Abkhazia is a difficult place to write about, but I have to describe Abkhazia before I can write about some of the adventures and people I met down there and how it connects to Icewine. Context is so much more important.
Abkhazia is a land sandwiched between Russia and Georgia on the north and south, and the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains to the east and west.
My innocuous description of where Abkhazia is located is enough to start a fight in many parts of Russia and Georgia. I used the word ‘land’. It would cause dispute to call Abkhazia a country, or in some circles to not call it a country.
As of today, only four countries recognize Abkhazia as a country so that term is in dispute. The Georgian interests claim that Abkhazia is a part of Georgia that broke away in a bloody conflict in 1991 and is held by rebels. Only the 3000 or so Russian peacekeeping troops standing on the southern border for the last 18 years have kept Georgia from physically reclaiming the territory. Georgians would argue that Abkhazia is not bordered by Georgia in the south, but is rather a province in northern Georgia. Similar arguments are made around South Ossetia, where the bulk of the 2008 Georgian-Russian war was fought.
After the 1991 war over 200,000 ethnic Georgians fled Abkhazia, leaving approximately 80,000 ethnic Abkhazians in control. Since then, Abkhazia has been blockaded by politics, economics, and geography. Abkhazia’s only significant trading partners are Russia which maintained a leaky border on the north, and Turkey, who has some mining interests and can ship across the Black Sea.
There are many gorillas in the room but the biggest one seems to be about the displaced Georgians. How does a democratic country of perhaps 80,000 people repatriate 200,000 people and not lose effective control of their country? How do they address the repatriation of the assets that the Georgians lost when they were forced to flee? What is ‘right’?
It is not an uncommon problem. The Soviet Union and Imperial Russia has had a long tradition of relocating large numbers of people, often in the middle of the night and usually at gunpoint, and there have been many such relocations in the region.
The news media distorts our North American view of Abkhazia. America sides with Georgia which sets up little Abkhazia and South Ossetia smack in the middle of the supposedly dead cold war. Over the last few years, various American news agencies have described Akbhazia as a muslim hotbed of terrorism. In fact, over 80% of the people in Akbhazia are Orthodox Christians. I am sure that distortions happen on the Russian side as well, but I don’t read Russian so I can’t point at it.
Ultimately, I believe that who is ‘right’ depends on how far you want to go back to establish those rights, which effectively means that to outsiders like me, there is no ‘right’. There sure have been a lot of wrongs!
So what remains are shadows of the past: Dark memories and confusions and impossible loyalties to lands where one grew up but cannot live and loyalties to lands where one lives under constant threat. The world only knows the simplest of these stories as told in media headlines and sound bites.
The first thing you notice when you meet people from the Caucasus is that they are incredibly hospitable. They may be Circassian, Abkhazian, or Georgian or a hundred other ethnicities in the area and perhaps not get along so well, but once they recognize you as a guest, you can relax and enjoy discovering your hosts and delight in the history, culture and friendship.
I wanted to describe Abkhazia in fairly objective terms. It will form a framework for all of the anecdotes and tales that come from my visits in and around Abkhazia.
I loved the land and the people, both in Akbhazia and those I met who were displaced. If you can look beyond the bullet holes in the walls, or peer back through time to see the glorious parks and architecture or stroll around and meet people, it makes it easier to ignore the ‘gorillas in the corner’ that over time will have to be addressed or once more fought over.
The food is the freshest I have ever enjoyed. The water runs pure from the mountains. If ever a land deserved peace and reconciliation, Abkhazia does.
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