Abkhazia | Research & Encyclopedia Articles

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Abkhazia Summary

Abkhazia

A semiautonomous republic in northwestern Georgia, Abkhazia borders Russia to the north, along a ridge of peaks in the Caucasus Mountains; the northeastern coast of the Black Sea defines its southern boundary. With some river valleys and a few lakes breaking the terrain, its steep northern slopes run from glaciers to pastures, to mixed forests, and eventually to a long, narrow strip of fertile coastland. Because Abkhazia has a subtropical climate along its coastal slopes and lowlands, its farms have long been known for their abundant yields of tea, citrus fruit, tobacco, grapes, and other crops. The capital is the port of Sukhum, erected on the grounds of a former Greek colony.

The Abkhaz region has been the site of human settlement since prehistoric times. Some of the first recorded histories of the region involve the Colchis state of the first millennium BCE; Greece conquered it in approximately 100 BCE. In later periods, both the Romans and Byzantines supported trading posts and garrisons in Abkhazia in order to maintain control over the Black Sea. The first Abkhaz kingdom was established in the eighth century CE; a later manifestation of this state merged with a Georgian kingdom in the eleventh century. The region fell to Mongol-Turkic invasions in the thirteenth century, and the Ottoman Turks claimed Abkhazia in the sixteenth century. The Russians seized it in the early nineteenth century. With the rise of the Soviet Union, and throughout most of the Soviet period, Abkhazia was designated an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the republic of Georgia. The consolidation of Russian—and later Soviet and Georgian—control over the region led to the migration of ethnic Abkhazians, mostly to Turkey. Soviet restrictions on Abkhaz ethnolinguistic expression and institutions were particularly severe under Stalin and the Communist Party.

Ethnic Abkhaz—often referring to themselves as Apsua, or variations thereof—are generally regarded as descendents of those peoples who had entered the region by the first century CE. Images of traditional Abkhazians depict a people with great longevity who are associated with cattle husbandry along the slopes and agriculture in the lowlands. About half are Orthodox Christians; Sunni Muslims comprise the other half. The Abkhaz language is part of the Northwest group of Caucasian languages and, despite periods of severe suppression under the Soviets, maintains both written and literary traditions. According to the 1990 census, Abkhazia had a population of almost 550,000; of these fewer than 20 percent were ethnic Abkhaz. The majority were Georgian—almost 50 percent— with Armenians, Russians and Ukrainians, and some smaller groups constituting the remaining 30 percent. In the mid-1990s, however, large numbers of non-Abkhaz peoples left amid armed conflict.

Despite their minority status, Abkhazians were particularly active in promoting their ethnolinguistic and political rights in the later years of the Soviet Union, and since its collapse. In 1978, the Abkhazians proposed a petition for secession, and in 1990 the Abkhazian Supreme Soviet declared independence— envisioning a federation with Georgia rather than a subordinate state in a larger Georgian republic. In 1992, military conflicts between the Abkhaz and Georgia ensued. Since 1994, a relative peace has been imposed by Russia, according to terms that critics view as favoring Russia, Georgia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). However, having been forced to accept peace under the threat of Russian force and trade sanctions imposed by the CIS, the resolution to the problem of Abkhaz autonomy and sovereignty are far from resolved.