Abkhazia And Sochi

This book is about the roots of one of the conflicts in what is now a strategically important area of the world - the Caucasus. It provides detailed analysis of the military, political and diplomatic struggle for Abkhazia and Sochi in 1918-1921 between Russia and Georgia (temporarily Sovietised in 1921-91) and examines the major processes that fuelled the ethnic hatred in the region. This region is one of those hot spots where polar ideologies and economic interests of major powers collide, but which somehow gets neglected by politicians and the media, leaving the small nations involved in the conflict at the mercy of their powerful and ambitious neighbour - Russia. The recent Russian-sponsored ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia is a grim reminder of how important it is to understand the volcanic forces that may explode the region, with dire consequences for the whole world. This work concentrates only on one little-known episode of regional history - the dramatic events that took place in 1918-21 in Abkhazia and the Black Sea Riviera (the Sochi district of the Black Sea province). It demonstrates that the artificial "Abkhazian separatism" had been created and exploited by outside forces (the Ottoman Empire, the Bolshevik Russia and the anti-Bolshevik Russian "White movement") that were interested in the acquisition of the territory of Abkhazia in order to gain control over the whole South Caucasus. At the same time, despite their mutual bitterness, both Red and White Russian leaders demonstrated a striking unanimity on the question of the status of Abkhazia and the Sochi district. Both Reds and Whites sought to prevent the integration of the two disputed territories into Georgia. Both parties worked hard with some elements of local population trying to exploit and develop their "anti-Georgian" sentiments. The book draws parallels between the post-WorldWar I imperialist ambitions of Russia (both communist and anticommunist) and the modern hegemonism of the Kremlin. Indeed, history repeated itself again after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when the South Caucasus once again gained strategic importance. Today, it serves as a natural corridor, through which Western countries can access the vital hydrocarbon resources of Central Asia, bypassing Russia. That is why the leadership of the Russian Federation considers it crucially important to restore its political control over the recently independent states of the South Caucasus, or alternatively, to destabilize them to the extent that the newly-opened land bridge between Europe and Asia would not function. That could explain why not only reactionary Russian top brass and secret services, but also well-known "democratic" RF politicians, stood united against Georgia and her territorial integrity. Those combined efforts resulted in the wars and ethnic cleansings of 1992-93 and 2008, the occupation of Abkhazia and the breach of Georgia's territorial integrity. However, the current situation in Abkhazia became possible not only due to the military superiority of the Russian Federation, but to a large extent due to the fact that the history of Abkhazia and her legal and cultural connections with the rest of Georgia remain unknown to the decision-makers, as well as to the politically active public both in the West and in Russia. The paucity of publicly available objective information on the Abkhazian situation opens up great opportunities for ideologically-loaded and sometimes even instigative interpretations of this sensitive issue. In view of the above, this book also aims to provide a concise description and analysis of the process of integration of Abkhazia, and, in part, of the Sochi district, into the Georgian state in 1918-1921, listing the international treaties and inter-party agreements that provide legal basis for the association of Abkhazia with Georgia. The book contains 18 full-color maps and over 20 photographs and other illustrations

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 24. Chapters: International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Sochi agreement. Excerpt: Abkhazia and South Ossetia are two self-declared republics in the Caucasus with disputed status over whether they are a part of Georgia or sovereign states. The Republic of Abkhazia and the Republic of South Ossetia were recognised following the 2008 South Ossetia War between Russia and Georgia, by six and five UN member states respectively. They are also mutually recognised by two UN non-member states and by each other. Georgia and the vast majority of other countries of the world do not recognise their independence and officially consider them as sovereign territory of the Georgian state. Following the Bolshevik invasion of Georgia in 1921, Abkhazia was made a Soviet republic with the ambiguous status of Union Republic associated with the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1931, Joseph Stalin, an ethnic Georgian, made Abkhazia an autonomous republic within the Georgian SSR. On 21 February 1992, Georgia abolished the Soviet-era constitution and restored the 1921 constitution, which provided for Abkhazia's autonomy, but did not specify its exact legal status. Due to lack of formal status under Georgia's newly introduced constitution, on 23 July 1992 the Abkhaz Supreme Soviet reinstated the 1925 Constitution, which under Article 4 Abkhazia was "united with the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia on the basis of a special Union Treaty," providing for federation between Georgia and Abkhazia on equal footing. South Ossetia declared independence from Georgia during the 1991-1992 South Ossetia War on 29 May 1992, with its Constitution referring to the "Republic of South Ossetia." Abkhazia declared its independence after its war with Georgia in 1992-1993. Its Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1994. Kosovo's declaration of...

The Russian Federation’s official acknowledgement of the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in August 2008 has since been undermining both overall political stability in the Southern Caucasus in general and future perspectives of Georgia’s development in particular. Such recognition of new quasi-legal entities without consent of the parent state and a subsequent erosion of the principle of territorial integrity are pressing challenges in current world affairs. The Kremlin’s controversial 2008 decision continues to be an important bone of contention in Russian-Western relations. This study explores the emergence and recent transformation of modern norms of recognition, secession, and self-determination in international law. It traces the evolution of Soviet and Russian perspectives on the recognition of new states, and discusses overall Georgia-Russia relations in order to answer the question: Why did the Kremlin recognize Georgia’s two breakaway entities in contradiction to traditional Russian approaches to recognition? The author argues that Moscow’s deviant behavior vis-à-vis Tbilisi was caused by three major reasons, namely: the earlier recognition of Kosovo by many Western nations in disregard of Russia’s stance, the intention to prevent Georgia’s accession to NATO, and the necessity to legitimize a continued presence of Russian armed forces in Georgia’s two breakaway provinces.

For a variety of political, climatic, ecological, security-related and other reasons, the Russian summer resort of Sochi by the Black Sea would seem a most unlikely candidate for the Olympic Winter Games. Despite this, the Games will be held there in February 2014, and the Russian leaders regard the Games as a highly prestigious project underlining Russia’s return to a status of great power in the contemporary world. This book conducts a thorough inventory of the contexts, characteristics and challenges facing the Sochi Games. It deals with the problems from Russian, Georgian, Abkhazian and Circassian perspectives and makes in-depth analyses of profound challenges related to matters such as identity, security, and ethnic relations. The book brings together an international group of eminent scholars representing different disciplinary perspectives, including political science, sports science, ethics, ethnology, and Caucasian studies.

The 14th of August 2022 is the 30th anniversary of the start of the war between the Georgians and the Abkhazians in the decades-long dispute over ownership of the small territory known to the autochthonous Abkhazians as Apsny, to the Georgians as apxazeti, and to most of the world as Abkhazia. For much of the world, the territory remains either a thoroughly unknown or, at best, poorly known country and, for many, a disputed region… This project is the continuation of the earlier “Reflections on Abkhazia: [14 August] 1992-2012”, which was completed 10 years ago. It aims to bring together different points of view on Abkhazia and the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict. The authors were given complete freedom regarding the content of their texts. The views they express in their contributions for this project do not necessarily reflect the views of the AbkhazWorld.com website. The texts have been listed alphabetically according to the names of the authors. List of authors: Aivar Jürgenson, Senior Research Fellow in the School of Humanities, Tallinn University. Estonia; Senior Research Fellow in Literature Museum, Estonia. Alexander Iskandaryan, Political scientist, the Director of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute. Armenia. Aslanbek Mirzoev, Historian. Institute for Humanitarian Studies - branch of the Kabardino-Balkarian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Nalchik. He was a former Circassian volunteer from Kabarda. Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia. Beslan Kobakhia, The public and political figure of Abkhazia. During the 1992-93 Georgian - Abkhazian War, he was head of the government commission for the exchange of prisoners of war and the protection of the civilian population. Abkhazia. Cem Kumuk, Independent researcher and writer on the history of the Caucasus for about 40 years. Turkey. Charlotte Hille, Assistant professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Amsterdam. Dr Hille is specialised in State building, conflict resolution, and international mediation. Netherlands. Christopher Langton, Director of The Independent Conflict Research & Analysis (ICRA). He spent thirty-two years in the British Army. During that time he served as the Deputy Commander of the UN Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) as well as holding various attaché posts in Russia, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia. United Kingdom. Clayton Payne, Researcher on environmental governance in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. SOAS, University of London. United Kingdom. Dieter Boden, Ambassador (ret) Former Special Representative of the UNSG in Georgia (1999 - 2002). Germany. Dodge Billingsley, Director, Combat Films & Research and Global QRF. Editor and Contributor: OE Watch (FMSO), Author: Fangs of the Lone Wolf: Chechen Tactics in the Russian Chechen Wars 1994-2009. United Kingdom. Donnacha Ó Beacháin, Professor of Politics at the School of Law and Government, Dublin City University (DCU) where he lectures on post-Soviet politics, unrecognised states, Irish studies, and foreign policy. Ireland. Edward Mihalkanin, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas State University. U.S.A. Elçin Başol, Lecturer at Aydin Adnan Mendered University, PhD Candidate at Kadir Has University, International Relations Department. Turkey. Fehim Taştekin, a Turkish journalist and a columnist for Turkey Pulse who previously wrote for Radikal and Hurriyet. Tastekin specializes in Turkish foreign policy and Caucasus, the Middle East, and EU affairs. France. Giulia Prelz Oltramonti, Assistant Professor in International Relations at ESPOL, Université Catholique de Lille, France. She has written on the political economies of conflict in the Caucasus and on informality in eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. France. Inal Khashig, Journalist, editor of JAMnews. Abkhazia. Jade Cemre Erciyes, Editor of the Journal of Caucasian Studies (JOCAS). Turkey. Karlos Zurutuza, Freelance correspondent specializing in the Caucasus and the Middle East regions. He has reported for numerous publications including Al Jazeera, IPS, Vice, Deutsche Welle, and The Diplomat. Basque Country. Ketevan Murusidze, Peace Researcher and Practitioner. Georgia. Kieran Pender, Writer for the Guardian. Australia. Marina Elbakidze, Project Coordinator at the Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development and coordinator of the ‘Memory Project’ in Tbilisi. She is a lecturer in psychology at the Department of Organisational Psychology, Tbilisi State University. Since 1997 she has participated in a range of peacebuilding activities and has played a key role in Georgian-Abkhaz dialogue processes. Georgia. Maxim Gvindzhia, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia. Abkhazia. Natella Akaba, Historian, Chairperson of the board of the Association of Women of Abkhazia. Abkhazia. Paata Zakareishvili, Georgia’s former Minister of Reconciliation. Tbilisi, Georgia. Patrick Armstrong, Political analyst. He was an analyst in the Canadian Department of National Defence specialising in the USSR/Russia from 1984 and a Counsellor at the Canadian Embassy in Moscow from 1993-1996. Canada. Paula Garb, Senior Fellow at the Center for Peacemaking Practice, George Mason University. For twenty years she co-directed the Center for Citizen Peacebuilding which she co-founded at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). USA. Ramesh Ganohariti, Ph.D. Researcher, Dublin City University, Ireland. Rick Fawn, Professor of International Relations. University of St Andrews. Scotland. Stanislav Lakoba, Professor in Archeology, Ethnology and History at the Abkhazian State University. Former Secretary of the Security Council of Abkhazia. Abkhazia. Stephen Shenfield, Specialist on politics and society in Russia and the post-Soviet region. For several years he produced the Research and Analytical Supplement to Johnson’s Russia List. USA. Thomas de Waal, Senior fellow with Carnegie Europe, specializing in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus region. United Kingdom. Timothy K. Blauvelt, Professor of Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies at Ilia State University in Tbilisi. Georgia. Ucha Nanuashvili, Founder at Democracy Research Institute DRI; Project Director at Human Rights Center; Former Public Defender of Georgia. Georgia. Uwe Klussmann, Freelance Journalist. He was a correspondent for the magazine “Der Spiegel” in Moscow from 1999 until 2009. During that time, he travelled to Abkhazia thrice. Germany. Ümit Dinçer, President, Yasemin Oral, Vice President of the Federation of the Caucasian Associations (KAFFED). Turkey. Vadim Mukhanov, Head of Caucasus Department of The Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IMEMO). Russia. Vitaly Sharia, Honoured Journalist of Abkhazia. Editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Echo of Abkhazia and author of the Ekho Kavkaza. Abkhazia. Vladislav Bugera, Philosopher, political publicist, and independent left-wing activist. Russia. Zaira Khiba, Linguist & Translator. United Kingdom. Metin Sonmez (Comp. & Ed.) & George B. Hewitt (Ed.)

Published in conjunction with the exhibitions: FoMu, Antwerp, Belgium, October 25, 2013-March 9, 2014; Winzavod, Moscow, October 18-December 22, 2013; and DePaul University Art Museum, Chicago, January 16-March 30, 2014.

Russian policy dilemmas arising from Georsian-Abkhaz conflict and possible scenarios for future Russian engagement.