Georgia: Self-Ethnic Cleansing

Steady State expresses its opinion on an analysis of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict which says that nearly 300,000 Georgians fled their homes by their own accord. The blog takes issue with the idea.

21 comments

  • One of the reasons we can’t yet resolve the conflict in Abkhazia, is that there are still people like you making very heavy blames on Georgians without having facts. What about Armenians killing Azeri people in Karabakh? There are 1000 of facts there.

  • Glenn

    Who started the war? Georgians! Who is destroyed Abkhazia? Georgians! Who lost? Georgians? Who is blame? Georgians! Who is lying? Georgians! Ofcourse Georgians can not resolve the conflict with their huge lies.

    I have support Abkhazia’s independence.

  • beknur chaushba

    This is such a provocative subject for all of us who are seriously concerned with the issue. Let’s be careful.

    The fact is that true abkhazs were expelled during otoman-russian war and georgian-russian war in early 90s.

    So it is time to put things back in order, not militarily nor in macho style, but smartly and peacefully.

    I can assure those so called russian FSBshniks who are assigned to play the role of a true indigenous Abkhaz, that their time is over soon and forcibly displaced people will return to their homes. That’s number one priority. All the rest is a bulshit.

  • Glenn-G

    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.

  • Tinatin

    The history of Abkhazia as a genuine region of Georgia is much older than just the last 60 years, and it has nothing to do with Stalin forcing upon Abkhazians the status of an Authonomus Republic. Abkhazia has been part of Georgian history since at least the 6th centry BC.

    To keep control of the occupied terriotiries Russia has been using the tactic of “divide and Rule”. This tactic has prooved to work well with Ethnic minorities and that is exactly what they’ve done with Georgia after occupying it in 1921. The Authonomus Republics of Adjara, Abkhazia and South Ossetia were created.
    After 1991 when Georgia finally achieved independance from the Russian, a.k.a. Soviet Empire, the drive in the aforementioned Autonomus Republics to separate from Georgia started. All regional conflicts in Georgia are and have been heavily backed by Russian military forces. And it has not even been camouflaghed well. Both Separatist Abkhazia and Ossetia Regions are bragging of Russian support and are openly declaring they are ready to join Russia in one form of another.

    So the question is, do the “heads” of Abkhazia enjoy to feed from the hand of the big neighbour and serve their own interests in the region without caring what this will cost the people and the region?

    This is nothing else but the annexation of the Georgian territory. The majority of the population of Abkhazia who did not agree suffered ethnic cleansing and were forced to leave their homes and run for their lives. The Georgian Government in 1992 was far from perfect and easily entered into a provoked war.

    History repeats itself today and once again instead of peacfully settling the differences, Georgia has been provoked over and over again these last few months to start the conflict so that Russia can extend it’s presence in the region indefinataly.

  • Metin

    redited text…

    Plus!

    Lets see the Kingdom of Abkhazia

    http://www.euratlas.com/travel_time/europe_south_east_0800.html in year 800

    http://www.euratlas.com/travel_time/europe_south_east_0900.html in year 900

    http://www.euratlas.com/travel_time/europe_south_east_1000.html in year 1000

    I w’d like to remind S. Lakoba’s speach again;

    When people today describe the status of Abkhazia, they use such phrases as: ‘between heaven and earth’, ‘between East and West’, ‘between the hammer and the anvil’, ‘between…’ – such ‘in betweenness’ correctly describes our position.

    We are lost somewhere between life and death – to be or not to be, because defeat in this war would be tantamount to the annihilation of our entire nation. We have proved to be a very ‘inconvenient’ people, but despite our small numbers it is not so easy to do away with us just like that. Perhaps this too is one of our failings!

    Georgian and some Russian politicians do not seek to conceal their annoyance at the ‘unruly’ Abkhazians, who as far back as in the 19th century were officially declared ‘a guilty nation’ for their repeated uprisings in defence of their freedom and honour. Today we are impeding friendly relations between Georgia and Russia, for, let us say, ‘sticking in their throats’. In other words, we are guilty for the simple reason that we still exist.

    Is it really true that being part of the world-community we Abkhazians, numbering about 100,000 in Abkhazia itself, are somehow doing harm to this community? Is it possible that if mankind, having already lost in the 19th century our brothers the Ubykhs, is now to lose us Abkhazians at the close of the 20th century, it will find itself in some way enriched in the 3rd millennium A.D.?!

    The fact is that people are being exterminated and the world is keeping silent… Well, almost – for such news-agencies as Reuters, AP, the BBC, whenever they refer to us, our standard epithets are ‘separatists’ and ‘rebels’… How is it that we are separatists when we are actually not separating from, or attacking, anybody? Are there any resolutions of the Abkhazian Parliament adopted before the start of the war on 14th August 1992 (or even several months afterwards) which have declared secession from Georgia? There is not one! In fact, it was the Abkhazian side that suggested building our relations with Georgia on an agreed, federative basis. Therefore, it was the Abkhazian side which came out with proposals that would actually preserve the unity of Georgia. The response was the despatch to Abkhazia of tanks, fighter-bombers and guardsmen armed to the teeth…

    We are being forced to adopt a separatist-position by the real separatists reigning in Tbilisi who are busy destroying their own country. They have transported their country, the unity of which was supported by the bayonets of the Stalinist Soviet Empire, back to the feudal division of the Middle Ages. The so-called separatists from Adjaria, Mingrelia, Kakhetia (not to mention Abkhazia and [South] Ossetia) are taking up an all-round defensive position against the central power in Tbilisi. The question is: «Why are there so many ‘separatists’ in Georgia?» When Russia appealed to her own former autonomies to conclude a federative treaty, the status of autonomies and many regions, including those in the North Caucasus, were raised to the level of republics. No obstacles were put in the way of the elections of presidents in these republics or of the adoption of their national flags and other state-symbols.

    But in our case the situation was quite the reverse. When we were putting forward proposals and trying to build bridges, we were repulsed and told: «Who are you? You should not even have autonomy, being so few!» This was and remains the only argument against us. So, we ‘separatists’, having been driven into a corner, have started to resist simply in order to survive, to save our women, children and old people. Try driving even a little creature into a corner – will that too be a separatist?

    Freedom and independence for their own people vs dictatorship and open chauvinism towards other peoples – this is the double standard that underlies the Georgian policy in Abkhazia.

    It is not by chance that in 1989 after the first Georgian-Abkhazian clashes Academician Sakharov in one of his last articles called Georgia a ‘mini-empire’ (Ogonёk 1989, 31). Later, describing the relationship between Abkhazia and Georgia, he wrote: «I tend to justify the Abkhazian position. I think we should regard with special attention the problems of small peoples: freedom and rights of big nations should not be exercised at the expense of small ones» (Znamja, 1991, No.10, p.69).

    Today some people say that Abkhazia is Russia, others that it is Georgia, while the fact is that Abkhazia is Abkhazia. And at the end of the 20th and start of the 21st century we want to preserve our own identity and keep our own face for the simple reason that it is ours, even if somebody else may not find it to their liking.

  • Tinatin

    What is the dispute:

    That Abkhazia has not been a part of Georgian history from it’s early stages of creation?

    That Russia, acting as peacekeeper, is not playing the major role of supporting Abkhazia’s separation from Georgia and driving the two sides towards war?

    BTW – Abkhazia, the current and historic name for the region, is a Georgian word.

    That Georgians did not suffer an Ethnic cleansing?

  • Metin

    I have suggest you read (again and again) A. Andersen’s absurd claims and G. Hewitt’s responses. You will find the answers but i am SURE that you will not (WANT) understand.

    Maybe we should ask: WHO is started the that dirty-FASCIST war? Who? Who said “if 100,000 Georgian lose their lives, then [on the Abkhazian side] all 97,000 will be killed”; and that “the Abkhaz Nation will be left without descendants.”? Who wanted destroy-kill all Abkhazia with Abkhazians? Who wanted to destroy Abkhazian history? And now who is saying SORRY!!!?
    See: http://www.humanrights.ge/index.php?a=article&id=1546&lang=en

    Some people says Georgians were ‘however’ the largest group to move into Abkhazia, constituting some quarter of a million of Abkhazia’s pre-war population. This is QUITE wrong, because the VAST majority of the so-called ‘Georgian’ pre-war population of the republic were Mingrelians.

  • Metin

    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 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. 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, 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?

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