Dear Mr Popescu,

Abkhazia is Georgia and please indicate this fact in your article. Russia and Nicaragua and you have forgotten about Hamas who also “recognized” Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region are not the whole world. Therefore, when you represent the European institution you must follow names and geographical indications accepted in the EU, they have not recognized these regions.

Furthermore, I would like to urge Abkhaz people, please give Georgia and its western partners a chance to defend your identity, otherwise Russia is too big and dangerous threat to your existance. They manipulate with tragedy, with the war which was inspired, organized and financed by the Kremlin, to halt our cooperation and partnership. Please, think about the future of your children, do you want to be ruled by country who designed this trap, who was the initiator of the war and the conflict? I am sure no. I believe you all deserve better life.

Let me note one more time that Georgianisation of Abkhazia’s toponymy was introduced at the time of Stalin (who, as I’m sure you know, was Georgian). This was the time of immense discrimination against the Abkhazian population and eduction of the status of Abkhazia to that of an autonomous republic within Georgia. If you or news agencies still recognizes Stalin’s toponymy within Abkhazia, consistency would demand that it use the same Stalin-imposed names for the rest of the former Soviet countries with, for example, Stalingrad instead of Volgograd or Gorky instead of Nizhny Novgorod in Russia, or Zhdanov instead of Mariupol in the Ukraine, or Tskhakaya instead of Senaki in Abkhazia’s neighbouring Georgia, or other names of numerous Soviet leaders and dictators of that time.

By the way, Abkhazia is NOT integral part of Georgia.

In 1921, Abkhazia and Georgia became Sovietized. On 31 March 1921, an independent Soviet Republic of Abkhazia was proclaimed. On 21 May 1921, the Georgian Bolshevik government officially recognized the independence of Abkhazia. But the same year, under pressure from Stalin and other influential Georgian Bolsheviks, Abkhazia was forced to conclude a union (i.e., confederative) treaty with Georgia. Abkhazia still remained a full union republic until 1931, when its status was downgraded, under Stalin’s orders, from that of Union Republic to that of an Autonomous Republic within Georgia.

Vladislav Ardzinba, first president of Abkhazia, stated: “In 1931 Abkhazia was transformed into an autonomous republic within the Georgian SSR. Seemingly it was the only republic whose political status changed under pressure from Stalin not upwards but downwards”.

See: ”DECLARATION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE OF THE SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA on Independence of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Abkhazia.”
http://www.rrc.ge/law/declar_1921_05_21_e.htm?lawid=112&lng_3=en

—

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.

It was no accident that the Georgian newspaper ‘Shroma’ considered Georgian acquisition of the land in Abkhazia and Circassia as ‘one of the most wonderful events’ in the life of the Georgian nation ['Shroma', 1882, №15 (in Georgian)]. On 4 February 1879 another newspaper, the ‘Droeba’, urged its readers: ‘Let us expand while there is still time to do it, before other peoples come and settle the empty spaces of our Caucasus.’ While the aforementioned issue of ‘Shroma’ pleaded with its readers: ‘Send us lots of Rachintsy, Lechkhumtsians, Upper Imeretians and Mingrelians from our mountainous regions!’ ['Shroma', 1882, №15 (in Georgian)].

See: DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE IN ABKHAZIA 1897–1989 http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/georgia-abkhazia/graph2.php

One more thing… I am wondering what is source os 300,000 refugees figure?

According to the 1989 census there were only 239,872 “Georgians” living in Abkhazia! And some of them NEVER left Abkhazia.

Quote: R. Gachechiladze, The New Georgia. Space, Society, Politics, London: UCL Press, 1995, pp. 43, 178. According to the Georgian State Committee for Refugees and Displaced Persons, some 160,000 refugees from Abkhazia have been officially registered and accommodated in 63 districts of Georgia, cf. “The Georgian Chronicle”, February-March 1994, as cited in A. Zverev, Ethnic Conflicts in the Caucasus. In: Bruno Coppieters (ed.). Contested Borders in the Caucasus, Brussels: VUB University Press, 1996, pp. 13-71.

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 government 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”.

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.

See UNPO’s report: Excerpt: ”THE MAJORITY OF GEORGIANS, HOWEVER, FLED BEFORE ABKHAZIAN AND NORTHERN CAUCASUS TROOPS ARRIVED.” http://www.unpo.org/downloads/Abkhazia_Georgia_report_1992.pdf

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.

Furthermore, I would like to urge Abkhaz people, please give Georgia and its western partners a chance to defend your identity, otherwise Russia is too big and dangerous threat to your existance. They manipulate with tragedy, with the war which was inspired, organized and financed by the Kremlin, to halt our cooperation and partnership. Please, think about the future of your children, do you want to be ruled by country who designed this trap, who was the initiator of the war and the conflict? I am sure no. I believe you all deserve better life.
———————-

Dear Helen
If not that war . which you plunged us in in 1992 I could be grateful to you for all your kindness which you expressed here and so being much concerned .
But you write as theer has never been the agression and invasion to Abkhazia by the country you live in, or maybe , like many of you you live in Europe and some nostalgic feelings led you writing all this ?
But lets be earnest and honest!
Who started first the war in Abkhazia < why , and when you will realize and understand at least after so many years , that in the fighting the one who began is guilty , and he has to understand that any war has its consequences.
Even today , see what happened , the UNmission stopped its activities in Abkhazia , because the world community again followed Georgia will to keep these idiotic words , which do not exist so many years , like territorial integrity, how can you or anyone else can say them , after the war and killing of so many people ?
I am sorry again for you and the other countries which so stubbornly support yours just because Georgia is against of Russia . Just because they want to use and manupilate Georgia , which stepped on all which connected our peoples.

Dear Andria, my previous post still awating moderation, i think it’s just because of long. I will try to write shortly.

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”.

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. See UNPO’s report: Excerpt: ”THE MAJORITY OF GEORGIANS, HOWEVER, FLED BEFORE ABKHAZIAN AND NORTHERN CAUCASUS TROOPS ARRIVED.” http://www.unpo.org/downloads/Abkhazia_Georgia_report_1992.pdf

Also i am wondering how did you find 250,000 – 300,000 figures? I even read 350,000 and 400,000 figures for the refuuges.

According to the 1989 census there were only 239,872 “Georgians” living in Abkhazia! And some of them NEVER left Abkhazia after the war. And we know VERY WELL them some of them FOUGHT against to Abkhazia with Georgian occupiers.

And 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 60,000 of them living in Abkhazia’s Gal District and speaking their language (Mingrelian).

Today Abkhazia is comprised of three main ethnic groups which to your surprise are: Abkhazians, Armenians and Georgians, most of this ethnic groups are presented in the Parliament and Government.

Even if you continuing your logic and letting all former Georgian population 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 Abkhazian 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.

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?

The Georgian general leading the invading forces in the autumn of 1992, Georgiy (Gia) Karkarashvili, stated on TV that he would sacrifice 100,000 Georgians to kill all 97,000 Abkhazians, if that is what it took to keep Georgia’s borders inviolate. See video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzvtaZIMy98

A similar threat came from the head of Georgia’s wartime administration, Giorgi Khaindrava, told the correspondent from Le Monde Diplomatique that ”there are only 80,00 Abkhazians, which means that we can easily and completely destroy the genetic stock of their nation by killing 15,000 of their youtg. And we are perfectly cabaple of doing this.”

And it was no accident that the Abkhazian research-institute and archives were torched (after cherry-picking) in Nov 1992 — it was done to try to erase documentary proof of the Abkhazians’ presence over the centuries (not to say millennia) on Abkhazian soil. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lcNIQ6fhcU

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy-caucasus/abkhazia_archive_4018.jsp

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?

Andria, 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.

And what 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?

See: Demographic change in Abkhazia
http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2008/08/demographic-change-in-abkhazia.html

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?

alex, maybe you can learn somethings from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKwPt5xD4K0

Glenn, Diana Kerselyan talking about Armenian rights is not the same as saying that the 1/3 of the population in Abkhazia who are Armenians are well represented in the government and parliament, as you claimed. give me names of Armenians and Georgians in the government and parliament to support your earlier claim. the rest if blah blah blah.

Can we look at Abkhazia and Georgia like at a marriage? Does marriage have to stay forever together or can it divorce?

After WWI president Wilson insisted on the principle of self-determination of peoples. After WWII principle of territorial integrity was established. Both principles are nice and desirable on paper but sometimes they are contradictory, like in the case of Abkhazia.

Dear Kazimierz, actually it was a forced marriage. In 1921, Abkhazia and Georgia became Sovietized. On 31 March 1921, an independent Soviet Republic of Abkhazia was proclaimed. On 21 May 1921, the Georgian Bolshevik government officially recognized the independence of Abkhazia. But the same year, under pressure from Stalin and other influential Georgian Bolsheviks, Abkhazia was forced to conclude a union (i.e., confederative) treaty with Georgia. Abkhazia still remained a full union republic until 1931, when its status was downgraded, under Stalin’s orders, from that of Union Republic to that of an Autonomous Republic within Georgia. DECLARATION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE OF THE SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA on Independence of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Abkhazia
http://www.rrc.ge/law/declar_1921_05_21_e.htm?lawid=112&lng_3=en

Vladislav Ardzinba, first president of Abkhazia, stated: “In 1931 Abkhazia was transformed into an autonomous republic within the Georgian SSR. Seemingly it was the only republic whose political status changed under pressure from Stalin not upwards but downwards”.

My Dear Abkhaz,

All this dispute about who started the war and who was independent it is bullshit. None of the republics were independent in the Soviet times, but I think you all agree that before 1921 Abkhazia was part of Georgia during the independence years and part of Kutaisi Gubernija during the czar times. About the war, yes Georgian government did a mistake but do not pose as if Abkhaz government was completely innocent and plus there was a third power behind it supplying with arms and instigating both Georgians and Abkhaz.
My personal feeling is that “friendly” policy of Russia would assimilate Abkhaz and make them even more marginal minority than they were before. I think for a small ethnic group like Abkhaz it is better to cohabit with small Georgian nation to preserve its culture and tradition (which is closer to Georgian) than with monster big Russia.

P.S. Glenn you are fascist! How dare you say that refugees do not have the right to return to their homes.

@Nika

Nika
If you are so intelligent , then find time and read all about that period of 1918 – 1921 – when Geo menshevics commiitted so many crimes against humanity in Abkhazia . How can you call a forced and aggresive act as being a part of the country which invaded yours and plunged it into blood and death ?
Why do you think that just Georgians have this right to cry out allthey think and want and falsificate ?
Why Abkhaz people became a minority on their own land ?
Why Georia , I am asking it million times started the war in Abkhazia and as well in Ossetia ?
Because that tehy weer afraid that we would be assimiolated by Russians and thats why killing is bettre then assimilation ?
In the history of Abkhazia and its relation to Georgia , tehre are lots of black spots and the vast one belongs to this Karkarashvili statement teh most canniballish in teh history of teh Caucasus !
Now , it is your nation which pushed the UN mission from Abkhazia , and for these two words , like territorial intergity ,you lost any tie with Abkhazia , as UN mission was a s a bridge between us .
But as ever , as when you histerically denied when Abkhaz demanede for teh temporary UN passports , Russian gave their intrenational passports , which up to this day you talk about and it is a bone in your throat like .
So that !s why , if you do not realize what you do or commit , then maybe once upon a time you will stop and think andthink before doing something as usual wrong .

I asked one more question. Maybe Nika share her thoughts about it. 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?

We know very well what happened after 1864. Maybe i should remind one more time: http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2008/08/demographic-change-in-abkhazia.html

On the IDPs: this is a useful reading/listening:

http://www.idpvoices.org/8025708F004BE3B1/(httpInfoFiles)/398619F56E3C0EAFC125743B0033032A/$file/Heavy_burden_eng.pdf

http://www.idpvoices.org/80257297004E5CC5/(httpPages)/083FD730A680B157C12573A000556591?OpenDocument&cookielang=en

At first I want to pay attention on “Stalin’s topic”. This is very ridiculous argument of how “bad” Georgians are. Was it Stalin who repressed the demonstrations in blood in 1956 in Hungary or in 1968 in Czecoslovakia? Did Stalin kill people in both wars of Chechnia? Was Stalin a facilitator of war in Afghanistan where several thousands of all nationalities of the USSR died? and so many others… I don’t state that Stalin was a saint, but the argument of Stalin or Beria for proving Georgians’ terrible character is, in general, stupidness (I am sorry but it is), and, particular, the indicator lack of education or lack of convincing arguments. Furthermore, should we kick the Germans away NOW and think of them as idiots and killers because of Hitler’s presence in first half of XX century??? I would like to hear your arguments about it my dears.

Glenn, you say “i am wondering how did you find 250,000 – 300,000 figures? I even read 350,000 and 400,000 figures for the refuuges… According to the 1989 census there were only 239,872 “Georgians” living in Abkhazia! And some of them NEVER left Abkhazia after the war”. Here is an answer of your wonder: “Recognizing the grave situation in the Republic of Georgia created by the presence of almost 300,000 persons displaced from Abkhazia” – UN Security Council Resolution 896 (31 January, 1994). And this number doesn’t include only Georgians, but Estonians, Armenians, Ukrainians, Greek and others as well. And in general, when Georgian side is talking about these refugees, they are talking about all nationalities and it mustn’t be understood as only Georgians.

There was also a comment that there are many Mengrelians in Abkhazia who have their own language and so on. The main point, as far as I guessed, is on the difference of them comparing to Georgians. Meanwhile Glenn mentioned that there are 3 ethnic nationalities in Abkhazia – Abkhazians, Armenians and Georgians. Logically, as far as Mengrelians are definitely neither Abkhazians nor Armenians, they are Georgians. Furthermore, if you give me a research of independent resource that states that more than 5% (!!!) feels him/herself NOT as Georgian, it would be a great argument of you all.

Abkhazia – my love, do you really think that “territorial integrity” are stupid 2 words? Do you think that this is SIMPLY an obstinacy of Georgia to have these two words in resolutions? Ok, then I would like to ask you from the other side: Will Russia ever agree to delete these two words while talking about Russia’s status and territorial integrity? If the problem is so easily solvable, why don’t you agree to let these 2 words be in resolutions? If the reality is again the same and Georgia’s national government doesn’t have a jurisdiction over Abkhazia, let it be the same again in resolutions. Don’t say that these questions are totally different, actually they aren’t. The reason of asking YOUR question seems to me to be either a lack of knowledge of International Law or thinking and speaking very subjectively influenced by Russian media. And by the way, it was Russia who vetoed EVEN TECHNICAL prolongation of UN mission in Georgia (I guess it was on 16th of June, 2009). And, after all these, how can you (or other comment writers) say that Georgia is a facilitator of UN mission failure.

I also want to mention one very important point – ethnic cleansing. It seems to me that some people here are trying to blame only Georgian for committing crimes in the war. But the reality is quite different. Some of you have arguments from media, blogs, youtube and so on, that isn’t an official proof and can be created or altered by ANYONE, consequently, the chance of misinterpretation or disinformation is quite high. On the contrary, I want to present you an official proof that states that countries of Europe “expressed their deep concern over “ethnic cleansing”, the massive expulsion of people, PREDOMINANTLY GEORGIAN, from their living areas and the deaths of large numbers of innocent civilians”. This is an official statement stated in declarations of OSCE summits in Lisbon, Budapest and Istanbul. Pay attention on 2 capital words my dear. Of course I don’t want to say that Georgians are innocents, but when you are talking about crimes, don’t forget yourself and “third“ part’s crimes as well, and at least give us something worth of official argument, not blogs, youtubes (where I can make a video stating that I am a president of USA or Germany or Russia) and so on.

I have heard quite often from Russian media that Georgians are destroying cultures of smaller nations. Don’t forget that in South Ossetia it was Georgian government who gave them TV, press, tens of schools and so on IN OSSETIAN. what’s happening now? NO TV and PRESS in ossetian (only in Russian), I guess there’s one or two ossetian schools left (if any). And in Abkhazia, you had our own Abkhazian TV and other means of media in Abkhazian, school in Abkhazian BEFORE secession. When I watch Abkhazian TV I only hear Russian, your “government” meetings are in Russian, interviews are in Russian… what’s happening my dear? maybe it’s a sign of assimilation? do you have a moral right after it to blame Georgians for destroying others’ cultures? I guess it’s worth thinking more, and less subjectively.

Kazimierz, you are right that in case of Abkhazia (and in many other cases) notions of self-determination and territorial integrity are antagonists. Self-determination is the right of nations not peoples (as you mentioned). As far as there is NO one exact and shared-for-all definition of nation, you can claim definitely that somebody has this right and somebody not. Even in the case of Abkhazia, with the same logic as Abkhazians did, HOW DO YOU ALL THINK, do Georgians or Armenians living in Abkhazia have a right of self-determination? They have their own language, culture and so on that you claimed to have in 1990s. Will you ever let them create their own states “within Abkhazia”, like Republic of Gali and then let them incorporate in the rest of Georgia??? WILL YOU, ANSWER ME??? This is what I don’t understand in your, Abkhazians arguments. And the same happens to RussiaVSChechnia but it’s not the topic of our discussion now. You, by intention or not, have always had problems in the self-determinationVSseparatism and have always mixed them. You have always understood one as being another and that’s the problem. In democratic states the problem of self-determination is usually solved by referendums, like it happened in case of Northern Ireland or in Canada (Quebec). The referendum took place in around 1990 in Georgia (in Abkhazia as well) and you know the results very well. But in unstable countries, the solution isn’t so easy and this was what happened later.

This was what I wanted to say about all the misinterpretation and very subjective information that I read above. The only thing I want from you while writing comments is NOT TO BE SUBJECTIVE AND SEE THE PROBLEM FROM OTHER ANGLES AS WELL. I understand that you suffered from what happened in 1990s and feel offended but it doesn’t allow you to totally neglect the other side who suffers from you as well. Conditionally we can call somebody as winner or loser, but, personally for me, there is no winner and loser in these geopolitical games, at least neither from Georgians nor Abkhazians, because as Andria correctly mentioned and I would like to go even further, the problem isn’t the loss of territory but the loss of each other.

”South Ossetia was effectively lost to Georgian control when the war begun in the region by Georgia’s first post-communist president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was ended with the Dagomys Agreement in June 1992, according to which Russia was assigned a role in ensuring that the parties to the confict adhered to the Agreement. Though mired in civil war in Gamsakhurdia’s home-province of Mingrelia, after a military junta had ousted him from the presidency, the leader of the then so-called State Council, Eduard Shevardnadze, secured recognition for Georgia along with membership of the IMF, World Bank and the UN for Georgia, membership of which august body Shevardnadze celebrated by initiating his own war against the Abkhazians on 14 August 1992. His adventurism ended in humiliating failure, and Abkhazia too was lost to Tbilisi’s control from 30 September 1993. Again, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was charged with patrolling the demilitarised zone along the River Ingur according to the terms of the 1994 Moscow Agreement, which effectively meant that Russian troops would take on these duties. The international community did not object to this arrangement, nor did it object to the presence of Russian forces inside Georgia proper, as they helped to quell the Zviadist threats to march on the Georgian capital and thus secured Shevardnadze in office.

Contrary to various misinformed reports, Abkhazia did not declare independence from Georgia either before, during, or upon its victory in, the war. Throughout years of negotiations, Abkhazia was willing to contemplate making a concession and to enter confederal relations with Georgia. And let it not be forgotten that for most of the 1990s, especially when Shevardnadze-protegé Andrej Kozyrev served as Boris Yeltsin’s Foreign Minister, Russia’s policy was by no means pro-Abkhazian, a CIS-blockade being imposed along Abkhazia’s River Psou border with Russia. But let us see what I had to say on this matter in my earlier review: ‘Abkhazia did not formally declare independence until 12 October 1999. And this was in large measure the result of frustration at continuing bad faith on the part of Tbilisi in post-war negotiations. Pace Cornell (p.192), it has not been the Abkhazians who have refused to compromise — one might say that after their military victory, they were fully entitled to declare independence at once (September 1993), and yet they continued to pursue federative possibilities, whilst all that Georgia has offered is a return to the status quo ante bellum (some compromise from Georgia!). After protracted talks and constant last-minute revisions by Georgia a Protocol was ready for presidential signing in summer 1997, and yet at the last minute Tbilisi (NOT Sukhum) REFUSED (Abkhazian Foreign Ministry Document 325, 25 Dec 1997).

[LEVAN - READ LAST AND BELOW FIRST SENTENCE AGAIN AND AGAIN]

Such petty obstructionism continues, for in February 2001 Georgia’s UN Ambassador, P’et’re Chkheidze, refused to sign two draft-documents, claiming them “unacceptable for the government of Georgia” — as the respected commentator, Liz Fuller, noted in her Radio Liberty report (4.5, 2 Feb 2001): “Chkheidze’s criticism is surprising as the versions of both drafts currently under discussion were proposed by the Georgian side”.’

In 1998 Georgia undertook a further military adventure to win back Abkhazia, but it was successfully repelled; again, this met with no condemnation from the international community. When Mikheil Saak’ashvili ousted his former patron in November 2003, the support that Shevardnadze had enjoyed from his Western friends was immediately transferred to his usurper, who promised that during his first presidential term, secured in a ballot in spring 2004, he would return both S. Ossetia and Abkhazia to Georgian control. Though he illegally introduced troops into the one part of Abkhazia never taken back into Abkhazian control in 1993, the Upper K’odor Valley, and then relocated the so-called Abkhazian Government-in-Exile there, he failed to achieve his goal. But, after NATO’s questionable decision at Bucharest in April 2008 to consider a Membership Action Plan for Georgia (and The Ukraine) at its December meeting, it was always likely that something would happen with regard to the two disputed territories before that meeting, and it was rumoured that an attack on Abkhazia was envisaged in May, but nothing transpired. It was, however, Saak’ashvili, and, of course, there is no doubt about this, who did eventually resort to military action when he sent his forces into action in S. Ossetia late on 7th August. The results are well known. Russia responded to put an end to Georgian action inside S. Ossetia and to rule out a further round of hostilities by destroying military equipment at the nearby-base in Gori. In Abkhazia, the opportunity was taken to remove the troops from the K’odor Valley, where the huge store of (US, Ukrainian and Israeli) munitions that Saak’ashvili had secreted there (for what purpose has never been explained) was discovered, and the potential threat to Abkhazia was neutralised by the sacking of the military base in Senak’i and the sinking of naval vessels in the Mingrelian port of Poti. In the wake of all this activity, which brought a wealth of international condemnation of Russia but hardly a whisper against Saak’ashvili’s aggression that had occasioned the response, Russia’s President Medvedev recognised both Abkhazia and S. Ossetia as independent states at 3pm Moscow time on 26 August.

http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2009/06/reply-to-svante-cornells-daily.html

Could you tell me who can trust Georgia? WHO?

Levan is also talkin about assimilation but it seems that he forgot about the Georgianization campaing. Let me remind you please.

Demographic change in Abkhazia 1897–1989
http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/georgia-abkhazia/graph2.php

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.

It was no accident that the Georgian newspaper ‘Shroma’ considered Georgian acquisition of the land in Abkhazia and Circassia as ‘one of the most wonderful events’ in the life of the Georgian nation ['Shroma', 1882, №15 (in Georgian)].

On 4 February 1879 another newspaper, the ‘Droeba’, urged its readers: ‘Let us expand while there is still time to do it, before other peoples come and settle the empty spaces of our Caucasus.’ While the aforementioned issue of ‘Shroma’ pleaded with its readers: ‘Send us lots of Rachintsy, Lechkhumtsians, Upper Imeretians and Mingrelians from our mountainous regions!’ ['Shroma', 1882, №15 (in Georgian)].

”Abkhazia suffered considerably under Stalin during the 1930s. In February 1931 the status of Abkhazia was reduced to that of an autonomous republic within Georgia. In 1937, the Head of the Georgian Communist Party, Lavreni Beria (Georgian national) undertook his ‘anti-Abkhazian drive’ involving the forced immigration of thousands of non-Abkhazians into Abkhazia. After Beria’s transfer to Moscow in 1938, anti-Abkhazian measures continued under his successor K. Charkviani, the Abkhaz alphabet was changed to a Georgian base. During 1944-1945 all Abkhazian schools were closed, replacing them with Georgian schools, and the Abkhaz language was banned from administration and publication. [Potier, Tim. Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. A legal Appraisal. Kluwer Law International. The Hague. 2001. p.9.] ”

”In the mid 1950s, in line with the ideological goals of the resettlement policy, a theory was fabricated declaring the true Abkhaz to be an ancient cultural Georgians living on the territory of Abkhazia and describing the modern Abkhazians as those who moved into Abkhazia from the north in the 17th century. The thesis of the resettlement of Abkhazians became part of a racist theory asserting a supposed primordial superiority of the ‘civilized’ Georgians over their neighbours- a theory which dominated in Georgian science and public consciousness. (Krylov, Alexander. [The Georgian-Abkhazian Conflict. The Security of the Caspian Sea region. SIPRI. Oxford University Press. 2001. p. 283).]”

See also: Origins and Evolutions of the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict, by Stephen D. Shenfield.

Especially part 5 -5) The period of the Stalin–Beria terror (December 1936—1953);
http://www.abkhazworld.com/articles/conflict/31-origins-and-evolutions-of-the-georgian-abkhaz-conflict.html

Levan
I see you are very sensitive and even too nervous about this situation , your poilticians brought you in .
But this is life.
And History , and all actions have there own consequences . and sometimes , they become ever- lasting .
It happened with Stalin , whom you but not very well try to justify by the further steps of the USSR or RF activities in Hungary or wherever.
It is in Stalin period and undert his rule all started and to break it appears more difficult then to create.
Noone will ever remember him in regard with Georgians if Georgians were not those who startedall this turmoil at the Caucasus .
No one blames today contemporary Germany , as Germany today is acountry of peaceand is not militarized for attacks as it did under Hitler.
So be patient
Concerning the war in Abkhazia , the war- gEORGIANS BROKE IT OUT AND STEPPED WITH THE TANKS AND OTHER MILITARY AMUNITION ON ALL THOSE TIES WHICH CONNECTED THESE PEOPLES OF OURS.
As Abkhaz , I will blame Georgians ever , like all in my generation and the generation of ourchildren whom because of your imperial ambitions you spoiled the best of our yeras . People are killed and fron the side of Abkhaz – just real sons of Abkhazia and heroes compared to the ones you sent to fight t Abkhazia .
But all this was so much spoken about and discussed , it seems no end , because YOU do niot want to undertsand that nothisng is permanent in this world , it changes and so changed Abkhazia .
All that happened at the SC of the UN on Monday , it is the result of your provocative politics , and now you see again , al you do against of us , it turns against of you most!
The UN MISSION , which is closed with the effortys of teh friends of Georgia , was the only tie between us , now , just here maybe you are allowed to express your mind , no where else .
Step by step Saakashvili as before ,the war criminal Shewarnadze , made his best to stop any relationship between us introducing troops tto Kodor Gorge
. The result you see today , the only place of Abkhazia whiwas belonging yet to Georgia m lets say as you like to say OCCUPIED BY GEORGIA , WAS THIS KODOR vALLEY , POPULATED BY sVANS ,
TODAY IT IS NOT UNDER YOUR CONTROL AND WILL NEVER BE
So why your idiotic leader who was pushed by Bryza , did not think at first seven times then cut ?
As he did in the SO ?
aBOUT WHAT RELATIONS COULD YOU SAY HONESTLY AND FRANKLY aftre all we saw you did the noght of the 8 of August >
These things can not be forgiven , EVEN if you CRY OUT to the world that it was a Russian provocation , then WHY DID YOU PLAY THIS DIRTY GAME >?
Because the Americans assured you that no one will defend Ossetians ?
You followed those who ARE NOT yourxfriends , WHO give you money to buy weapons and bombs and Grad system , who made you a military country , though its soldiers prefer to run rather then to fight ))) , and involved you into such a game , from which I even d o not imagine you will come out ?
I can tell you here kilometres of the internet papers about all this , YOU ARE MAKING MISTAKES EVERY DAY AND EVERY MINUTE AND A SECOND , maybe beacuse you do not love yourselves >
Maybe something is really wrong with you ?
But for how long will it take you to be treated and recovered ?
And as you repeated
we lost each other that day of 14AUGUST 1992 and FOR EVER ON 8 .8 08 .
i HAVE NO IMAGINATION HOW CAN gEORGIANS TURN TO THEMSELVES ABKHAZ AND MOREOVER OSSETIANS AT LEAST JUST TO SIT AND TO TALK AND TO LEAVE EACH OTHER IN PEACE .

Glenn,

please stop pinpointing at others. I am saying that what you are saying is from a fascist vocabulary – that people do not have the right to return to their homes. Yes they were the majority and they were driven out of their homes by force. This is called ethnic cleansing. Similar thing happened by the way in August 2008 when Georgian were cleansed from Kodori valley. Who started the war in Kodori in 2008???? And please read through some official documents and not youtube videos and circassian blogs. I can also cite many victims of abkhaz atrocities and you can even come and visit them all around Georgia.
As for Muhajeers, Georgians did not expel them in 19th century, it was your great patron Russia who kicked them out because they did not want the Abkhaz and Georgians to live there, don’t you understand?
Once again I am not saying that Georgian government did not make mistakes but I want you on the Abkhaz side to confess that you also made mistakes, that you without consent of Abkhazia’s Georgian population declared independence, which caused war. You carried out the ethnic cleansing both in 1993 and in 2008 with the support of your great patron. We are paying the price for seceding from Russian empire and unfortunately they in Kremlin are using you and ossetians as pawns in this game. I feel sorry that Abkhazians prefer to become part of Krasnodar Kraj and have Russian soldiers with their families on their soil rather than living together with Mingrelians and Svans (as you like to call them) who share same traditions and same culture with you.

And Glenn,

Georgian Bolshevik government has never expressed the will of its people because GSSR was not an independent entity. And if you are saying that Stalin and Beria did good for Georgia can you give me at least one example what they did positive? I can give you million examples what they did wrong. Occupied independent Georgia, gave away Georgia;s territories, killed Georgian nationalists, created artificial autonomy in Tskhinvali region and Achara. So stop this bullshit about Stalin favouring Georgia, it is all a lie.

Earlier during the Stalinist deportations there was one notorious incident in the village of Khaibakh where in 1944 hundreds of people were herded into a barn, which was then set on fire — anyone escaping was shot. The commander of the NKVD group responsible was a Svan (Gvishiani), acting under the general directorship of Beria (Mingrelia), who was himself responsible to Stalin (Georgian).

Let me tell you one example what they did positive for Georgia.

It seems you can NOT understand.

In 1921, Abkhazia and Georgia became Sovietized. On 31 March 1921, an independent Soviet Republic of Abkhazia was proclaimed. On 21 May 1921, the Georgian Bolshevik government officially recognized the independence of Abkhazia. But the same year, under pressure from Stalin and other influential Georgian Bolsheviks, Abkhazia was forced to conclude a union (i.e., confederative) treaty with Georgia. Abkhazia still remained a full union republic until 1931, when its status was downgraded, under Stalin’s orders, from that of Union Republic to that of an Autonomous Republic within Georgia.

Also read it again and again http://www.rrc.ge/law/declar_1921_05_21_e.htm?lawid=112&lng_3=en

First, more Georgians were settled in Abkhazia, shifting the ethno-demographic balance further against the Abkhaz and breaking up remaining contiguous areas of Abkhaz habitation. Second, public use of the Abkhaz language was progressively restricted: Georgian place names replaced Abkhaz ones; Abkhaz writing, based since 1926 on the Latin alphabet, was switched to a version of Georgian script; radio broadcasting in Abkhaz ceased; and after the war Abkhaz was replaced by Georgian as the language of instruction in schools. The last of these measures left particularly painful memories in the minds of the generation of Abkhaz growing up at that time, for they were beaten if they spoke their native language and were forced to cope with a language of which they had no previous knowledge.

Research in Communist Party archives has shown that in implementing the policy of Georgianization Georgian bureaucrats in Abkhazia acted in general accordance with the directives of the central leadership in Moscow (Lezhava 1997, pp. 116—61). Georgianization in Abkhazia was merely the local application of a much broader policy aimed at the assimilation of ethnic minorities in all the Union Republics. True, the Georgian bureaucrats may have gone even further than they were required to. Thus, their instructions stipulated that teaching was no longer to be carried out in local minority languages like Abkhaz, but did not prohibit the teaching of such languages as special subjects. This loophole was not exploited: teaching of as well as in Abkhaz was suppressed. Nevertheless, responsibility lay primarily with Moscow, not Tbilisi. This, however, is not how Abkhaz tended to interpret the matter. They were inclined to blame “the Georgians.” A number of reasons can be suggested for this: the Georgian origin of Stalin and Beria, the simple fact that they were being subjected to Georgianization not Russification, and their positive experience in the preceding period, which predisposed them against blaming the Soviet system as such.

Enough?

Nika
The largest mistake is that you could not kill all of us to live on our Abkhaz soil quietly
Sorry to read you and your comments to Glenn , calling him a fascist , you arre maybe saying and expressing yourself whoyou are truly ?
He is showing you the facts , that you Georgians played a terrible role and not once in the Caucasus History .
Sorry
but it is better to think about your own mistakes and confess that you were wrong FIRST AND THE SECOND AND TODAY .
aLL THAT YOU STRAIGHT ON US THEN TURNS AS A BUMERANG ON YOU
This is the law of life .
Never harm anyone , you are harming yourself
No one here prefer to be in Krasnodar Kraj , it is you who pushes us into it , but we idntdo it yet as you see being under a severe blockade and alone .
The most important it is to return back to us , our real brothers from Turkey and other countries , the Abkhaz – Adyg Diaspora , the REAL REFUGEES of this BLESSED ABKHAZ land
As you behaved always as Traitors AT the Caucasus , allCaucasian peooles after fighting with Russian Tsarizm had to leave this wonderful their Motherland and found shelter in the other side of the Black Sea!
But the wheel of the history will not always turn to you and your plans are destroyed I hope for ever .
This is what you wwere always afraid of , that someone but not you will be happy here !
It seems the time of your high understanding is coming and you will realize all you did and wil leave us in peace !

Nika continue… – …Occupied independent Georgia, gave away Georgia’s territories…

What do you think about Georgia’s occupation/annexation of INDEPENDENT ABKHAZIA under the forces of General Mazniashvili, as described in the following.

Ruslan Khodzhaa quotes in his new book from his own earlier ‘Documents and Materials of the Abkhazian People’s Soviet 1918-1919′ (in Russian, Sukhum, 1999) on Mazniashviili’s behaviour: ‘Not a single tsarist general raged as mercilessly when subjugating the Caucasian peoples as Mazniev in Abkhazia’ (p.7).

Could you tell us Nika, who is occupied INDEPENDENT ABKHAZIA? Who settledd many Georgians to Abkhazia? Who killed Abkhaz intellectuals? the Abkhaz alphabet was changed to a Georgian base. During 1944-1945 all Abkhazian schools were closed, replacing them with Georgian schools, and the Abkhaz language was banned from administration and publication.

Who did it?

Why we can NOT see same sensivity about Abkhazians? WHY Nika?

I will advise some pro- Georgian backers here to see the last film of Mamuka Kuparadze
I am sure you will not appreciate it as for the first time I could see some healthy brairds in the sick consiense of some of the representatives of Georgian nation .