Manufacturing Fake News: The Ekho Kavkaza Model in Abkhazian History
Echoing One Side For Their Self Interest
A few weeks ago, in our article ‘Propagandists at Work: Ekho Kavkaza Distorts Abkhazian History Yet Again’, we said, ‘For sure, such historical distortions by Ekho Kavkaza (RFE/RL) will not end here, as their aim is not historical truth but their own sordid interests.’ Less than a month has passed, and they’ve given a platform to another so-called Georgian historian on their website.
Let’s have a look at what this 28-year-old ‘historian’, Gabriel Chubinidze, has to say:
“...as I already said, the Abkhaz built their entire national memory and identity on war.”
What Chubinidze probably doesn’t realise is that the Abkhazian population in Abkhazia during the war was around 90,000. During the Georgian-Abkhazian war (1992-93), Abkhazians lost 4% of their population; each Abkhazian family lost at least one of their members. In terms of the population of the U.S., that would be 12 million people. Our ‘historian’ still doesn’t seem to grasp that this war, initiated by Georgia, was a matter of life and death for the Abkhazians, which is why he can make such a comment and top it off with a ridiculous statement like, ‘Because if you ask questions, the entire Abkhaz identity will be erased.’
By the way, it’s worth mentioning that a significant portion of the Georgian population describes the Abkhazians as ‘Circassians who came from the North Caucasus in the 17th century.’ These Georgians, including academics and journalists, claim that the Abkhazians were actually Georgians and that the Circassians who came to Abkhazia from the North Caucasus assimilated these Abkhazians (i.e., Georgians) and took their name... Just imagine, in 100 years, the Circassians supposedly created a completely different language called Abkhazian!!!
“For us, it’s [the war] more of a taboo topic than part of our identity.”
Could it be that this topic is more of a taboo for you because Georgian ethnic nationalism was at its peak back then (and it’s not much different now), and you were the ones who started the war? Not to mention, you were at war with the Ossetians before this. In the end, both wars were your decision, and you weren’t facing a life or death situation; your only concern was to hold on to the lands Stalin (Dzhugashvili) gave you.
Speaking of Stalin, our ‘historian’ downplays the events of that period, saying,
“Yes, when the Georgian “multiplication” in Abkhazia began in the 1930s and schools were closed, one should look at the all-Union policy, which repeated the same thing everywhere. Yes, what can you say? The Georgian communists and Beria [Lavrentiy (1899–1953)] had precisely this goal, to prepare a Georgian lobby in Abkhazia. But, on the other hand, this is a general policy.”
I’d like to remind our so-called historian of one thing, in the words of Vladislav Ardzinba: “In 1931, treaty Abkhazia was transformed into an autonomous republic within the Georgian SSR. Thus, Abkhazia is just about the ONLY REPUBLIC whose political status was downgraded rather than upgraded by Stalin.”
Yes, the only republic... And we’re not just talking about closing schools here. We are talking about the Georgianisation of place names in Abkhazia, and the fact that the oppression and violence against Abkhazians and Ossetians were far greater than against others. One must ask our so-called historian who talks about a ‘general policy’: where else were place names Georgianised??? Where else were tens of thousands of Kartvelians settled??? To attribute all this to mere economic pressures is frankly laughable...
For those who wish to delve deeper, the following sources will provide more extensive and detailed information:
+ ‘Bolshevik order in Georgia: Social Status and Repressions: Abkhazians, Adjarians, Ossetians’, by Marc Junge & Bernd Bonwetsch
The full book in German and in Russian
+ Documents from the KGB archive in Sukhum. Abkhazia in the Stalin years, by Rachel Clogg
+ Appendix to Documents from the KGB archive in Sukhum. Abkhazia in the Stalin years, Translation by B. G. Hewitt (1996)
+ What’s Yours Is Mine: Nation-Building and Extraterritorial Nationhood Inside the South Caucasus, by Krista A. Goff
As for the Russian factor in 1992-93 Georgian-Abkhazian war... well, one can refer to the sources below on that matter too. At least then we wouldn’t have a one-sided view of the events, unlike our ‘historian’ and Ekho Kavkaz.
+ The Hand of Moscow and the Sterility of Geneva, by Izida Chania
+ Tengiz Kitovani: “they [Russians] officially gave us the 108 tanks of the Akhaltsikhe Division”:
+ Russian Officer Views Abkhaz Conflict (27 April 1993) | FBIS Report
See also:
+ Military Aspects of the War. The Battle for Gagra (The Turning-point), by Dodge Billingsley+ Mobilizing in Uncertainty: Collective Identities and War in Abkhazia, by Anastasia Shesterinina
There is something that needs to be reminded to the Georgians who constantly talk about unification:
Since the very beginnings of the two states, Abkhazia and Georgia have been separate countries with different languages and cultures. In ONLY TWO PERIODS have they been together: first, from the 10th-13th century, when Abkhazia, as a result of dynastic inheritance, was united with Georgian-speaking regions in the mediaeval kingdom whose rulers carried the title ‘Sovereign of the Abkhazians and Georgians’; second, in the period 1931 to 1991, Abkhazia was part of the Georgian SSR (both together as parts of the administrative structure of the USSR; Abkhazia was NOT at this time part of an independent Georgian polity).
And after the war they started, there won’t be a third time. They’d do well to get used to this reality.
The documentary film “Absence of Will’‘, financed by Conciliation Resources (UK) and the Heinrich Boell Foundation (Germany), produced by Studio RE, and directed by Mamuka Kuparadze, was broadcast in 2009 for the first time. It is of great importance to anyone who wishes properly to understand the Georgian - Abkhaz War of 1992 - 1993.
See also: Absence of Will: Commentary
Until the next Ekho Kavkaz correction. Have a good day/night!