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Nation and Territory Before and After Abkhazia’s Secession

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Global Encyclopedia of Territorial Rights

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Synonyms

De Facto states; Dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR); Ethnic conflict; Secessionism

Definition

Abkhazia is a de factostate since 1993. It is nominally an autonomous region of Georgia, lying at its northwestern part, between the Black Sea coast and the Caucasus. Despite its small size, it gained an autonomous status first within independent Georgia (1918–1921) and then within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic; however, this happened in contentious terms, which have created almost from the start an Abkhazian uneasiness with Georgian rule. Already before the twentieth century, ethnic Abkhazians were a minority within multiethnic Abkhazia, a fact that generated a widespread Abkhazian fear for their collective survival. The fact that it was Georgians that gradually grew as the plurality, although Abkhazians benefited as the “titular nationality” from Soviet nationality polices, is a factor that has furthermore strengthened Abkhaz–Georgian...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Independent scholar, Athens, Greece

    Thomas Goumenos

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  1. Thomas Goumenos
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Correspondence to Thomas Goumenos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Fordham University, New York, USA

    Kevin W. Gray

Section Editor information

  1. Deakin University, Victoria, Australia

    Costas Laoutides

  2. South Asian Studies Association of Australia (SASAA), Tarneit, Australia

    Seema Khan

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Goumenos, T. (2024). Nation and Territory Before and After Abkhazia’s Secession. In: Gray, K.W. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Territorial Rights. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68846-6_239-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68846-6_239-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-68846-6

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