (a) the end of the Great Caucasian War in 1864 and (b) the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, the question arose as to who would make the most appropriate substitute-population. One of the leading Georgian intellectuals of the time, the educationalist Iakob Gogebashvili, wrote an interesting article in Tiflisskij Vestnik in 1877 entitled /vin unda iknes dasaxlebuli apxazetshi?/ (Who should be settled in Abkhazia?). In this article he argued that the neighbouring Mingrelians would make the best /kolonizatorebi/ (colonisers)... And this is precisely what they subsequently became.
Please see: ‘‘Demographic change in Abkhazia’’ http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/georgia-abkh...
Also: http://www.circassianworld.com/Achugba.html
The mass-immigration of Kartvelians (mostly Mingrelians) goes back to the late 1930s. Abkhaz's script was then altered from a roman to a Georgian base. Abkhaz-language schools were summarily closed in 1945-6, following by a ban on broadcasting and publications. The Abkhazians as a nation were due to face transportation (like the numerous other peoples transported by Stalin -Iosef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili- from the Koreans in the late 1930s through to Abkhazia's Greeks in the late 1940s), and, as a 'scholarly' justification for that, the literary-historian Pavle Ingoroqva was commissioned to argue in print that the Abkhazians only arrived in Abkhazia in the 17th century, conquering the 'original' Abkhazians of history, who were thus a 'Georgian' tribe. This calumny was revived in the heady days of Georgian nationalism from 1988 AND IS WIDELY BELIEVED BY MANY ORDINARY KARTVELIANS, who for this reason still regard the Abkhazians as unentitled to be living in Abkhazia.
In December 1921 the Abkhaz SSR, under pressure from Stalin was forced into a Union Treaty with the Georgian SSR, which created the basis for state-legal relations between Abkhazia and Georgia. According to this treaty, the SSR of Georgia and the SSR of Abkhazia entered into a military, political and economic alliance. State-legal relations between Georgia and Abkhazia were based on the treaty, which provided equal rights. Following this the Abkhaz SSR took part in the establishment of the USSR.
In 1931 the Abkhaz SSR was forced to become an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Georgian SSR. This violation of the sovereign rights of Abkhazia had grave consequences for Abkhazia. Reduction of its status to that of an autonomous republic resulted in mass rioting of Abkhaz people all throughout Abkhazia. Subsequent Georgian policy was focused on creating a mono-national state. Thus Meskhetian Turks, Greeks, Kurds, Khemshins, Laz and others were deported from Georgia. The same policy of altering the demographic balance was pursued in Abkhazia, partly by means of forcible assimilation and partly by means of the mass settlement of Georgian nationals in Abkhazia.
The Georgian general leading the invading forces in the autumn of 1992, Gia Qarqarashvili, stated on TV that he would sacrifice 100,000 Georgians to kill all 93,000 Abkhazians, (See UNPO's Abkhazia Report, November 1992,http://www.unpo.org/downloads/AbkGeo1992Report.pdf) if that is what it took to keep Georgia's borders inviolate', and a similar threat came from the head of Georgia's wartime administration, Giorgi Khaindrava, on the pages of Le Monde Diplomatique in April 1993.
If you were an Abkhazian, would you welcome back your former Kartvelian neighbours, knowing how many of them think Abkhazians should not be in Abkhazia?
Also, when it comes to the fate of refugees and their right to return home, what is to be said of those Abkhazian descendants (over 300,000) of those more or less forced to leave Abkhazia, when it was populated virtually exclusively by Abkhazians, in 1864?
You should not forget that it was Abkhazia which unilaterally decided to open the gates for the (largely Mingrelian) refugees to return to Abkhazia from Georgia in 1999. Georgia at that time was actually accusing these refugees of being TRAITORS to Georgia. Were you aware of this fact, and, if not, what do you think about it?
Today there are more than 65,000 of them living freely in Abkhazia’s Gal District and speaking their language (Mingrelian). The charge repeatedly made on his recent visit to Europe and America by Georgia’s deputy premier Giorgi Baramidze that this population is daily subjected to killings and rapes is a vicious calumny and well illustrates why Abkhazians have no confidence or trust in the Georgian leadership, which, let Abkhazians also recall, has for two years been in blatant breach of its international undertakings in having introduced a military force into Abkhazia’s Upper Kodor Valley which it refuses to withdraw.
Admittedly, there are still problems with any mass-return of Kartvelians (be they Mingrelians, Svans or Georgians) into other regions of Abkhazia, since this would present a major demographic threat to the Abkhazians and the other ethnic groups who live in Abkhazia.
The war was so intensive and so many people died (4% of the Abkhazian population, in fact) that it is hard to talk about any positive attitudes existing between the ethnic groups.
For some 60 years Abkhazia was forced to accept the unwelcome status of being a mere autonomous republic with Soviet Georgia (thanks to the ruling of the Georgian dictator Stalin – ‘Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili’). For daring to defend our interests in the face of Georgian nationalist aggression, we were subjected to 14 months of savagery. In alliance with our allies from the Abkhazian diaspora or Abkhazians’ cousins in the North Caucasus, we succeeded in ejecting the invader and winning the war. All that Georgia under its various leaders/governments has been willing to offer us by way of a settlement is a return to the ‘status quo ante’— the sudden offer by Misha Saakashvili of asymmetric federation produced on the eve of the recent NATO summit in Bucharest was clearly aimed more at impressing the Western alliance than at appealing to Sukhum.
How many examples are there in history where a people after being invaded, losing 4% of their population, and yet finally winning the war have meekly resigned themselves to accepting the selfsame subordinate status they had before the tragedy of a war inflicted upon them?
This is something that the Georgian side and their international backers (who have no interest in the fate of minorities but think solely of the ‘big picture’ of preserving territorial integrity, of finding allies in an unstable part of the world, and of securing the flow of oil) would do well to remember. The Georgians lost Abkhazia in 1993. They should be told by their EU, NATO and US ‘friends’ to accept this fact, find a ‘modus vivendi’ with their neighbours (big and small alike), and then contribute to the creation of stability and prosperity for the Caucasus region as whole. We can all then get on with our lives in the peace that we all deserve.
Some references:
Origins and Evolution of the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict, by Stephen D. Shenfield http://www.circassianworld.com/Geo_Abk_conflict...
Abkhazia's Liberation and International Law by E. K. Adzhindzhal, Sukhum, 2007
http://www.circassianworld.com/Abkhazia_Liberat...
Why Independence For Abkhazia Is The Best Solution by George Hewitt (Proffesor, London School Of Oriental and African Studies)
http://www.eurasiacritic.com/june/june_hewitt.html
Georgian Apologists (at home and abroad) by George Hewitt
http://www.circassianworld.com/News/Socor_Geo.html
Latest article: A Georgian gambling in Caucasus [1]
Map of Southeastern Europe AD 800
http://www.euratlas.com/time/sea0800.htm
http://www.euratlas.com/time/sea0900.htm in year 900
Graphic: Demographic change in Abkhazia, Conciliation Resources
http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/georgia-abkhazia/graph2.php
Abkhazia's Liberation and International Law by E. K. Adzhindzhal, Sukhum, 2007
http://www.circassianworld.com/Abkhazia_Liberation.html
You should read more and more... Please...
Dear friends,
First of all - don't be so angry, please. The demographic changes of Abkhazia (BTW: I suppose you remember Abkhazia is Georgian name of this land) - I am not talking about past - it is about current problems. If we start now digging the past we can find many other things to say about the demography of Abkhazia and many other places in the world.
My concerns are not about this. I maybe respect Abkhaz more than you living somewhere and thinking of this theme something you can play with. Here I am talking about chances for Abkhazs (my note: I think you know most of the aristocracy families tend to think they are both Abkhaz and Georgian as well, like Megrelian think they are Georgians).
I always think about people not by their ethnic identity - which I respect very much - but as individuals who have right to be free. For me freedom of any Abkhaz or anybody is the same as mine - this is the Christian morality. The same morality says if you want to be respected respect others.
But now I am trying to understand what is good for everybody - how to survive in this hard neighborhood. I care about Abkhaz because I see they are disappearing from the earth - nobody can blame in this Georgians. We might killed many of them in 1992 - not so many in reality, but we also see Abkhaz don’t care about their identity much. What is really easily visible is that some of leaders have benefits from the situation there in Abkhazia and most of the population suffers. I don’t think there are any good politicians anywhere who put interests of ordinary individuals higher than their own popularity or political future. And in this situation individuals are lost – Abkhaz have no choices than to go somewhere else and find settlement. This is a catastrophe.
So look deeper – there is no political solution for Abkhaz which can be satisfactory – only apartheid which can benefit only leaders.
"I always think about people not by their ethnic identity - which I respect very much - but as individuals who have right to be free."
This is one of the most humane and civilized comments I have seen in a *very* long time. And it's to Gia's eternal credit that it's expressed in a time of such tension and violence.
There is constant misrepresentation in the West or pro-Georgia propaganda that Abkhazia is led by a gang of separatists. I would reccomend those people to tell a fable to their kids: "There is separatis country ruled by separatist governemtn and there are separatist children drinking separatist milk and separatist old people in the streets and they drive separatist car. Everything could be Ok with them and they could look like us but there is one thing that distinguish them from us - they are separatists, they are not people so we have to kill them all". As for the government it was installed right after war with Georgia - Putin was not there even on the political horison. There was pro-Georgian Eltsin who together with Georgia put Abkhazia under sanctions. By the way recent elections in Abkhazia when Putin backed candidate was rejected by people of Abkhazia could be indication that we form our Government by ourselves, despite of the opinion of any Russian leader. As for those Georgian who may have right to vote too. Do you mean those who fought against Abkhazia on the Georgian side? Or do you mean those who were resettled to Abkhazia in Stalin & Beria & Shevardnadze time in order to assimilate Abkhaz population?
Refugees is always a big problem and it was not Abkhazia who bare responsibility for them - it is Georgia that started the war and created huge humanitarian catastrophy. By the way Georgian population fled before Abkhaz Army entered the occupied territories.
Today Abkhazia is comprised of three main ethnic groups which to your surprise are: Abkhazians Armenian and Georgians, most of this ethnic groups are presented in the Parliament and Government. Even if continuing your logic and letting all former Georgian popultion to return will you guarantee that this mass return will not cause severe consequences and new war. Even if they all return and become majority again and vote for incorporation into Georgia will you guarantee that Georgian nationalistic policy will allow any Abkhazia in Abkhazia? I think not and there is no need to experiment with this because all non-Georgian population perfectly remembers from the past history how Abkhazia was part of Georgia. For Georgians there is a country called Georgia their motherland where they may live but Abkhaz have no other home. If Georgian Army eneters Abkhazia they will not mercy anybody non-georgian here. But when it will be happening you will be watching cenic news about restoring constitutional oreder over rebels and again separatist children women and old people. So it is better to be alive and not recognised then dead and part of Georgia.
Dear friend,
OK, this is really funny - separatist milk or bread.
This can be also correct that many Georgians settled Abkhazia during soviet times, even though I am sure nobody can say they never lived this place. I am not going to quarrel on this with anybody.
But we can insist that Stalin, Beria and Shevardnadze were Russian leaders. First two never hesitated to kill hundreds of thousands of Georgians before and during the World War II (please read carefully the history). And if anybody tried to assimilate Abkhaz - it is visible who - what language they speak?
You correctly understand that jumping from Georgia to Russia is not a solution. But what is the solution? Are they going to pull out all other ethnic groups from Abkhazia? How?
And please be calm and show up. I am the one of the few who recognized 1992-3 war as dirty politics - if you understand what that can mean.
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