Abkhazia: Ethnic balance and national peace

By Vestnik Kavkaza

One of the main topics of the internal political life of Abkhazia is the problem of issuing passports to residents of the Galsky region, especially the Mingrels. At the moment not all of them have new Abkhaz passports and some experts think this has a political reason.

The matter became a key topic for discussion at the round-table conference entitled “Abkhazia in the modern world” which recently took place in Sukhumi.

The leader of the Aruaa association of WWII veterans, Vitaly Gabniya, thinks that if citizenship is issued to residents of the Galsky region without any control and inspections, a fifth column could appear in Abkhazia. According to him, the opposition says it has a right to organize a referendum of the Abkhazians as the last argument in the dispute between the opposition and the President, who doesn’t want to listen to opponents.

A representative of the pro-governmental party of Amtsakhara, Vitaly Tarnava, supported establishing a civil nation in Abkhazia and integration of the Mingrel population. He recalled that when a referendum on independence took place in the republic, the number of citizens must have been no lower than before the war. To conduct the referendum and make its results legitimate, Abkhazia agreed to return the Georgians to the Galsky region, and they (about 15 thousand people) voted for the independence of Abkhazia.

The head of the Center for Humanitarian Programs, Arda Inal-Ipa, believes that elimination of passports which were issued earlier is illegal, and Abkhazia has to overcome the problem of “they-we.”

Alexander Gushchin, deputy head of the Post-Soviet Countries Department of the Russian State University for the Humanities, says that “Abkhazia faces a task to establish a multiethnic civil nation, rather than a nation where one ethnic group prevails over others. The citizenship matter and the issuing of passports are two different problems, as to issue a passport doesn’t mean to make a person a citizen. A targeted policy aimed at integration of the Mingrel population is needed.”

Alexander Panteleyev, deputy head of the FMS in the Krasnodar Territory, spoke about technical aspects of issuing passports and residence permits. He pointed out several significant problems. A residence permit is widely spread in many countries, including Russia, but the Galsky problem should be treated individually.

Alexei Vlasov, the editor-in-chief of Vestnik Kavkaza, also thinks that it is important to integrate the population of the Galsky region. He says that it is time for Abkhazia to turn to a policy of development which would lead to establishing a civil society on the basis of ethnic balance and national peace. He stresses the importance of the development of parliamentarianism and the judicial system, which must not be replaced by referendums, even though they are a traditional form of decision-making.

Yuri Krupnov, chairman of the supervisory board of the Russian Institute for Demography, Migration, and Regional Development, says that “the difficult international situation makes the idea of consolidation urgent either inside the republic or between Russia and Abkhazia. Nobody can tell how the international situation will change in the next few months. So experts should work on rationalizing current disputes and their public discussions.”