Abkhazia

A kingdom, a protectorate, a Soviet republic

An independent kingdom of Abkhazia formed in the 8th century. It later became part of Georgia, broke away in 1463, and came under Ottoman rule in the 16th century.^[1] A treaty with Russia in 1810 made it a protectorate, and Russia annexed it in 1864.^[1]

Under Soviet rule it was made a republic in 1921 and an autonomous republic within Georgia in 1930, and it stayed part of Georgia when Georgia became independent in 1991.^[1] Before the war of the early 1990s, ethnic Georgians made up almost half of its people and ethnic Abkhaz less than a fifth; Armenians and Russians made up most of the rest.^[1]

War, 1992–93

Unrest and attempts by the local authorities to break away from Georgia turned into fighting in the summer of 1992, when Georgia sent 2,000 troops into Abkhazia.^[2] Some 200 people were killed, and the Abkhaz leadership left Sukhumi for Gudauta.^[2] A ceasefire agreed in Moscow on 3 September 1992 by Georgia, the Abkhaz leadership and Russia collapsed on 1 October.^[2] Abkhaz forces, with fighters from Russia’s North Caucasus, then took the main towns, and some 30,000 civilians fled across the border into Russia.^[2]

A new ceasefire was agreed on 27 July 1993, and on 24 August the UN Security Council set up an observer mission, UNOMIG.^[2] The ceasefire broke down on 16 September. On 27 September Abkhaz forces took Sukhumi, and a few days later all of Abkhazia.^[2] Hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly Georgians, were displaced, and a UN fact-finding mission found that both sides had committed human rights violations.^[2]

“The territorial integrity of the Republic of Georgia shall be ensured.”^[2]

A line on the Enguri

On 14 May 1994 the Georgian and Abkhaz sides signed the Agreement on a Ceasefire and Separation of Forces in Moscow.^[2] It brought in a peacekeeping force from the Commonwealth of Independent States (the CIS, a group of former Soviet republics), watched by up to 136 UN observers.^[2] It set a security zone where no troops were allowed, and a wider zone closed to heavy weapons.^[2]

In 1999 Abkhazia formally declared independence, a move the international community did not recognise.^[1] By 2002 more than half of its people had taken Russian passports.^[1] In 2006 Georgia took control of part of the Kodori Gorge, the only part of Abkhazia it held.^[1]

Today the Gali district, along the Enguri river, has about 30,000 people by a 2023 census, roughly 98% of them ethnic Georgians: most of the Georgians still living in Abkhazia.^[4] The Enguri Bridge carries the road out of Abkhazia into the rest of Georgia.^[4]

2008 and after

Fighting broke out in South Ossetia, Georgia’s other breakaway region, on 7 and 8 August 2008.^[2] Russia massed more forces in Abkhazia, and after the war Abkhazia let Russia control its border, railways and airport and build military bases there.^[1]

On 26 August 2008 Russia recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, and on 28 August Georgia’s parliament declared both territories occupied by a Russian force.^[2] The CIS peacekeeping force was wound up on 15 October 2008.^[2] On 15 June 2009 Russia vetoed a routine extension of UNOMIG, and the UN mission ended that night.^[2]

An EU monitoring mission began work on 1 October 2008. It patrols next to the boundary lines of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, but the authorities there have not let it in.^[5] In July 2026 Nauru withdrew its recognition, as Vanuatu (2013) and Tuvalu (2014) had before it, which left Russia, Syria, Venezuela and Nicaragua.^[3]

Politics in Sukhumi

On 15 November 2024 protesters against a property deal with Russia, which they feared would open Abkhazia’s housing market to wealthy Russians, stormed the parliament building in Sukhumi.^[6] The Abkhaz leader, Aslan Bzhania, resigned on 19 November.^[6] His vice-president, Badra Gunba, won the run-off election of 1 March 2025 with 54.7% of the vote on unofficial results, with open backing from Moscow.^[7]