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Abkhazia
Legal basis of statehood and sovereignty
Conclusion
Our last pages have been written, and we would like to hope that we have
coped with the task which we set ourselves - through a prism of the history of
the Abkhazian people, having emphasised the legal side of the problem, to
consider a method of formation and development of the statehood of Abkhazia, the
Republic of Abkhazia’s affirmation that it is an independent and sovereign
subject of international law. The materials given by us testify that Abkhazia
under the basic requirements (principles) is in the full sense de facto and de
jure a state having its own structure, form of government and method of
functioning, which are fixed by constitution; there is absolutely no
necessity to prove to anyone that Abkhazia really exists as a state within
protected frontiers. The country possesses the characteristic features belonging
to any sovereign state: territory, government, priority of the law, machinery
of state and other features. The Republic of Abkhazia territory is occupied by
the indigenous Abkhazian ethnos, the republic is multinational, representatives
of more than 60 ethnic groups live there, and all them have the complete
spectrum of civil rights. The government in Abkhazia is legalised and
legitimate, and acts as the official representative of all the population of the
republic. The government possesses leadership in relation to other institutes
in society, and it has state sovereignty. Abkhazia approached sovereignty for
centuries, and it is now proved to be true by a numerous set of legal documents.
The terrible picture of a genocide of the Abkhazian people and an
encroachment upon the sovereignty of the Abkhazian state, observed in the XX
century, fell upon Abkhazia with the formation of the so-called Georgian
democratic state. The fate of the Abkhazian people during Soviet time was even
more terrible. The more I.Stalin and L.Beria (Georgians by nationality) usurped
power in Georgia, Russia, and the USSR, the worse the fate of Abkhazians.
And only Stalin's death, and Beria’s execution for numerous crimes against
humanity, rescued the Abkhazian people from the full catastrophe of
destruction as an ethnos and a nation. At the heart of the conflict is the
colonial policy of Georgia, the aggressor which has embraced chauvinism and
fascism and, strangely enough, is supported in this criminal activity by the
world community. Stalin - Beria policy was inherited by the president of
Georgia, E.Shevardnadze. Today we observe a similar situation with the "hawk"
fostered by the United States of America - Michael Saakashvili, supported by
NATO countries, demanding a revenge in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, undertaking
all conceivable and inconceivable actions, and infringing international laws or
bypassing them (contra legem facit qui id facid quod lex prohibet, in frandem
vero qui salvis verbis sententiam enis cirkunventi).
However their aggressive nationalist paranoid aim “to finish Abkhazia now and
forever” was not carried out, in spite of the fact that the leaders of
four-million Georgians, at the end of XX century, threw all the armoured power
of the Georgian army into Abkhazia, rushing to gain one of its most “brilliant
victories” over the hundred thousand Abkhazian people. But this crazy idea
could not be carried out and will never be carried out. Leaders of Georgia and
ideologists of imperialist national socialism have not considered the following
circumstance: history does not remember that Abkhazia, i.e. the Abkhazian
people, ever attacked anybody. These people, who are used to protecting
themselves and defending their native land and homes, are impossible to defeat.
They have on their side all of the North Caucasus, all progressive mankind, and
all people of good will, who express sympathy and render all feasible
help to the Abkhazian people because they are protecting their land.
Naturally, the aggression of the Georgian soldiery in this undeclared war
ended with utter defeat for Georgia. Probably Abkhazia, as the favourite child
of the people of the Caucasus, was rescued by the Almighty, given the aspiration
of the Abkhazian people to find and keep a worthy place in the constellation
of the people of the Caucasus, Russia and the world – a desire quite
favourable to God. The centuries-old dream of the Abkhazian people, of all the
population of the Republic of Abkhazia, came true. Abkhazia definitively
released itself from annexation by Georgia and has restored its status as a
sovereign state, the subject of international law. What further?
The modern world community tends towards developments in two basic
directions: globalisation and separatism. As T.Roosevelt said, “the
twentieth century appears to us as a century in which destinies of many
nations will be defined”. Thus on the one hand, centuries-old borders of
traditionally independent states (uniform Europe) are falling, and on the
other, empires are collapsing, giving independence to ethnoses and peoples, i.e.
the priority of self-determination prevails over the indestructibility of
states and their borders. This real situation enters into confrontation with
regulations in the Helsinki Final Agreement, formulated and accepted in the
years of the “cold war” opposition of two nuclear empires. In the above-named
regulations, the illusion is presented that the world consists of states,
whereas it really consists of the people. As these ideas have become outdated
and ethno-destroying today, the struggles of peoples for national sovereignty,
including their right to self-determination and hence to independence and
freedom, leads, as in the case of Abkhazia, to never-ending international
military conflicts. The Abkhazian people have no choice but to take all
necessary measures for the protection of their statehood and sovereignty against
any new military escalation (si vis pacem, para bellum), i.e. look for peace,
but prepare for war. And this is correct, as wrongful violence is authorised to
be overcome by force (vim vi repellere licet).
In our case, the right of the people to sovereignty and self-determination is
much more serious than a simple infringement of the integrity of frontiers,
because in Abkhazia there is a question about the existence of the whole
population: is it really lawful to destroy Abkhazians for the sake of
out-of-date principles of the OSCE or the United Nations? Also there is another
question: what is more important, the existence of people or the integrity of
the state oppressing those people? What is more important for the world
community – the peaceful development of countries and regions or never-ending
wars and armed oppositions? After all, Cicero said that when the weapons rattle,
laws are silent (inter arma leges silent). It would be desirable to hope that in
the United Nations and OSCE, among representatives from the nations of the
world who are called to solve questions of international safety and the rights
of the people, the majority are capable of empathizing with the people they
represent, sympathizing with their troubles, and helping to secure these
people and ethnoses against any encroachment by new imperialists, colonizers and
pseudo-democrats, under whatever slogans they mask themselves.
At the beginning of "perestroika" on the Russian "Montmartre" (Old Arbat),
a painting by a young artist which had the name (then new to the Russian
lexicon) of "Consensus" was displayed. In it was a camel on whose head
magnificent deer horns, attached by ideologists of perestroika, had been
represented. Now, the same ideologists from the CIS countries, and officials
from the United Nations, OSCE and NATO try to attach on the head of Abkhazia the
same horns in the form of Georgia. This will not happen! Think again, gentlemen,
after all for such an action the head must be operated on, and it is
also possible for many heads to be treated in the same way as one head (to
which Georgia aspires), but on the other hand, this means blood, a lot of
blood!
The legal documents presented by us which define the status of the statehood
of Abkhazia de jure and the imperative norms of international law confirming
the legitimacy of this status, are, in our opinion, the necessary key which
will allow the Republic of Abkhazia (in the presence of the good will of the
international commonwealth of nations) to open a door and join the number
of states in the world community possessing their sovereignty de jure and de
facto in full.
We believe that comments on a statement of historical data can cause
irritation or even aversion for some historians (let alone politicians) having a
different view of questions or events in the evolution of the states
considered by us. Well, the information concerning this problem is ambiguous,
therefore its interpretation, especially concerning the period until VII
century, can appear disputable. We see the evolution of the people of
Transcaucasia as having been in the manner stated by us, but nevertheless,
considering the almost century-long experience of mutual relations between
Georgia and Abkhazia, we know that a stream of unfair reproaches will take
place, and even lies, etc. are also possible. We are ready to accept these
blows, as an adversary has the right to such arguments (audiatur et altera
pars). At the same time, we ask any adversary to give a convincing reason for
critical remarks, with references to the official legal certificates confirming
such remarks, for the right of proof in this case should be given to the
Georgian side (ei incumbit probatio, qui dicit, non qui negat). As the problem
considered in this work is in the process of being solved, any constructive
criticism will undoubtedly be useful, and we will accept it with gratitude.
Along with this, we consider that it is necessary to pay the most basic
attention not to words, but to the will and actions of the parties in this
conflict (voluntatem potius quam verba considerari oported).
Shamba T., Neproshin А. Abkhazia: Legal basis of statehood and sovereignty. М: Open Company "In-Oktavo", 2005, 240 pages.
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