Foreword
Rene Wadlow
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- Published: 14 August 2012
In an earlier article for AbkhazWorld at the time I thought that the Palestinian request for UN membership might be accepted and so end a logjam for contested states to join the UN, I had written of “the Liechtenstein Option”. Historically, although Liechtenstein was recognized as a European state, all its foreign affairs and economic ties was handled by Switzerland. Liechtenstein had no real international personality and if thought of at all, was considered a fairytale country with a castle on a hill.
Robert Crabtree
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- Published: 14 August 2012
There is a commonplace that you can choose your friends but not your relatives. In International Relations the equivalent might be that you can choose your allies (to an extent) but you cannot choose your neighbours.
Ronald Grigor Suny
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- Published: 14 August 2012
The greatest irony of the history of Caucasia is that this extraordinarily beautiful land, shared by dozens of different peoples with different languages, has been the scene of both great interethnic violence and multinational coexistence.
sephia karta
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- Published: 14 August 2012
Now that Abkhazia is celebrating two decades of independence, there are two points I think are worth making.
Sergey Markedonov
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- Published: 14 August 2012
In 1991 the Soviet Union dissolved leading to the formation of 15 internationally recognized independent states. Since then each of them was able to traverse the difficult path towards legitimacy and establishing statehood. However the newly independent post-Soviet states are not the only product of the USSR dissolution. One of the major consequences of this process was appearance of entities that have also declared their independence and sovereignty but not obtained UN membership and full-fledged international recognition though they were able to defend themselves through armed confrontation as well as bloody conflicts.
Stanislav Lakoba
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- Published: 14 August 2012
Immediately after the Caucasian War (21 May 1864), in June 1864 the independent princedom of Abkhazia was abolished, and the sovereign prince Mikhail Shervashidze (Chachba) was subjected to political repression; in 1866, he died in exile in Voronezh.
Thomas de Waal
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- Published: 14 August 2012
The history of Abkhazia over the last century has been like an old cinema-reel with abruptly changing images, a kaleidoscope in black and white. It is hard to think of a place that has undergone so many sudden changes and reverses in the modern era.
Ucha Nanuashvili
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- Published: 14 August 2012
The Georgian Human Rights Center (HRIDC) launched the Sorry Campaign in March of 2007 with the aim of changing the dynamics and direction of the relationships established between Georgians and Abkhazians during the last fifteen years.
Uwe Klussmann
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- Published: 14 August 2012
When I first visited Abkhazia in June 2003, I witnessed one of the strangest countries I had ever seen. I had been to other countries marked by war, to Chechnya and Afghanistan.
Vanessa Boas
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- Published: 14 August 2012
My heart races as I cross the border: a step into the unknown.
What does an unrecognized state look like and how does it function?
What does an unrecognized state look like and how does it function?