We often hear flashy news headlines and updates about military conflicts around the world. We feed on information that is often exaggerated, hidden with small facts, inaccurate and biased. This information leads us to formulate opinions and solutions to a problem without knowledge of the background or details. I had my own views and opinions on the conflict in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. After my research on history in Georgia, I began to understand the more complex and deer roots of the problems that caused the conflict. The fighting began in the early 1990s on a large scale, but the complications that began went farther into history. As we read, we learn a little more detail about the conflict in Georgia.
Green subtropical beaches on the Black Sea coast to the high Alpine mountains; Georgia has always been a popular getaway for the citizens of the colder Soviet Union. Georgian people are known for great hospitality, exceptional wine, and they have their own unique alphabet. Despite the fact that the Georgian people have been around for thousands of years, over the past few centuries this country has been ruled by other kingdoms, including the Mongols, Arabs, Turks, and finally the Russians (the history of Georgia). In early Soviet times, Georgia was part of the Soviet Union. Abkhazia was part of the Georgian Republic in the north-western region during the Soviet era. Thanks to popular resorts with a palm beach, warm climate and ideal soil for agriculture, Abkhazia annually attracted about three million tourists from the Soviet Union. The size of Abkhazia is slightly smaller than the big island of Hawaii.
Under Soviet rule, Abkhazia was a region in Georgia politically and geographically. Both ethnic groups, Abkhazians and Georgians came from this land and did not have the same native language. Most of the time, they were able to communicate because they were learning Russian as their second language. The Russian language was dominant throughout the Soviet Union in the communist era. In the early 1990s, the Soviet Union came to an end, and Georgia gained independence. At the same time, Abkhazia did not want to stay with Georgia, so they separated from them by military force. Since then, the Abkhaz people consider themselves independent of Georgia, but their independence is still in conflict and is not supported or recognized at the international level.
I was born in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia, in the city of Sukhumi, the capital center of the Abkhaz region. I remember that our last two-story house was really big compared to the house we lived in before. He had a Victorian staircase from the outside that climbed onto our balcony. We had thin tubular arches that ran along a path and grapevines twisted around the pipes. It was fun to play in the backyard, where we had twelve mandarin trees, which of all citrus fruits is my favorite. We had a medium-sized conservatory where my mother grew tulips.
I remember that the Black Sea was just a few minutes to the west, a few minutes walk from our house. Then I did not know how to swim, but I liked to play in the waves. In some quarters to the north was the river Gumista. I remember the sign "Gumista" when we drive over the bridge. Before reaching the bridge, there was a small bakery where we went to buy warm bread. My elder brother and I use to explore the territory of the railway, which was our neighbor's corn. I was afraid to go there myself, because this area was new to me. One day he took me to see the Gumista River, but we did not go down to it, because the fall was steep. Later, I felt comfortable and explored the area myself. But the river still seemed big to me, and I was afraid to go down to the water itself. What I liked most about Sukhumi were palm trees and tropical plants, they made me feel warm, even if it snowed in the winter. There have been many times when my dad took our family to our car around the green jungle that went up to the Caucasus Mountains; in the valleys there were sheep and old broken castles around the mountains.
1989, it was our last year before we came to America. We applied for a visa and we received it. This is also the beginning. Georgia Abkhazia Conflict We did not know that war was going on in this area. But during this past year, everyone felt tense. We sold our house in advance, without leaving before our flight date. There were rumors and talks about violence in the capital of Georgia, Georgia, and the security of the airport in Sukhumi was raised to higher alert. I remember how military vehicles drove on the streets. Our last day in Sukhumi, my parents were preparing all night for our trip. I remember how everyone looked worried at the airport, and this was the last time I saw Sukhumi.
Georgia became prosperous when the Soviet Union was under the leadership of Joseph Stalin. He was a native of Georgia, born with the Georgian name Dzhugashvili, but as soon as he became the leader, he changed him to Stalin, which meant “a steel man” (a biography of Joseph Stalin). Since at that time he had great power over the Soviet Union, he helped Georgia open new enterprises and build its economy. Although positive growth has become a big leap for Georgians, Stalin’s hatred of minorities living in Georgia has become hardened. The Abkhaz people were among the minorities that began to suffer the consequences of this prejudice. Schools in Georgia were forced to teach only the Georgian language, and the Abkhaz language was generally prohibited. During this time, thousands of Abkhaz were executed. Abkhaz names of specific places were changed to Georgian names, and the Abkhaz alphabet was changed to Georgian alphabet. Even their passports could not state their Abkhaz nationality. Thousands of Abkhazians were taken out of their land when the Russians and Georgians filled their vacancies. Despite the fact that many of them were able to stay, the Abkhaz people did not forget these times when they were cleared of their land because of their ethnicity.
In the 1930s and 40s, Stalin was accused of every crime that could be committed by the government.
Under the new soft political leadership of Nikita Khrushchev, the anti-Stalinist retaliatory measures began to develop through the Soviet Union. This raised the view that Stalin’s tough actions were made because of his Georgian origin. This opinion especially raised criticism of the Georgian youth, who from the very beginning of her career idiotized Stalin (“History of Georgia”). Georgians were offended by the anti-Stalinist movement, especially college students, who began to hold rallies and demonstrations in the center of the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi. They tried to defend the views of Stalin and criticized the new policy made by Khrushchev. On March 9, 1956, the Soviet Army shot demonstrators in Tbilisi, killing about a hundred Georgians and injuring three hundred more. Although Georgia was still a Soviet republic after this incident, most of its people from that moment lost confidence in the Soviet power that dominated Russia.
An invisible wall was built between the Georgian people and the Soviet government in their minds and hearts. Under the new Soviet leadership, the Abkhaz began to receive support from the Soviet government in their northwestern part of Georgia. Their position completely changed from the cruel state in which they were. They were now considered equal to Georgians, their passports were changed to show their ethnicity, and they taught their own language in schools as they wanted. They were free to practice their own traditions, which were severely limited during Stalin. In the late seventies, Abkhazia gained forty percent of state and judicial control on its territory under communist rule. Although this freedom was granted to them, it was still considered part of the Georgian Republic.
As Georgians had much more population and more state power through Abkhazia, tensions continued to grow during the seventies and eighties between two ethnic groups. The Abkhaz were already unhappy with their past experience of persecution by Georgians during Stalin. Over time, they claimed that the Georgian authorities had repeatedly violated Abkhaz rights. During these years, the Georgian national movement grew. Georgia wanted to become independent of the Soviet Union, and by 1988 the national movement had intensified on a large scale. Among the leaders of this movement were former Georgian prisoners who left the Soviet camps. Peaceful demonstrations began to take shape around the capital’s center in Tbilisi. However, the Soviet government opposed the demonstrations in Tbilisi and sent the Soviet Army to stop them by force. On April 9, 1989, twenty demonstrators were attacked and killed at night, most of them were Georgian women (history of Georgia). After this day, the Soviet Communist Party lost all influence in the Georgian republic. The national movement has become the main motivation for the new government of Georgia. It was a chaotic and unorganized process, which soon opened the door for the election of a new Georgian leader, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, on October 28, 1990.
Gamsakhurdia created a problem by putting a non-flexible policy through Georgia, which ignored the rights of minorities, and changed the constitution of Georgia to exclude Abkhaz voices in the government. Fearing new Georgian politics, Abkhazia immediately responded to Georgian racism, declaring Abkhazia an independent country and elected Vladislav Ardzinba as its new leader. The policy of Gamsakhurdia also caused tension in the middle region of Georgia, called South Ossetia, a populated Ossetian minority. Ossetians began to resist Georgians, fearing that they might be persecuted because they did not belong to Georgian ethnicity. At that time, the Georgian people felt that Gamsakhurdia was not coping with the conflicts between Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
In January 1992, Gamsakhurdia was overthrown, and a new leader, a former Soviet politician Edward Shevardnadze, was elected. He was able to discuss the conflict in South Ossetia with an agreed ceasefire. But the conflict inside Abkhazia was just beginning. Georgia felt that Abkhazia was theirs, and they could not stand and watch Abkhazia break away to form a separate nation. Thus, Shevardnadze sent to the Sukhumi three thousand troops, who were the capital of Abkhazia. He claimed that the Abkhaz authorities were sending troops, because “Georgian officials were abducted by the former leader Gamsakhurdia, who were heading to Sukhumi” (apsny.org). When the Georgian troops entered the territory of Abkhazia, the Abkhaz authorities found out that the real intention of the troops was to overthrow the Abkhaz government and restore Georgian rule in Abkhazia. Immediately, the Abkhaz government realized that they needed to flee from the protection of Sukhumi. Ardzinbba and the Abkhaz ministers quickly reached northern Abkhazia in the Caucasus Mountains and called on the Abkhaz people to resist all incoming Georgian troops.
By October 1992, Georgian troops moving from the south were able to capture Sukhumi. They captured the city all the way to the Gumista River, where Abkhaz volunteer forces were able to create an offensive blocking the northern bank of the river, while the Georgians were on the southern bank. This was how the Georgians advanced during the war, and the Gumista River in the north of Sukhumi became the main front line. The Georgian forces, displaying disrespect and senselessness of the Abkhaz people, burned the state archives and archives of the Institute of the Abkhaz language, history and literature (apsny.org). Abkhazians claim that at this time the Georgians burned Abkhaz houses, robbed them and killed civilians. Because of this, thousands of Abkhazians fled from Sukhumi, fearing their life.
Georgian troops were significantly superior to the Abkhaz. But the war is about to change, Georgian conflict in Abkhazia to a new level. Despite the fact that Russia’s large northern neighbor of Abkhazia denied the claims, by 1993, with their interest in the region, the Russians began to help the Abkhaz in the war against the Georgians (apsny.org). They supplied them with all the necessary equipment for the battle and even sent them to the Russian troops to fight the Georgians. The new support of Russia discourages the Abkhaz with a strong advantage over the Georgians in Sukhumi and through the Abkhaz region. The Abkhaz and the Russians began to force the Georgian troops south from Sukhumi. On September 30, 1993, the Georgian army was defeated, and many were captured, while the rest were pushed south towards Georgia, which is still fighting. It was a very personal battle throughout the territory of Abkhazia, especially in the villages, where many of them were forced to fight their former neighbors, co-workers and even relatives because of their mixed ethnicity. In the villages and cities formed many lines of battle, people had no choice but to return fire to those who shot at them. Abkhazia finally got rid of Georgia with the help of Russia.
Many Georgian citizens who remained in Sukhumi after Abkhazia again got the upper hand, claiming that they were forced to leave their homes or otherwise fight the Abkhaz side (global IDPs). For the hundreds of thousands of Georgians remaining in Abkhazia during this time, “ethnic cleansing” has become a reality. Many were killed, while others were tortured and forced to flee to Russia and mainly to western Georgia. It is estimated that in 2003, 249,000 ethnic Georgians were still displaced from Abkhazia, that is, about ten years after they were forced to flee (causes and premises). Most of them live on the western border of Abkhazia and Georgia as refugees. About half of them lived in collective centers, mainly in former public buildings, such as schools, former hotels, factories and hospitals. Most of them have little access to clean water, unsafe electrical systems and insufficient insulation. Some negotiations were held that helped many Georgian refugees return home to Abkhazia. Due to repeated violence against them, many had to flee back to refugee centers in Georgia. Thousands of Georgians are still moving for more than ten years, hoping for the best in returning home. Recent plans with international participation bring promising solutions to free the displaced refugees back to Abkhazia.
Everything, despite the fact that Abkhazia defeated its territory, fierce fighting continued until the official cease-fire in 1994. The cease-fire helped stop a full-scale war, but fighting continued between the two sides until the very day it wrote. More than a decade of this ongoing disaster forced the economy to plunge into both Georgia and Abkhazia. Worse, Abkhazia has economic sanctions on its imports and exports, since its independence is not recognized in any other country in the world. It is still considered part of Georgia, although Georgia does not control it. Russia's financial, political and military support in Abkhazia has been growing every year since the sanctions imposed by the United Nations in Abkhazia.
The transshipment of the Gumista River in Sukhumi in 1993–94 was a long and deadly battle between the Abkhaz and the Georgians, which lasted almost a year. In those months, more than ten thousand people died from this battle. When this battle was over, the large two-story house we sold in 1989 left the foundation because it was bombarded on the front line of the Gumista River. According to the Landmine Monitor report in 1999, there were still one hundred thirty-three separate minefields stretching ten kilometers south of the bridge over the Gumista River on the black sea coast along the western edge of Sukhumi (land mine monitor). There are also large minefields that go inland along the Gumista River (mine clearance). The high fertility of the soil along the river attracts families that continued to live in local neighborhoods growing in small citrus groves, despite being close to large minefields. Several mines were washed by the river into the sea, where they were removed by Abkhaz engineers. The good news is that conditions are improving compared with 1999. In 2002, in Abkhazia, an international demining organization called HALO Trust cleared 858,688 square meters of land affected by mines, destroyed 456 anti-personnel mines, 127 anti-personnel mines and 749 unexploded ordnance exploded (DFB) (ground mine monitor). Unfortunately, there are still reports that new mines are being built around Abkhazia around Abkhazia by Georgians, Abkhazians and Russian “peacekeepers”, but not as much as in 1993/94.
The economy of Georgia in the Soviet era relied heavily on Russia. Поскольку Россия помогла Абхазии победить грузин, между двумя странами сложилась серьезная напряженность, и экономика Грузии упала еще больше. Российские войска помогли абхазам, заявили, что Грузия обучила и поддерживала террористические группы, которые имели связи с чеченскими террористами с северной границы Герогии. Грузия осуждает эти обвинения и заявляет, что российские «миротворцы» в Абхазии должны быть удалены, потому что они начинают больше конфликтов, чем помощь с миром на территории.
Теперь будущее Грузии выглядит более перспективным. Эдвард Шеварднадзе, который возглавлял Грузию после конфликта 1993 года, был вынужден покинуть свои позиции протестующих в ноябре 2003 года. Шеварднадзе обвиняют в коррупции и взяточничестве в правительстве Грузии в течение десятилетнего срока, включая наркотики и незаконную торговлю оружием (Конец Шева). , Его заменил Михаил Саакашвили, который теперь помогает Грузии уклоняться от коррупции. Указом президента Саакашвили учредил Совет по борьбе с коррупцией, который помогает проводить более жесткие законы против коррупции на всех уровнях политической системы через Грузию. Новый президент, наконец, пытается изо всех сил установить связи с Россией, чтобы стабилизировать экономику Грузии и как можно скорее урегулировать конфликт с Абхазией. Он работает с лидерами всего мира, чтобы придумать решения для абхазского конфликта. Россия подталкивает Абхазию к более быстрому решению, чтобы помочь грузинским беженцам вернуться в Абхазию мирным путем. Изучив историю и детали конфликта, я начал понимать, сколько из-за этого было потеряно. Мое сердце уходит к тем, кто потерял жизнь, своих близких и свою землю. Я не могу взять ту или другую сторону, но молиться о мире в Абхазии и Грузии. Я нанимаю на лучшее, и я считаю, что скоро придет время, когда обе стороны наконец найдут решения, которые обе стороны могут договориться.
Грузия Абхазский конфликт По-прежнему остается. Мы как можно скорее возлагаем наибольшие надежды на мир в этом регионе.
