Portal:Abkhazia
The Abkhazia Portal
Abkhazia (/æbˈkɑːziə/ ab-KAH-zee-ə), officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It covers 8,665 square kilometres (3,346 sq mi) and has a population of around 245,000. Its capital and largest city is Sukhumi.
The political status of Abkhazia is a central issue of the Abkhazia conflict and Georgia–Russia relations. Abkhazia has been recognised as an independent state by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria; however, the Georgian government and nearly all United Nations member states consider Abkhazia sovereign territory of Georgia. Lacking effective control over the Abkhazian territory, Georgia maintains an Abkhaz government-in-exile.
The region had autonomy within Soviet Georgia at the time when the Soviet Union began to disintegrate in the late 1980s. Simmering ethnic tensions between the Abkhaz—the region's titular ethnicity—and Georgians—the largest single ethnic group at that time—culminated in the 1992–1993 War in Abkhazia, which resulted in Georgia's loss of control over most of Abkhazia and the ethnic cleansing of Georgians from Abkhazia. Despite a 1994 ceasefire agreement and years of negotiations, the dispute remains unresolved. The long-term presence of a United Nations Observer Mission and a Russian-led Commonwealth of Independent States peacekeeping force failed to prevent the flare-up of violence on several occasions. In August 2008, Abkhaz and Russian forces fought a war against Georgian forces, which led to the formal recognition of Abkhazia by Russia, the annulment of the 1994 ceasefire agreement and the termination of the UN mission. On 23 October 2008, the Parliament of Georgia declared Abkhazia a Russian-occupied territory, a position shared by most United Nations member states.
Refresh
Selected article -
In classical antiquity and Greco-Roman geography, Colchis (/ˈkɒlkɪs/; Ancient Greek: Κολχίς) was an exonym for the Georgian polity of Egrisi (Georgian: ეგრისი) located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered in present-day western Georgia.
Its population, the Colchians, are generally thought to have been mainly an early Kartvelian-speaking tribe ancestral to contemporary western Georgians, namely Svans and Zans. According to David Marshall Lang: "one of the most important elements in the modern Georgian nation, the Colchians were probably established in the Caucasus by the Middle Bronze Age." (Full article...)
Selected image
Selected biography -
Fazil Abdulovich Iskander (6 March 1929 – 31 July 2016) was a Soviet and Russian writer and poet known in the former Soviet Union for his descriptions of Caucasian life. He authored various stories, including "Zashita Chika", which features a crafty and likeable young boy named "Chik", but is probably best known for the picaresque novel Sandro of Chegem and its sequel The Gospel According to Chegem. (Full article...)
List of selected biographies
|
---|
General images
Did you know?
- ...that the Voronya Cave in the Arabika Massif is currently the world's deepest cave and that its complete depth has not yet been established?
- ...that Lavrentiy Beria, the feared head of the Soviet NKVD, was born in the village of Merkheuli and that he went to school in Sukhumi?
- ...that during the Orange Revolution in the Ukraine, Abkhazia witnessed a very similar political crisis following the 2004 presidential election, which lasted twice as long?
- ...that there is a tiny community of Afro-Abkhazians, descendent from slaves bought centuries ago from the Turks?
Topics
Subcategories
Related portals
Things to do
WikiProjects
- WikiProject Abkhazia – a project to improve all articles related to Abkhazia.
- WikiProject Limited recognition – a project that seeks to improve coverage of entities with limited international recognition.
Associated Wikimedia
The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:
-
Commons
Free media repository -
Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals -
Wikidata
Free knowledge base -
Wikinews
Free-content news -
Wikiquote
Collection of quotations -
Wikisource
Free-content library -
Wikiversity
Free learning tools -
Wikivoyage
Free travel guide -
Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
External media
Portals