Speaker of the People’s Assembly –
Parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia
Socrates Jinjolia
Sukhum
November 15, 1997
No. 362 – from – XIII
Resolution of the People’s Assembly –
Parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia
“On the act of deportation of Abkhazians (Abaza) in the 19th century”.
The colonial policy of RI during the Russian-Caucasian war (1817-1864) and subsequent periods inflicted irreparable damage on the Abkhaz (Abaza) people, their gene pool. For participation in the struggle for freedom and independence of their country, part of the ethnic group was physically exterminated, 80% of the survivors were expelled to the Ottoman Empire.
As a result of the war, repeated punitive measures, the expulsion of the Abkhaz (Abaza) from their historical homeland, North-Western and Central Abkhazia was completely devastated, the ethnographic groups and territorial communities of Sadz, Akhchipsu, Aibgov, Tsvidzh, Pskhuv, Gum, Tsebeldin, Dal dal residents disappeared others, as well as the Ubykhs closely related to the Abkhaz (Abaza), who inhabited the territory between the rivers Khosta and Shakhe, most of the Abaza (Abaza) who lived in the North Caucasus. In Abkhazia, only in the form of separate ethnic enclaves were the Bzybs, Abzhuys, and Samurzakans, in the North Caucasus – Tapanta and Ashkharua. Deported in the 19th century more than 300 thousand Abkhazians (Abaza) are considered refugees under modern international law.
Innumerable calamities and suffering befell the deported population – tens of thousands of people became victims of hunger, cold and epidemics. The tsarism of the exiled Abkhaz (Abaza) was unreasonably accused of “betrayal”. They were denied return to their homeland. Thousands of Abkhaz, overcoming incredible difficulties, reached Turkey to the shores of Abkhazia, but the local administration sent them back. The Abkhaz who remained in Abkhazia were declared the “guilty” and “temporary” population of the country. They were deprived of the right to settle in Central and Coastal Abkhazia and for the slightest anti-government speech they were in danger of universal exile.
True, the Russian authorities in 1907 removed the label of “guilty” and the status of a “temporary” population, which insulted their national dignity, from the Abkhazians, but neither tsarism, nor the Menshevik regime of the Georgian Democratic Republic (1918-1921), nor the authorities of Soviet Georgia, nor the government of the USSR , did not solve the problem of repatriation of Abkhazians – numerous individual and collective appeals of representatives of the Abkhaz (Abaza) diaspora to the government of the above-named states regarding their return to their historical homeland, as a rule, were ignored. At the same time, the Georgian authorities and their patrons in the Kremlin carried out targeted comprehensive measures for the mass resettlement of Georgians from Georgia to Abkhazia and the assimilation of the Abkhazians who remained in their historical homeland.
Today, more than 4 thousand applicants of the Abkhaz diaspora are awaiting a corresponding decision from the government of the Republic of Armenia for returning to their historical homeland in order to preserve the language, national culture, traditions and ethnic identity in general.
Giving a historical, political and legal assessment of the events of the 19th century, fatal for the Abkhaz (Abaza) people, the RA People’s Assembly decides:
1) Recognize the mass extermination and expulsion of the Abkhaz (Abaza) in the 19th century. to the Ottoman Empire by genocide – the gravest crime against humanity.
2) Recognize, in accordance with the UN General Assembly Convention of July 28, 1951, the deported Abkhaz (Abaza) in the 19th century. – refugees.
3) Recognize the inviolable right of voluntary and unhindered return of the descendants of those deported in the 19th century. Abkhazians (Abaza) to their historical homeland.
4) Apply to the UN, OSCE, CIS, other international organizations, the Russian state as the legal successor of the Republic of Ingushetia and the USSR, with a request to provide the necessary political, material and humanitarian assistance to the process of voluntary unhindered repatriation and integration of the descendants of those deported in the 19th century. Abkhazians (Abaza).
5) Instruct the Committee on Legislation and the Commission on Interparliamentary Relations and Relations with Compatriots of the People’s Assembly to develop draft legislative acts on the systematic repatriation of the Abkhaz (Abaza).
6) To propose to the President and the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Armenia, when defining and implementing the main directions of domestic and foreign policy of the country, taking into account the state importance of repatriation of the descendants of Abkhaz refugees of the 19th century, to adopt a comprehensive program for the repatriation and absorption of foreign Abkhazians (Abaza).
7) Apply to all republican and local government bodies, political parties, public organizations, economic and commercial structures to provide the necessary political, moral, psychological and material assistance in the repatriation of the Abkhaz (Abaza).
Speaker of the People’s Assembly – Parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia
Socrates Jinjolia
Sukhum
November 15, 1997