The North Caucasus factor in the Abkhaz-Georgian armed conflict of 1992-1993, by Natella Akaba
International Alert, “Dialogue through Research”, The North Caucasus factor in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict context, 2012.
The 1992–1993 Georgian-Abkhaz war is a perfect example of a ‘conflict of a new era’, as defined by the former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. This type of armed conflict affects civilians as much as the armies of the hostile parties. In this case, the conflict has now spread beyond the South Caucasus and into the wider region, drawing in the citizens not only of Abkhazia and Georgia, but also of other countries – Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, Syria and others, mainly the Abkhaz’ ethnic cousins the Adyghe, (Adyghe, Kabardinians and Circassians), the Abaza, and members of the Abkhaz and Circassian diaspora. In fact, representatives from almost all the peoples living in the North Caucasus and the Southern Russian Cossacks have fought in Abkhazia. At the same time, Ukrainian citizens (members of the radical right-wing party the Ukrainian National Assembly–Ukrainian National Self Defence (UNA-UNSO)) – and, according to unverified reports, citizens of the Baltic countries – have taken part in the war on the Georgian side. This reflects the significance of the concept of “Caucasian brotherhood” for the overwhelming majority of Abkhaz on the one hand and Georgia’s commitment to a policy of Euro-Atlanticism on the other.
Views are divided, not to say diametrically opposed, over the participation of volunteers from the North Caucasus in the 1992–1993 Georgian-Abkhaz war and the role they played in it, no more so than in relation to their motives. Those who witnessed and were directly involved in the events on the Abkhaz side have no doubt that they were motivated by the desire to come to the assistance of a brotherly people, outnumbered and facing a deadly threat. In Georgia, however, public opinion and the expert community are convinced that they were simply hired mercenaries fighting for reward. This article attempts to identify the motives of the people who came to the help of the people of Abkhazia.
The start of the war: the role of public organisations and leaders in the North Caucasus
In the first few days following the Georgian military’s incursion into Abkhazia in August 1992 – which resulted in mass looting, killing on the basis of ethnicity and acts of repression initially aimed at the Abkhaz, but later extended to include the entire non-Georgian populace within the republic – many people believed that a Georgian victory was a foregone conclusion. Indeed, the Abkhaz military, greatly outnumbered and outgunned by the Georgian forces, appeared to be confined to a small patch of territory, extending from the Gumista river to the village of Kolkhida. However, a partisan movement was developing within the besieged city of Tkuarchal and some villages in Ochamchira district. Moscow’s policy, which was opaque and highly contradictory, was hardly designed to reassure the non-Georgian population. It felt, with good reason, that governments all around the world were backing Shevardnadze. For their part, the leaders and activists of the Abkhaz national movement and those leaders from the Armenian, Slav and Greek communities that supported them hoped – rightly, as it turned out – that their North Caucasus cousins would not simply stand by and watch Abkhazia being brought to its knees.
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See also:
+ Historical aspects of the North Caucasus factor in relation to modern Georgia (up to 2008), by George Anchabadze
+ Volunteer-movement and the Circassian factor during the Patriotic War of the people of Abkhazia in 1992-1993 – historical and political significance, by Aslanbek Mirzoev
+ Reports on Chechnya, Abkhazia & the Chechen War