IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 58: excerpts
Reply-To: [email protected]
Sender: [email protected]
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2000 18:18:35 +0200 (EET)
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
Subject: IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 58: excerpts
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Institute for War & Peace Reporting <[email protected]>
IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service, No. 58: excerpts
WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 58, November 17,
2000
OSCE SLAMS AZERBAIJANI ELECTIONS Azerbaijani opposition parties are
refusing to recognise the nation's second democratically elected
parliament. Shahin Rzaev reports from Baku
COMMENT: HIJACK DRAMA DESCENDS INTO TRAGICOMEDY The blaze of
publicity which surrounded the hijacking of a Russian aeroplane last
week could well serve the interests of Islamic extremist groups. By
Mikhail Ivanov in Moscow
ABKHAZIA: GOD'S COUNTRY For years the darlings of the Soviet regime,
the Abkhazians now face their greatest challenge: building a stable
nation-state through hard work and personal sacrifice. Askerbi
Minasharov reports from Sukhumi
NALCHIK AUTHORITIES LAUNCH WAHHABI WITCH-HUNT Police say the Wahhabi
religious cult is targeting young people in rural areas and promoting
Chechnya as a spiritual Mecca. Musa Alibekov reports from Nalchik
********** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net **************
.................
ABKHAZIA: GOD'S COUNTRY
For years the darlings of the Soviet regime, the Abkhazians now face
their greatest challenge: building a stable nation-state through hard
work and personal sacrifice
By Askerbi Minasharov in Sukhumi
There is an ancient legend which the Abkhazians never tire of
recounting. They say that, when God had created the earth, He
allocated each tribe its ethnic homeland, according to the number of
its people and the services they had rendered Him.
The Abkhazian leader was the last to make an appearance and God asked,
"Where were you when I was handing out the countries? I've got nothing
left for you." The Abkhazian replied, "We had guests at our house,
Lord, and we couldn't leave them without showing proper hospitality."
As a reward for such generosity of spirit, God gave the Abkhazians the
lands that he had set aside for himself.
But this promising start has turned out to be more of a curse than a
blessing. It was largely due to this abundance of natural beauty and
legendary hospitality that, during the Communist period, the
proportion of ethnic Abkhazians in the republic dropped from 80 per
cent to just 17 per cent.
Boasting one of the few sub-tropical climates in the former Soviet
Union, Abkhazia became a major producer of tobacco, tea, citrus fruits
and grapes.
Most importantly, as the old joke goes, the Caucasus mountain ridge
was so high that the shadow of Communism never really fell on
Abkhazia. Instead, it become a destination of choice for the Soviet
elite who built their heavily guarded dachas along the Black Sea
coast.
However, during the Stalinist era, a process of Georgianification was
set in motion with the Georgian population of Abkhazia soaring from 10
per cent in the 1930s to 46 per cent by 1952. And, despite the
moderating influences of Khrushchev and Brezhnev, a huge rift opened
up between the Georgian and Abkhazian political elites.
War broke out in 1992 and a series of Abkhazian victories, supported
by Russian troops, forced 250,000 Georgians to flee either to Georgia
or to southern Russia. The population of the republic was almost
halved but only a third of those who remained were actually Abkhazian.
Other major ethnic groups include Armenians, Russians and Megrelians
(from the Galsky region, which borders on Georgia).
Nevertheless, the Abkhazians are today effectively the masters of
their own destiny. The republic enjoys de facto independence, and has
all the attributes of a nation state, including an army, border forces
and customs.
Ten years ago, there was little to mark the border between Georgia
into Russia. But today, the far bank of the Psou River is manned by
cohorts of Russian border guards, typically puffed up with the vast
importance of their work. When you cross to the opposite side, the
border troops stage a truly Abkhazian welcome - full of warmth and
greeting and yet politely insistent on the complex rules of local
border etiquette.
The trip from the border to Sukhumi is not without its problems -
petrol is wildly expensive and trains are erratic. Still, with the
average wage in Abkhazia eight times lower than in neighbouring
Russia, a little money goes a long way. Even the Russian tourists feel
like wealthy visitors to a benighted backwater.
It is only recently that the Russians have started returning to their
erstwhile tropical playground. The Black Sea resorts of Gagra, Pitsuna
and Sukhumi were slow to recover from the war, when they were used as
barracks for Abkhazian military units and volunteer brigades from
Karachaevo-Cherkessia and Chechnya.
But, to those who remember Sukhumi before the war, today it resembles
a ghost town. In the old days, Georgians, Megrelians, Russians,
Armenians and even Greeks met together and drank coffee in their cafes
and restaurants. Now, the streets are poorly lit and overshadowed by
unkempt eucalyptus, palm and chestnut trees. There are few cars and
even fewer pedestrians.
The city's bureaucracy begins work at around 10am and finishes at 11.
Then most of the state workers slip away to a friend's wedding or a
relative's funeral. Official duties come a poor second to the
consuming passion for good company, good food and a bottle of
Isabella.
And, to be fair, there is little enough for them to do. Wallowing in
its political limbo, Abkhazia pays taxes neither to Moscow nor to
Tbilisi. The state budget is practically non-existent and the
bureaucrats have nothing to allocate. The most profitable sectors of
local industry - the import of energy resources and the export of wood
- are presidential monopolies. The lion's share of this income is
spent on the army and the police.
Strangely enough, Abkhazia's rural communities have become the most
prosperous in the republic. They can sell almost unlimited supplies of
tea, tobacco and citrus fruits to the voracious Russian market.
Meanwhile, the city people understand that the rebirth of the tourist
and service industries is their only hope of salvation. And yet,
typically fastidious, the Abkhazians among them find the prospect of
working in this sector faintly distasteful - unless, of course, it is
as a director or administrator.
The Abkhazians have managed to outstrip their former Soviet comrades
in many respects - there are more writers, scholars and mafia dons per
capita than in any other former Soviet republic. They admire qualities
of leadership and resourcefulness above all other things.
But, once the darlings of the Soviet regime, the Abkhazians have an
inbred loathing of discipline, officialdom or regimented labour. There
are, for example, almost no ethnic Abkhazians in the local police
force - the interior ministry, with the exception of the officer
corps, is made up of Armenian volunteers. Unsurprisingly then, the
idea of serving tourists is anathema to them.
This innate snobbism lies at the root of today's economic problems.
Caught between Georgia's open hostility and Russia's political
machinations, Abkhazia is being forced to engineer its own national
rebirth. But it finds itself in the position of a bankrupt aristocrat
who, in order to restore his lost fortune, is obliged to swallow his
pride and get his hands dirty.
The transition process will undoubtedly be slow - but there are some
signs of a change in attitude. Until recently, the coastal coffee
shops were full of talk about how much better life was before the war,
now people discuss plans for the future with a determined pragmatism.
And, despite all their present hardships, the Abkhazians still enjoy
two unique advantages - the stunning beauty of this coastal paradise
and their special relationship with God, who once gave them this land.
Askerbi Minasharov is an independent journalist based in Nalchik,
Kabardino-Balkaria
.................
********** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net **************
IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service provides the regional and
international community with unique insiders' perspective on the
Caucasus. Using our network of local journalists, the service
publishes objective news and analysis from across the region upon a
weekly basis.
The service forms part of IWPR's Caucasus Project based in Tbilisi and
London which supports local media development while encouraging better
local and international understanding of a conflicted yet emerging
region.
IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service is supported by the UK National
Lottery Charities Board. The service is currently available on the Web
in English and will shortly be available in Russian. All IWPR's
reporting services including Balkan Crisis Reports and Tribunal Update
are available free of charge via e-mail subscription or direct from
the Web.
To subscribe to any of news services, e-mail IWPR Programmes Officer
Anna McTaggart at [email protected].
For further details on this project and other information services and
media programmes, visit IWPR's Website: <www.iwpr.net>
Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan;
Assistant Editor: Alan Davis. Commissioning Editors: Giorgi Topouria
in Tbilisi, Shahin Rzayev in Baku, Mark Grigorian in Yerevan, Michael
Randall and Saule Mukhametrakhimova in London. Editorial Assistance:
Felix Corley and Heather Milner. To comment on this service, contact
IWPR's Programme Director: Alan Davis [email protected]
The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based
independent non-profit organisation supporting regional media and
democratic change.
Lancaster House, 33 Islington High Street, London N1 9LH, United
Kingdom.Tel: (44 171) 713 7130; Fax: (44 171) 713 7140. E-mail:
[email protected]; Web: www.iwpr.net
The opinions expressed in IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service are those
of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the
publication or of IWPR.
Copyright (c) IWPR 2000
--
==============================================================
MINELRES - a forum for discussion on minorities in Central&Eastern
Europe
Submissions: [email protected]
Subscription/inquiries: [email protected]
List archive: http://www.riga.lv/minelres/archive.htm
==============================================================