Abkhazians

Abkhazians
(Аҧсуа)

Regions with significant populations
Abkhazia :    94,606 (2003) rest of Georgia:    3,527 (2002) Turkey:    39,000 (2001); 400,000 [1] Russia:    11,366 Ukraine:    1,458 [2]
Languages
Abkhaz language, Turkish language, Russian language
Religion
Eastern Orthodox, Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Abazins, other Northwest Caucasian peoples

The Abkhazians or Abkhaz (Abkhaz: Аҧсуа, Apswa; Georgian: აფხაზი, Aphkhazi) are a Caucasian ethnic group, mainly living in Abkhazia, de facto independent republic which is internationally recognised as part of Georgia. A large Abkhazian diaspora lives in Turkey who are descendants of Abkhazians who emigrated from the Caucasus in the late 19th century as part of Muhajirism. Many also live in other parts of the former Soviet Union, particularly in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.

Origins

The origins of the Abkhaz people are not clear. The Abkhaz language belongs to the Northwest Caucasian languages group which is distinct from the Kartvelian languages family to which Georgian belongs. The earliest extant records of Abkhazian date to the 17th century. Classical sources speak of several tribes dwelling in the region, but their exact identity and location remains controversial. The Abasgoi of the Graeco-Roman authors are sometimes considered as the predecessors of modern-day Abkhaz, but the identification is not universally accepted. The other tribal union - Heniochoi - extended from Colchis into the North Caucasus and was probably ethnically mixed including both proto-Georgian and Abasgian elements.

The integration of various smaller ethnic subgroups into the modern-day Abkhaz people was basically completed by the late 19th century, but some of these groups were deprived of their homeland when the Russian conquest of northwestern Caucasus forced them to become Muhajirs and immigrate to the Ottoman possessions.

Religion

Main article: Islam in Georgia (country) § Abkhazians

The Abkhaz people are principally divided into Orthodox Christian and Sunni Muslim communities but the indigenous pagan beliefs have always been strong. Christianity was introduced, in the 6th century, by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, and further enforced under the kings of Georgia in the high Middle Ages. The Ottoman takeover in the 16th century, missionaries such as Sufi preachers and the pressure from the Adyge tribes (most of whom had converted to Islam) from the North precipitated the decline of Christianity and the region became largely Muslim until the 1860s when Muhajirism left Christians in majority.

History

When the Anchabadze dynasty established the Kingdom of Abkhazia in the 780s and freed themselves from the Byzantine hegemony, Abkhazia became a part of the Georgian cultural world. The local nobility, clergy and educated classes used Georgian as a language of literacy and culture. Georgian would remain the second language for many Abkhaz until Russian replaced it in the early 20th century. From the early 11th to the 16th century, Abkhazia was a part of the all-Georgian monarchy, but then became a separate Principality of Abkhazia only to be conquered by the Ottomans. The Russian acquisition of Abkhazia from the 1810s to the 1860s resulted in the significant decline of Abkhaz population and introduction of a strong Russification policy.

After the 1917 revolution, Abkhazia became a part of the Democratic Republic of Georgia, but was conquered by the Red Army in 1921 and eventually entered the Soviet Union as an Soviet Socialist Republic associated with the Georgian SSR. The status of Abkhazia was downgraded in 1931 when it became an autonomous republic within Georgia. Under Stalin, a forcible collectivization was introduced and the native Communist elite purged. The influx of Armenians, Russians and Georgians into the growing agricultural and tourism sectors was also encouraged, and Abkhaz schools were briefly closed. By 1989, the number of Abkhazians was about 93,000 (18% of the population of the republic), while the Georgian population numbered 240,000 (45%). The number of Armenians (15% of the entire population) and Russians (14%) also substantially grew.

The 1992-1993 War in Abkhazia and the ensuing ethnic cleansing of Georgians left the Abkhaz in ethnic plurality of c. 45%, with Russians, Armenians, Georgians, Greeks, and Jews comprising most of the remainder of the population of Abkhazia. There are about 200,000 ethnic Abkhazians in all, of whom 150,000 live in Abkhazia. However, the exact demographic figures for the region are disputed and alternative figures are available.

References

• David Marshall Lang, Caucasian studies, University of London, 1964, Vol.1
• Roger Rosen, Abkhazia, Library of Congress Catalogue, 2004, ISBN 962-217-748-4