Recognize the Humanitarian Crisis of the Peoples of Abkhazia: Renew Dialogue, Protect Human Right...

The peoples of Abkhazia are facing a continual humanitarian crisis of poverty, compromised resources, and a lack of international attention, from fair, unbiased and accurate reporting.

Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1991, the ethnic peoples of Abkhazia have struggled and waged war for their peoples and cultural independence in the Caucasus region. Situated on the south-western coast of the Black Sea, Abkhazia is facing a continual humanitarian crisis due to the aftermath and ongoing effects of Georgian-Abkhaz war and violence, as well as being relatively ignored by Western governments such as the United States of America and the European Union.

To Georgians, the Republic of Abkhazia is considered only a de facto government, and a breakaway region within its sovereign borders. Like the South Ossetians, these regions are considered by Georgian and its Western allies rogue statues, and have been declared a“Russian-occupied territory” following a resolution passed in August, 2008.

Yet the complex and intricate geopolitical tension between Abkhazia and Georgia—on behalf of the Russian Federation’s pro-Abkhaz support militarily and financially, on the one hand, and America and European’s pro-Georgian call for national integrity on the other—threatens to overshadow the exact crises and humanitarian needs facing the Abkhaz people:

1. The Abkhaz people are not recognized by the European Union or United Nations, and as such, receive no official voice or diplomatic relations among the international community. (Though five United Nation members have recognized the Republic of Abkhazia as an autonomous, sovereign government, only Russia provides substantial financial and humanitarian aid). Therefore, the people of Abkhazia have no international voice.

2. Abkhazia as a region still faces the consequences of a brutal and severely costly war. Land-mines are still found within its villages and borders. Widespread poverty and continual violence effect the lives of countless women, children and non-militant combatants in the Abkhaz-Georgian conflict. National infrastructure such as police, education, hospitals, and other municipal agencies operate on meager budgets without any means of receiving international support as an unrecognized country, the peoples of Abkhazia (which include a large population of Greeks, Turks, Armenians and others) must combat disease, poverty, and a compromised quality of life in silence. Therefore, impoverished living conditions of Abkhazians exist mostly undocumented and rarely acknowledge by the international press.

3. As a result of the West’s pro-Georgian stance, citizens and refugees within Abkhazia are unable to travel freely throughout the world, as visas and international embassies do not recognize them as anything else than aliens, or internationally displaced persons. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, a widespread diaspora from the 1992-1993 War in Abkhazia has left Abkhaz peoples displaced in Turkey, Russian and elsewhere in the Caucasus, without the safety or assurance of their return to their “disputed” homelands. Families are divided, the burdens of travel and communication are not often feasible, and the cultural traditions of the Abkhaz people are in danger of being effaced.

4. Abkhazia’s lack of international recognition can be considered the result of Cold War realities—and while Russia and the West have stopped waging war on each other, the geopolitical pressures concerning Abkhazia’s international recognition are immense.

Ethic cleansing and genocide has been documented by both Georgian and Abkhaz militant forces during the 1992-1993 war. Additionally, a large population of ethnic Georgians have been displaced from their homes and property following the fighting in the region. The resettlement of these Georgians, as well as the loses suffered by non-militant combatants, has motivated the Georgian government’s language and ensuing policy towards reunification as well as an absolute refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the de facto Abkhazian government, aka The Republic of Abkhazia, or Aspny.

Several United Nations resolutions following militarized violence in the 1992 and 2008 wars have repeatedly demanded for the return of ethnic Georgians and the compensation of their lost property, which many international governments consider the Abkhaz people to possess illegally.

Yet Western and international media sources have told with great bias only a Georgian narrative of these events, and have turned a blind eye toward any rights of the ethnic Abkhaz to self-govern independently and rightfully.

While the Georgian government and people have a right to promote and uphold their cause and claims following this violence, the peoples of Abkhazia have been denied a fair and internationally-recognized dialogue. Neo-ColdWar policy (Pro-Western vs. Pro-Russian) is still dictating the legacy and legitimacy of the Abkhaz people.