Geography:
Abkhazia is situated on the Eastern Bank of the Black Sea, bordering to the West with Russia on the Psou River and to the East with Georgia on the Ingur River. On the North the Grand Caucasian Range. It has six main administrative regions: Gagra, Gudauta, Sukhum, Ochamchira, Tquarchal and Gal. The republic contains three National Parks in Pskhu-Gumista, Pitsunda-Mussera and Ritsa. Furthermore the country is rich in fresh water resources with many lakes and rivers. The climate is subtropical.

People:
In the VIII century, the Abkhaz established one of the most influential states of the time - the Abkhaz Kingdom. In the XI century as a result of dynastic marriages, this state fragmented into several minor independent Kingdoms. At this stage until the XIX century, Abkhaz and Georgians coexisted in two separate and independent countries.

In 1810 Abkhazia voluntarily became a protectorate of the Russian Empire. Until 1864 it preserved its statehood and system of self-governance in the form of a sovereign principality. As a result of the Russian-Circassian War in the middle of the XIX Century many Abkhaz like Adyg, Shapsug, Ubykh, Abaza and other indigenous nations had to flee to the Ottoman Empire. This period of deportation is called “Makhajyr”. Approximately more than 250.000 Abkhaz were deported from Abkhazia to Turkey.
Being demographically misbalanced Abkhazia had become a favourable territory for migration of other nations like Georgians to Abkhazia. After the collapse of the Russian Empire in 1917, Georgia and Abkhazia took a way of creating two independent states, but in May 1918 the new Georgian Democratic Republic occupied and annexed Abkhazia.

Prior to this occupation the Abkhaz National Council had been formed, actively developing regional state institutions in the Northern Caucasus and Southern Russia (Circassia). As a result of these processes, Abkhazia joined the Union of Mountainous Peoples of the North Caucasus, and then the Mountain Republic and the southeastern Union of Cossack Forces, Caucasian Mountain Peoples and Free Peoples of the Steppe. Hence, following the annexation of Abkhazia by Georgia, the leadership of the Mountain Republic issued a formal protest to the authorities of the Georgian Republic and Germany, whose troops had participated in the operation. Abkhazia led its liberation war against Georgia from 1918 till 1921.

On the 4th of March 1921, the Georgian authorities in Abkhazia were overthrown by Abkhaz rebels; ‘Kiaraz’ movement. An independent Soviet Socialist Republic of Abkhazia was proclaimed on the 31st of March 1921. On the 21st of May 1921, the Revolutionary Committee of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic recognised the independence of Abkhazia.

In December 1921 the Abkhaz SSR, under pressure from Stalin was forced into a Union Treaty with the Georgian SSR, which created the basis for state-legal relations between Abkhazia and Georgia. According to this treaty, the SSR of Georgia and the SSR of Abkhazia entered into a military, political and economic alliance. State-legal relations between Georgia and Abkhazia were based on the treaty, which provided equal rights. Following this the Abkhaz SSR took part in the establishment of the USSR.

In 1931 the Abkhaz SSR was forced to become an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Georgian SSR. This violation of the sovereign rights of Abkhazia had grave consequences for Abkhazia. Reduction of its status to that of an autonomous republic resulted in mass rioting of Abkhaz people all throughout Abkhazia. Subsequent Georgian policy was focused on creating a mono-national state. Thus Meskhetian Turks, Greeks, Kurds, Khemshins, Laz and others were deported from Georgia. The same policy of altering the demographic balance was pursued in Abkhazia, partly by means of forcible assimilation and partly by means of the mass settlement of Georgian nationals in Abkhazia.

In the period 1937-1953, the Abkhaz were deprived of the right to teach their children in their native language. All Abkhaz schools and institutions were closed. The Abkhaz were only allowed to study in Georgian schools. Abkhaz script (originally based on the Cyrillic and then on Latin) was altered, against the will of the Abkhaz people, to one based on Georgian characters. As a result, after 1938 the Abkhaz were deprived of the right to read newspapers, journals, and other literature in the Abkhaz native language.

Many Abkhaz toponyms were transformed into Georgian and still could be seen on some international maps introduced by Georgia. Abkhaz were forced to alter their surnames into Georgian, and in the Gal district Abkhaz were given new passports where their nationality was indicated as Georgian. Due to this discriminatory policy Greeks were deported from Abkhazia in 1949, and immigrants from Georgia occupied the abandoned houses. As a result the demographic situation was artificially altered. Even in 1897 after mass migration to Turkey and other countries of the Middle East, the Abkhaz represented 55.3%, whereas by the end of the 1990s they numbered only 17% (in other words they became minority in their own country).

In the early 1990’s leaders of the national movements in Georgia appealed to the public to abolish the autonomous statehood of Abkhazia. Between 1989 and 1991 the Supreme Council of Georgia made a number of unilateral decisions according to which the organs of state power in the Georgian SSR and therefore state-legal acts adopted by them were proclaimed illegitimate and illegal. Thus the activities of the Georgian authorities led to the breaking-off of state-legal relations between Georgia and Abkhazia.

The fact is that while becoming a UN member, Georgia had no legal relationships with Abkhazia, and hence the recognition on 21 December 1991 by the UN of Georgia’s territorial integrity within the borders of the former GSSR had no legal basis. Before that the UN General Secretary was informed by the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia namely by Vladislav Ardzinba that there were no state-legal relationships between Abkhazia and Georgia, and that therefore the admission of Georgia into the UN was not legal.

In February 1992, following the collapse of the USSR and the coup d’etat, the Georgian government took a decision to adopt the constitution of the Georgian Democratic Republic of 1921, without defining relations with Abkhazia.
In order to avoid military confrontation, Abkhazia offered to restore state-legal relations with Georgia on new equal grounds.

On 23 July 1992, the Supreme Council of Abkhazia adopted the Constitution of 1925, according to which (in article II) Abkhazia was a sovereign state and a subject of international law. At the same time, the Parliament of Abkhazia addressed the Georgian leadership with a proposal to begin negotiations on the establishment of equal relations within the framework of a federative treaty. However, the Georgian authorities opted to use force rather than political dialogue with Abkhazia, and armed aggression began on 14 August 1992 to suppress the aspiration of the Abkhaz people toward self-determination. To date, the General Prosecutor Office of the Republic of Abkhazia has more than five thousand volumes of criminal cases that are witnessing facts of Georgian crimes against the Abkhaz people.

The Negotiation Process

The negotiations between Georgia and Abkhazia that have been under way since 1993 have failed to resolve the differences between them and left relations frozen in a condition of ‘neither war nor peace’. Indeed, Abkhazia and Georgia now seem further away from political agreement than in April 1994 when the Declaration on Measures for a Political Settlement of the Georgian–Abkhaz Conflict and its appendix the Quadripartite Agreement were signed.

Negotiations have been primarily about the settlement of state and legal relations between Abkhazia and Georgia and the return of Georgian refugees to Abkhazia. On the first issue, the principles underlying the positions are diametrically opposed. Georgians consider Abkhazia to be an inalienable part of Georgia with at most the status of an autonomous republic. From the Georgian perspective any other arrangement might lead to further disintegration of the Georgian state, which is already troubled by its lack of control over South Ossetia. The Abkhaz argue that, as Abkhazia was forcibly incorporated into Georgia by Stalin’s regime in 1931, the collapse of the USSR and the subsequent unilateral annulment by Georgia of legal measures joining the two countries in one republic merely confirmed Abkhazia’s legal and moral right to independence.

Furthermore, the Abkhaz claim that the war unleashed by Georgia in 1992 has resulted in de facto independence. From the outset of the conflict, the Georgian side pronounced the inviolability of the territorial integrity of the former Soviet Republic of Georgia and the inadmissibility of any internal reorganization of Georgia on federal principles. The Abkhaz representatives did not set out their position so unequivocally.

The majority of UN Security Council Resolutions have been openly pro-Georgian. This reflects the bias inherent in the negotiation process conducted under the auspices of the UN to which Georgia belongs and Abkhazia does not. In December 1994, Russia introduced restrictions at the Russian–Abkhaz border under the pretext of its military action in Chechnya and in January 1996 implemented the CIS decision to introduce economic sanctions against Abkhazia at Georgian insistence. Pressure on Abkhazia increased further with the creation of the Group of Friends of Georgia, comprising the USA, the UK, Germany, France and Russia. The ambassadors of the ‘Friends’ have actively joined the negotiation process, especially since 1997. As a result they are now better informed about Abkhazia and its demands, but this has not in itself contributed to any significant change in the substance of the negotiations.

For the Georgian leadership the return of the refugees is above all a political question. A long-term policy of Georgianization resulted in Georgians constituting the largest ethnic group of Abkhazia’s pre-war multinational population. With the departure from the Georgian occupied territories of the Greek and Jewish populations during the war and the economic migration of some Russians, Armenians and Abkhaz, mainly to Russia and Armenia, the mass return of Georgian refugees alone would create a demographic situation clearly favouring Georgia.

After its defeat in the war, Tbilisi has no confidence in its ability to resolve the ‘Abkhaz problem’ on its own and is trying to use the Georgian population from Abkhazia, under the cover of international organizations, as an instrument for forcing a resolution of the conflict in its favour.

This strategy lies behind the revived proposal to expand the Security Zone beyond the Gal region and give the peacekeeping forces police functions. Many in Abkhazia believe this would simply create a larger area of instability and further embroil the peacekeepers in conflict since it is in the Security Zone that the Georgian guerrillas are most active.

Abkhaz society could only countenance the return of Georgians who did not fight on the Georgian side once Abkhazia receives recognition as an independent state. Given the history of Georgian–Abkhaz relations only international recognition would convince Abkhaz society that the return of the refugees would not represent a threat to its security.

What is more, the Abkhaz believe that descendants of Abkhaz refugees from the nineteenth century Caucasian War now living mostly in Turkey, should be allowed an equal right to return, whereas Russian sanctions ban the entry into Abkhazia of foreign citizens.

Georgia’s bad faith frequently goes unchallenged by the international community, repeating a familiar pattern in which the Abkhaz are censured for their activities but abuses committed by the Georgians go largely unmarked. The August 1992 invasion of Abkhazia is ignored and no condemnation is leveled at Georgia for the mass human rights violations and killings during the war, while Abkhazia is accused of ethnic cleansing.

In January 1999 on the eve of the UN Security Council session the Abkhaz president called on Tbilisi and international organizations to support Abkhazia’s unilateral decision to allow the return of refugees to districts which previously had compact Georgian populations – namely the Gal region. However, the Georgian government, despite its own previous demands for the return of the Georgian population to Abkhazia prior to a political solution, now linked the safe return of the refugees to a political settlement, understanding by this the establishment of Georgian jurisdiction over Abkhazia.

The Security Council responded to the Abkhaz initiative on 29 January 1999 by referring to the Lisbon resolution of the OSCE, which interpreted the mass exodus of the Georgian population during the liberation of Abkhazia from Georgian armed forces in September
1993 as ethnic cleansing.

Abkhaz society is consolidated around the idea that the Abkhaz nation, like any other, including the Georgian, has the right to freedom and independence. The Abkhaz cannot understand why the desire of other nations for independence is so problematic for Georgian society.

The past decade has stirred the historical memory of the Abkhaz who for over a century have regarded Georgia as a source of aggression. The attempt to resolve the ‘Abkhaz question’ once and for all by force, removed all trust in Georgia. While revanchist policy is frequently aired in the Georgian media, calls by Georgian intellectuals to reject the policy of sanctions receive no positive response from the government.

Organizations:
The Abkhazian government: Legislative power: All the legislative authority established by this Constitution shall be exercised by the People's Assembly or the Parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia. The Parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia shall consist of 36 members. The elections to the Parliament shall be carried out on the basis of a universal, equal and direct suffrage, by means of secret ballot. The Parliament's term of office shall be five years. The procedure for the Parliamentary elections shall be established by a constitutional law. Executive power: The Executive Power in the Republic of Abkhazia shall be granted to the President of the Republic of Abkhazia. The President of the Republic of Abkhazia shall be the head of the State. The elections of the President of the Republic of Abkhazia shall be based on the universal, equal and direct suffrage. The President shall be elected by secret vote for five years.

Any person of Abkhaz nationality who is citizen of the Republic of Abkhazia and who is not younger than 35 years and not older than 65 years, having the right to vote, is eligible to be elected President of the Republic of Abkhazia. One and the same person may not be President of the Republic of Abkhazia for a longer period than two consecutive terms of office. NGO’s and Civil Society The process of the establishment and development of Abkhaz NGOs reflected traits of the post-conflict situation. Activities and roles have changed over time, reflecting the dynamics of the political and security situation, the growing sophistication of local NGOs and the learning curve of their international partners.

Civic interventions since the 1993 war have addressed humanitarian and environmental concerns, education, psychological trauma (especially of children), human rights monitoring, conflict analysis, the media, civil society development and democratization, some of which are directly related to the peace process. Some conflict resolution initiatives undertaken by Western European, American and Russian organizations began before the 1994 ceasefire, when the introduction of UNOMIG and the CISPKF (CIS Peacekeeping Forces) provided sufficient security for international NGOs to begin exploring their potential contribution. The development of a United Nations Volunteers (UNV) program, combined with greater stability on the ground from 1995 encouraged civic initiatives by providing information and analysis and by facilitating numerous INGO visits to Abkhazia.

To date there is a number of local Abkhaz NGO developing their strategy through cooperation with various International NGOs like International Alert (IA), Links, the Berghof Centre for Constructive Conflict Management and Conciliation Resources, as well as academics from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) which have convened many meetings in neutral venues, which have provided opportunities for activists from the conflicting sides to build relationships and foster dialogue on substantive issues. However Abkhaz NGOs tended to develop more unilateral approach towards implementation of humanitarian projects.

Unilateral work has become an important part of civic peace initiatives. Georgia has developed a vibrant NGO constituency with the support of international organizations. However, in Abkhazia, because of greater political and material constraints resulting from the societal decay induced by war, NGOs have been more isolated. There are several leading Abkhaz NGOs, mostly concentrating their activity on addressing social issues such as support for disabled people, integrating them into social life. The most significant trend in activity of Abkhaz NGOs is Civil Society development. Today the Abkhaz Civil Society is recognized as one of the most developed networks in the Caucasus.

The rest of the local NGOs are addressing youth issues as well as social rehabilitation. Besides initiatives focused on confidence building measures and developing civil society there is a number of other International Humanitarian NGOs in Abkhazia which address more practical issues such as hunger, landmines, tuberculosis and rehabilitation. There are six International NGOs acting in Abkhazia on a regular basis: ICRC (International Committee of Red Cross), MSF (Medicines Sans Frontiers), PU (Premier Urgence), Halo Trust (Humanitarian Demining Organization), ACH (Accion Contra El Hambre), World Vision. Another range of activities covering wider rehabilitation is implemented through various UN Agencies and European Union through European Commission.

Statistics:
Republic of Abkhazia: territory 8700 km2.
Capital City: Sukhum (Akua in Abkhaz)population: 75 000.
Total population: 340.000 people.
Main ethnic groups: Abkhaz, Armenians, Georgians, Greeks, Megrelians, Russians, Ukrainians.