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Аҧсадгьыл зцәыӡыз зeгьы ицәыӡит.
He who has lost his homeland has lost everything.
                                                     - Abkhazian proverb

On 22^nd-23^rd April 1993, while the Georgian-Abkhazian war (1992-93) was still raging, a conference on the Caucasus was held at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Stanislav Lakoba (historian, one-time Speaker of the Abkhazian Parliament, and currently Chairman of Abkhazia’s Security Council), gave a presentation entitled ‘Abkhazia is Abkhazia’. An English translation was subsequently published in Central Asian Survey (1995). Though the war has been over for 15 years, during which time Abkhazia has not only maintained but with ever increasing economic success strengthened its ‘de facto’ independent status, it remains both a thorn in the side of Georgian aspirations to move ever closer to the EU and NATO and a bone of contention with Russia. Since most of what Lakoba had to say in 1993 is just as relevant today, a few paragraphs from his presentation (edited by the original translator) are offered below. 

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 14^th 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 20^th and start of the 21^st 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.

• Abkhazia is Abkhazia By Stanislav Lakoba, Central Asian Survey, vol. 14, no. 1

• Abkhazia's Liberation and International Law By E. K. Adzhindzhal, Sukhum, 2007

• November 1992 - Report of a UNPO Mission to Abkhazia UNPO Abkhazia Reports, (PDF File)

• The Republic of Abkhazia
   

If our lives are to be short,                   Then let our fame be great!                                 Let us not depart from truth!                                                      Let fairness be our path!                                                                             Let us not know grief!                                                                                              Let us live in freedom!''

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