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Abkhazia
Legal basis of statehood and sovereignty
Preface to the second edition
Published in 2003, the book “Abkhazia. Legal basis of statehood and
sovereignty”, containing documentary confirmations of the centuries-old
existence of the independent Abkhazian state, has generated serious interest and
considerable response. It became necessary to prepare this new revised
edition, including more precise details of the Abkhazian ethnos and
covering the history of its mutual relations with other nationalities within
this inhabited region. Historical statements offered by Abkhazian, Russian,
Georgian and other historians of the XX century were influenced by the ideology
and vicious national policy prevailing in the USSR. However, if in works of
Abkhazian and Russian historians the valid history of the peoples of
Transcaucasia is distorted, Georgian historians also usually falsified facts
regarding the Caucasus, especially concerning the period of XVII - XX
centuries. The main principle of historical science was thus rudely broken,
in that whilst covering the history of any country and any people, information
should be based only on the facts, without any exception and without
division into useful and harmful. It is necessary to check the reliability of
the facts, obtained from various and often tendentious sources, and to compare
them with data from other documents, whilst defining and estimating the degree
of reliability of each of them. History as a science is obliged to be
impartial and should not serve the political or other interests of any groups.
The documentation of Abkhazian history was born only in the XX century and
was based upon Georgian historical works - Kartlis Tskhovreba (History of Kartli),
Matiane Каrtlis (Annals of Kartli) and other pseudo-annals, mainly representing
a story about the course of historical events, stated on the basis of oral
legends and chronicles which no longer exist. Retrospective "Annals" and
"History" had been written in the XVIII century - but they are not annals in the
original usage of this word, which means historical documents. The main
objective of Georgian historians was to create a certain fiction, based upon
unreliable material (fairy tales, myths, legends), which it was possible to
present as the history of the country. In the absence of any alternative
historical material, this was achieved. Russian historians, as a basis for a
statement of the history of Transcaucasia, have also used Каrtlis Tskhovrebа and
have presented to readers a description of the territory and evolution of
historical processes from the same Kartlis ideological positions of the XVIII
century.
Georgian historians confirm the real fact of the existence of the Abkhazian
people, and Abkhazian culture, but show it in the way in which it had been
presented till 1990 - as one hundred thousand people comprising 18 percent of
the population of Abkhazia by national structure, and not possessing national
sovereignty and the right to self-determination. In their opinion if during
this period Abkhazia did not possess independence, it never was sovereign and so
should not be. If Abkhazia was included from the beginning of
independence within the structure of Georgia, it has never been outside these
limits, and should not be, and will not be henceforth; and if Abkhazians in the
country currently make only 18 percent of the population, in their past this
could not have been more. These stereotypes were and are the ideology of
“Small empire”, as A.D.Saharov named Georgia, which prepared at the beginning
of the XX century an Abkhazian destiny - namely, to be dissolved into the
Georgian ethnocultural world.
The work published by us has not given answers to all these questions and
as the problem remains, along with documentary confirmation of the sovereignty
of Abkhazia we will try to highlight the ethnogenesis of the Abkhazian people.
In the course of our work we will give a critical analysis of each thesis
defining mutual relations between the Georgians and Abkhazians, and we will try
to reveal distinctions and similarities. The purpose is not to humiliate the
Georgian people or state, but to give a full reply to the distortion and frank
falsification of the history of Transcaucasia and, in particular, to present
to readers our vision of the evolution of the people and the state of Abkhazia,
obtaining facts and data from authentic sources.
In our opinion, one of the important questions, on which it is necessary to
especially dwell, is a specification of definitions in stated historical works.
Many authors, describing separate people, countries or regions, appropriate
names which were not existing during that historical period to which the
considered episode or event corresponds. To the countries and people of
antiquity, modern names are appropriated which deform history, and in
many cases lead to its falsification. The reasons for this phenomenon vary -
from negligence in a statement of historical material to the deliberate
distortion of historical validity.
Similar practice is also applied by the historians writing about
Transcaucasia. The name Georgia, appropriated by Russian officials and military
men for a designation of the territories of Kartli and Каkhetia in ХVIII
century, is transferred to western Transcaucasia at an earlier time. To write
about Georgia in that period is the same as writing about France during the
period of commander Julius Caesar. In the days of Caesar, who had won the
territory of present-day France, it was a Roman state and Gallia. Similarly,
till 1810 there were kingdoms called Kartli, Каkhetia, Imeretia and others.
Georgia as the uniform state appeared only in 1918, and the Georgian tsars
never existed, but there were tsars of Kartli, Imeretia, etc.
Radical but objective sights, stated in the first edition of our work, no
doubt represented for readers interest not only in Abkhazia, but also outside
its borders. Our book sold out instantly. This fact was a stimulus for work on a
new, abridged and amended edition, and we hope that readers will favourably
accept this work also.
Reductions were made at the expense of material of minor value, needless
details and repetitions not necessary to professionals or interested
readers. At the same time, especially in some chapters describing a situation in
the
XX-th century, we have added currently important topical material which
deeply explores processes of mutual relations between Georgia and Abkhazia. At
the end of the book, an index of literature is given, data from which were
used during the preparation of this edition.
Shamba T., Neproshin А. Abkhazia: Legal basis of statehood and sovereignty. М: Open Company "In-Oktavo", 2005, 240 pages.
Далее читайте:
Абхазы -
(самоназвание апсуа) автохтонное население Кавказа.
Абхазия
(краткая историческая справка).
Исторические лица Абхазии (биографический справочник).
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