Oleg Bartsits: 'Cooperation between Abkhazia and Syria Is Developing Despite Western Pressure'

SUKHUM / AQW'A — 'Attempts to influence the positions of states which recognise the state sovereignty of the Republic of Abkhazia and are building their own cooperation with it are nothing new,' the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia, Oleg Bartsits, has said, responding to the European Union's statement on the first session of the People's Assembly of Syria and to a fresh call from the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry for Damascus to reconsider its recognition of Abkhazia.

'It is no secret that after the socio-political transformation which the Syrian Arab Republic underwent at the end of 2024, the Georgian leadership made persistent attempts to influence the position of the Syrian side, acting through European structures as well. There were also attempts to secure the desired result through the leadership of Türkiye. As we know, none of these succeeded. We continue to maintain inter-state relations of partnership with the Syrian Arab Republic,' Bartsits said.

He recalled that the large Abkhaz-Adyghe (Circassian) diaspora living in Syria maintains active ties with its historical homeland, a circumstance he described as a significant factor in the domestic politics of the Syrian Arab Republic.

The minister characterised the statement by the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, as partisan. Her appeal to the UN Charter, in his view, looks distinctly one-sided, since the Charter also enshrines the inviolable right of peoples to self-determination. 'Abkhazia is exercising this right in full, and builds its relations with partner countries on the basis of mutual respect and sovereignty,' he stressed.

Bartsits spoke at some length about how cooperation with Syria is organised, emphasising its constructive character and that it is directed against no third country.

'Today it is developing steadily. We have already carried out two full-scale visits to Syria, and we now stand on the eve of a third. I believe that the sovereign, firm policy pursued by the Syrian leadership under President Ahmed al-Sharaa is a guarantee that the Syrian people and their leadership will themselves choose the paths of development they consider best suited to the interests of the Syrian people and to the development goals of their state. For our part, we are ready to carry this cooperation forward, and we shall be stepping up our efforts. This is the course set for us by the leadership of the Republic of Abkhazia in the person of the President, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is an active conductor of that policy.'

Mutually beneficial cooperation, he noted, spans trade, economic and cultural-humanitarian ties. Under an educational programme, young Syrians are studying at the Abkhazian State University, and their number grows from year to year. The minister expressed the hope that Syria's sovereign policy would stand in the way of attempts to dictate an outside will to the country's leadership.

He also pointed to Damascus's active cooperation with Russia, Abkhazia's principal ally and partner, even as the Syrian leadership significantly broadens its contacts with the wider world, including the countries of the Middle East, Central Asia and neighbouring regions, as well as Europe.

'I should like to remind European officials that international law contains such a concept as the continuity of the state. Recognition of an act of state sovereignty and the establishment of diplomatic relations are wholly and entirely the prerogative of the state, not of individual personalities or of any political force, and the present Syrian leadership upholds this principle in full. We welcome such approaches. Our cooperation is aimed solely at creation, at the development of mutual relations, at the expansion of humanitarian, cultural and economic contacts: at everything that serves prosperity, development and durable ties between the peoples of our two countries and between our states,' the minister concluded.

The minister's remarks follow the first session of the People's Assembly of Syria, held on 12 July, the parliament's first sitting since the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad at the end of 2024. It took place in the presence of President Ahmed al-Sharaa and other senior officials of the transitional government. Under the plan declared by the new leadership, a transitional period of five years is to rebuild the state institutions destroyed by the long war and by decades of the Assad family's dictatorship, after which the country is due to hold general elections.

On 16 July the Council of the European Union published a statement on the occasion by the High Representative, Kaja Kallas, on behalf of the EU. The Assembly, it said, is expected to play a crucial role in responding to the aspirations of all components of Syrian society: 'As part of a Syrian-owned and Syrian-led political transition, and within its mandate, one of its major tasks will be to adopt a new Constitution and contribute to substantial reforms for the future of Syria.' The success of the transition, the statement continued, will depend on the Assembly's ability to open the way to an inclusive political system grounded in the rule of law, political pluralism and transparent elections. The EU and its member states declared their readiness to engage with the parliament, guided by shared goals, including respect for international law and the UN Charter.

It was this final point that Vilnius seized upon. In a comment on the EU statement published on its official X (formerly Twitter) account, the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry made a fresh call for the decision of Syria's previous government to recognise Abkhazia to be reconsidered.

The change of leadership in Damascus had introduced uncertainty into bilateral relations. After the revolution of late 2024, Georgian media responded with loud calls for the new Syrian government to withdraw recognition of Abkhazia. Syria, however, reaffirmed its established foreign-policy course, receiving an official Abkhaz delegation led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Damascus in June 2025.

Nor is this the first attempt to bring pressure to bear on states that have recognised Abkhazia's sovereignty. Georgia actively pursues a policy of isolating Abkhazia internationally, working through European countries and international institutions. Against this background, the warming of relations between the Arab Republic and Western countries, and the European Union's closer attention to developments inside Syria, may herald a new wave of pressure over recognition, presented as the overturning of a decision of Bashar al-Assad's regime. The renewed activity of the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry, one of the Baltic states that most actively support the 'territorial integrity of Georgia', bears this out.

The Syrian Arab Republic recognised the independence of Abkhazia on 29 May 2018, becoming the seventh UN member state to recognise the right of the Abkhaz people to self-determination. The two republics have established diplomatic relations, and the Embassy of Abkhazia in Damascus is officially in operation. To date, the Parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia has ratified two agreements with Syria: the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the Republic of Abkhazia and the Syrian Arab Republic, and the intergovernmental Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of the Facilitation and Promotion of Trade and Economic Cooperation.