Abkhazia

Summary. Abkhazia is a small disputed territory on the eastern shore of the Black Sea that declared independence from the Republic of Georgia in 1999. However, Georgia continued to claim it as a breakaway region.

Abkhazia had been an autonomous region within Georgia since 1931. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgia (and, therefore, Abkhazia) declared its independence, and ethnic Abkhaz and Ossetians fought to break ties with Georgia in favor of independence and closer relations with Russia. Civil war broke out from 1992 to 1993, killing several thousand people, and ethnic Georgians were expelled from Abkhazia in what has been described as ethnic cleansing. Russian mediators ended fighting in 1993, but the status of Abkhazia remained unsettled. Abkhazia formally declared independence in 1999, resulting in a Georgian blockade that isolated Abkhazia and destroyed its economy.

For years, UN peacekeepers patrolled the border between Abkhazia and Georgia. Still, in 2008, during the war between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia, Russian forces moved through Abkhazia to open another front with Georgia. In August 2008, as the hostilities were coming to a halt, Russia became the first nation to recognize Abkhazia (and South Ossetia) as an independent state, followed by Nicaragua and Venezuela. Russia also signed a treaty promising military support in case of future Georgian military action aimed at regaining control over Abkhazia, essentially making Abkhazia an army protectorate.

In-Depth Overview

The ethnic Abkhaz had long shared the Black Sea coastline with ethnic Georgians, but they were not regarded as part of the same country, even though both were integral to Russia since the early nineteenth century. After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Abkhazia began as a Soviet Republic. In 1931, Soviet leader Josef Stalin, himself an ethnic Georgian, turned Abkhazia into an autonomous region of Georgia. During Stalin's rule, many ethnic Georgians were resettled in Abkhazia, changing the ethnic balance in favor of the Georgians.

On this ground, Georgia included Abkhazia and South Ossetia as part of its territory when it declared independence in 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Non-Georgian ethnic minorities occupied both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the ethnic Abkhaz and ethnic Ossetians fought in a civil war to regain independence. Abkhazia and South Ossetia are often lumped together, but they have little in common. Their indigenous ethnic groups speak different languages (Abkhaz and Ossetian), and most Ossetians are Orthodox Christians, while many Abkhaz are Muslims.

Georgian warlords reacted by pillaging Abkhazia, alienating the ethnic Abkhaz, whom Chechnyans and Russian mercenaries aided—two years of civil war ensued. The result was an uneasy peace, brokered by Russia, in which peacekeepers, mainly from Russia, maintained a cease-fire. A program of ethnic cleansing followed, forcing about 40 percent of the 250,000 ethnic Georgian population out of Abkhazia and into Georgia. Abkhazia and South Ossetia governed themselves as autonomous states with little input from Georgia. Demonstrations by displaced persons have become annual events.

From 1993 to 1994, Russia's relations with Abkhazia and Georgia underwent several turns. Georgia's leader, Eduard Shevardnadze, agreed to join the Coalition of Independent States (CIS) and permitted Russia to re-establish military bases in Georgia. Georgia also supported Russia's military effort to prevent the independence of Chechnya, located on Georgia's southeastern border. In return, Russia honored a devastating economic embargo against Abkhazia. In 1995, the unrecognized president of Abkhazia, Vladislav Ardzinba, declared that his republic would willingly join the Russian Federation.

Since 1998, Georgian guerrillas have regularly attacked Abkhaz forces, complicating UN-sponsored negotiations to reach a long-term settlement of the conflict. The continuing independence movement in Chechnya (and Russia's attempts to quell it militarily) has also played a role in the complex politics of the Caucasus. The two sides continued to negotiate under the auspices of the UN, although neither Georgia nor Abkhazia was willing to compromise on whether Abkhazia should be part of Georgia. A 1999 referendum in Abkhazia, in which the population strongly endorsed independence, complicated progress on the diplomatic front. Abkhazia, like South Ossetia, remained a frozen conflict, largely devoid of violence (except for periodic guerrilla attacks) but resistant to a final solution.

In 2001, Abkhazia broke off participation in the UN-sponsored talks, referred to as the Geneva Process. At a meeting at Sochi in 2003, Putin initiated bilateral discussions with Georgia's then-President Eduard Shevardnadze. The result of this meeting was the Sochi Agreement, which established a series of working groups to address such issues as economic reconstruction and the return of refugees. The rebuilding also relieved an economic blockade of Abkhazia declared by Georgia. At the same time, Russia refused further discussion on the return of ethnic Georgian refugees.

Under Putin, the Abkhazian people were invited to obtain Russian passports, which enabled travel outside their enclave and listed them as citizens of Russia. Many Abkhazis already receive Russian government pensions, and the Russian ruble is Abkhazia's currency. Aleksandr Ankvab became president in 2011 following Sergei Bagapsh's death from heart failure, but in 2014, he was removed from office following protests that drove him to seek safety in Russia. Despite election controversy, Raul Khajimba replaced Ankvab, staying in power until 2020, when the election was nullified and he was forced from office. That March, Bzhania was elected. In 2014, Russia and Abkhazia signed a strategic partnership agreement.

The conflict of 2008

In August 2008, Abkhazia was drawn into armed conflict when Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili sent troops into South Ossetia. This nearby region declared independence sixteen years earlier to re-establish Georgian sovereignty. Russian troops, some already stationed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia as peacekeepers, invaded Georgia and expelled the Georgian army from both regions. At the end of August, Russia formally granted diplomatic recognition to Abkhazia and South Ossetia for the first time. On September 17, 2008, Russia signed agreements with Abkhazia and South Ossetia promising military aid in case of future Georgian military action aimed at re-establishing sovereignty over the breakaway regions.

Political Instability. Like any state with a tenuous grip on independence, Abkhazia's leadership is under consistent threat of coup or assassination. Its current president (and former prime minister), Aleksandr Ankvab, has endured no fewer than six attempts on his life since 2005. Another attempt occurred in late February 2012. Assassins attacked his motorcade using small arms, grenade launchers, and a landmine-style roadside bomb. Ankvab was uninjured, but at least one of his bodyguards died, and two more sustained injuries. Most attempts on Ankvab's life have occurred on the road, although he was injured when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired into his home.

Ankvab's policies were less problematic than his position as the leader of an unrecognized state. Russia seeks to maintain stability, while Georgia would like its territory returned. Assassins, in each instance, are assumed to be local, not foreign, but that is a point of contention between both sides. Georgia, for example, has suggested that Russian operatives have been utilized to eliminate Ankvab because he does not behave in a manner that exclusively favors Russian interests.

Abkhazia since 2008

Since Russia's de facto installation of a neutralized government in Abkhazia in 2008, its relations with Georgia have been contentious. While countries friendly to Russia such as Venezuela, Syria, Nicaragua, and Nauru have recognized Abkhazia as a sovereign country, Western European nations as well as the United States have not recognized the independence of either Abkhazia or Ossetia. Nonetheless, as Georgia does not have the military means to restore control over its territory, in the 2020s, Russian President Vladimir Putin is the supreme authority in Abkhazia by right of possession.

In many ways, Putin's strategic approach toward Georgia and Abkhazia was an indicator of a Russian policy doctrine intended for the former republics of the Soviet Union. By the 2020s, Russia under Putin had demonstrated an intent to roll back the 1990s independence movements that had splintered away the former republics from Russia's sphere of influence as they now favored economic and political integration with the West. In February 2022, Russia unleashed this new aggressive policy against Ukraine as the Russian military sought to bring Ukraine back into its fold. As with Abkhazia, Putin partly justified the invasion as coming to the defense of ethnic Russian minorities in the Ukraine regions of Donetsk and Lhuhansk. For many in Georgia, the Ukraine invasion was a harsh reminder that they were the first country to encounter the new Russian effort at regional dominance.

Bibliography

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Kelly, Mary Louise, et al. "The Stakes of the War in Ukraine for Georgia, Still Marked by 2008 Russian Invasion." NPR, 22 Mar. 2022, www.npr.org/2022/03/22/1088097087/the-stakes-of-the-war-in-ukraine-for-georgia-still-marked-by-2008-russian-invasi. Accessed 4 Sept. 2024.

Reuters, Thomson. "Russia Has Recognized 2 Breakaway Regions of Ukraine. Here’s Why That Matters." Canadian Broadcast Corporation, 21 Feb. 2022, www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-ukarine-rebel-backed-regions-explainer-1.6359547. Accessed 4 Sept. 2024.

Schwirtz, Michael. "Resident of Abkhazia Survives Assassination Attempt." The New York Times, 22 Feb. 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/world/europe/president-of-abkhazia-survives-assassination-attempt.html. Accessed 4 Sept. 2024.

Shesterinina, Anastasia. Mobilizing in Uncertainty: Collective Identities and War in Abkhazia. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, 2021.