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1 Chronicles
2 Family trees
3 Juansheriani
4 Gelovani/Dadeshkeliani
5 Georgian-Abkhaz conflict
6 Misc.

[edit] Chronicles

Sources on the Alans, p. 309

The name K’art’lis C’xovreba "History (lit. "Life") of Georgia", has been given to a historical corpus compiled at the beginning of 18th c. on orders of the Georgian king Vaxtang VI and made up of seven different works:

K'art'lis C'xovreba
Work	Date	Author	Period covered
History of the Kings of Iberia	11th century	Leonti Mroveli	4th BC – 5th AD
History of King Vaxtang Gorgasali	8th c. ?	Juansher Juansheriani	5th-8th centuries
Martyrdom of King Archil	11th century	Leonti Mroveli	736-786
Chronicle of Iberia	11th century	Anonymous	786-1072
History of the King of Kings	12th century	Anonymous	1072-1125
Histories and Eulogies of the Sovereigns	13th century	Anonymous	1156-1212
History of the Mongol Invasions	14th century	Anonymous	1212-1318

[edit] Family trees

Examples: [1], [2]

Template

Adarnase
Prince of Erusheti-Artani,
coheir of Klarjeti-Javakheti

Ashot I (†826/830)

Latavr

Adarnase (830-c.870)

Bagrat I (830-876)

Guaram Mampali (†882)

Anonymous daughter?

[edit] Juansheriani

The Juansherids were an offshoot of the royal Chosroids, whose princedom consisted of lands in Inner Iberia and in Kakhetia, last heard of with the historian Juansher c. 790-800. Studies, p. 254. ka:ჯუანშერი (ერისთავი)

[edit] Gelovani/Dadeshkeliani

Brosset, Hist. de la Gé. 1/2 433

[edit] Georgian-Abkhaz conflict

Main article: Georgian-Abkhaz conflict

[edit] Rise of the tensions

With the downfall of the Soviet Union, ethnic tensions came to a head during the late 1980s, Abkhazia becoming one of the most volatile areas in the USSR. An increasingly active and irrepressible movement for Georgia's independence was interpreted by Abkhaz leadership as a threat to their political privileges of a "titular minority" and the status of autonomous republic in which the Abkhaz made up only 17.8 percent of the population compared with 44 percent Georgians and 16 percent Russians (1989 Soviet census). Abkhaz elites and politicians renewed their secession campaign, culminating on March 18 1989, when some 30,000 people, mostly ethnic Abkhaz, signed a petition to Moscow at a mass meeting at Lykhny, Abkhazia, demanding the rights to secede from Georgia. The letter was seen as a provocation which triggered a series of Georgian protest manifestations and Abkhaz counter-rallies. Early in April 1989, tens of thousands of Georgians came out in protest in Tbilisi condemning Abkhaz secessionism and demanding for ethnic Georgians an equal access to leadership of the autonomous republic. The demonstrations quickly developed into a major anti-Soviet rally concluded with a bloody crackdown, known as April 9 tragedy or Tbilisi Massacre, by the Soviet troops on April 9 1989. The event backfired and radicalized Georgian opposition to the Soviet regime. The subsequent reciprocal upsurges of nationalism among Georgian and Abkhaz populations evolved into major ethnic clashes from July 16 to July 17 1989, when the Abkhaz activists from the nationalistic organization, Aydgylara, attempted to prevent the Georgians from opening a branch of Tbilisi State University in Sukhumi. The resulting civil unrest resulted in 16 deaths and about 140 wounded, mostly Georgians. To quench the unrest, the army was invoked. Thousands of Georgians from the neighboring Georgian regions marched to Abkhazia to take revenge for the pogroms. Stopped by the Soviet forces at the administrative border of the Abkhazian ASSR on the Inguri River, the demonstrators were finally demobilized at the request of both the central Georgian government and opposition leadership.

[edit] "War of laws"

In 1990, the Georgian-Abkhaz antagonism had largely moved to the legislatures, and the street fights and violent demonstrations were replaced by the “war of laws.” After Georgia declared, in August 1990, Georgian the only language spoken in the Georgian Supreme Soviet (parliament), the Abkhazian Supreme Soviet, in the absence of its Georgian delegation, adopted, on August 25, a decree of the “state sovereignty of the Abkhazian SSR,” a decision which was claimed by Georgians to be a result of violations of procedure, adopted in the absence of the necessary quorum. The next day, the Georgian parliament annulled the decision. The Georgian deputies of the Abkhazian Supreme Soviet convened on August 31, 1990, and at an extraordinary session they rescinded all the enactments passed by their Abkhaz colleagues, declaring them contrary to the constitutions of the Abkhazian ASSR and the Georgian SSR. Amid the political disputes, the Abkhaz leaders continued their quest for allies. On their initiative, a second Congress of Peoples of the Caucasus, consisting of the representatives of Russia’s North Caucasian republics, was convened in Sukhumi in October 1990.

On October 28, 1990, the Georgian SSR held the first multiparty elections which brought the bloc of political parties, Roundtable – Free Georgia, led by the Soviet-era dissident Zviad Gamsakhurdia to power. In December 1990, the Abkhazian Supreme Soviet elected a new chairman, Vladislav Ardzinba, who led the non-Georgian part of the Abkhazian legislature to adopt a series of acts which further deepened the division between the Abkhaz and Georgian lawmakers.

Meanwhile, Georgia continued its movement towards independence, and boycotted the March 17, 1991 all-Union referendum on the renewal of the Soviet Union proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev. The non-Georgian population of Abkhazia, however, took part in the referendum and voted by an overwhelming majority in favor of preserving the Union. Furthermore, most of ethnic Abkhaz population declined to participate in the March 31 referendum on Georgia’s independence, which was supported by a huge majority of the population of Georgia. Independence was declared on April 9, 1991, and Gamsakhurdia was elected president on May 26, with over 86 per cent of the vote. In Abkhazia, the Supreme Council and all major public institutions became paralyzed by the division of two blocks along the ethnic lines. However, Georgia’s preoccupation in South Ossetia, a former autonomous oblast in the northeast of the country, where the separatist movement had already escalated into a war, and the Abkhaz fears that Gamsakhurdia’s government would use military to reinforce its control over Abkhazia, made the both sides to work towards an agreement on reforming the Abkhazian autonomous structures. On July 9 1991, Abkhazia passed a new election law based upon the concept proposed by the Georgian expert, Professor Levan Aleksidze. According to the new scheme, ethnic Abkhaz were granted overrepresentation in the Supreme Council of Abkhazia, with 28 seats; Georgians received 26, and other ethnic groups 11. A two-third majority was to be required to pass a legislation, thus guarantying both Abkhaz and Georgian factions veto power over key decisions. The eleven “others” could choose either to side with the Georgians or with the Abkhaz. The chairman of the Supreme Council was to be ethnic Abkhaz, with two deputies, one from a Georgian delegation, and the other from other ethnic faction. Vladislav Ardzinba was reelected a chairman of the Supreme Council.

This compromise solution failed, however, to resolve the conflict between the two main communities in Abkhazia, and the Abkhaz leaders became increasingly involved in the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, a political organization which succeeded the Congress of Peoples of the Caucasus. The Confederation accepted Abkhazia as a member on its 3rd congress in Sukhumi on November 10, 1991, and later established its own military forces.

[edit] From the Georgian coup d'etat to the Abkhazian war

A violent coup in Tbilisi, which ousted President Gamsakhurdia in favor of the interim Military Council from December 20, 1991 to January 6, 1992, marked the start of the civil war in Georgia. Gamsakhurdia fled Georgia, but his armed supporters continued their resistance to the new regime, especially in Mingrelia (Samegrelo), and enjoyed significant support among the Georgian population in Abkhazia. In March 1992, the Military Council was transformed into the State Council of the Republic of Georgia led by the ethnic Georgian ex-Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union, Eduard Shevardnadze.

The same month, the State Council abolished the still functioning 1978 Georgian Constitution and replaced it by the pre-Soviet 1921 Constitution, which did mention Abkhazia’s autonomous status, but did not clearly specify its exact legal powers within the framework of the Georgian state. At the same time, on March 25, the State Council adopted a law recognizing Abkhaz as a state language equal to Georgian in Abkhazia.

Once again, tensions began to fuel in Abkhazia. The Abkhaz separatist politicians led by Ardzinba were determined to use the opportunity of the unrest in Georgia to reinforce their power in the region and not to allow either of the conflicting Georgian parties to gain a foothold in Abkhazia. In violation of the previous power-sharing agreement, the Abkhaz team gradually began to take control of all major posts in the autonomous structures. An internal division within the Georgian faction did not allow the Georgians to effectively counter these moves. By summer 1992, the split-up in the local authorities and public institutions of Abkhazia into ethnic Georgian and ethnic Abkhaz groups created a kind of dual authority in the autonomous republic. The predominantly ethnic Georgian members of the Supreme Council – the “Democratic Abkhazia” faction headed by Tamaz Nadareishvili – blamed Ardzinba and his team for raising ethnic tensions in the region and boycotted the Council’s sessions. In the aftermath, a number of Georgian laws were nullified in Abkhazia and a paramilitary force, the Abkhaz National Guard, was created and placed directly under the command of the Presidium of the Abkhazian Supreme Council. The ethnic Georgians responded to these measures by requesting from the central Georgian government to take additional measures for their defense. Soon a Georgian National Guard detachment under the command of Colonel Giorgi Karkarashvili entered Abkhazia and proceeded to the northern border with Russia, but the unprepared Abkhaz militias avoided offering any resistance and the Georgian force left the region. This demonstration of force proved to be ineffective, however. In a counter-move, on June 24, 1992, the Abkhaz National Guard, under orders from Ardzinba, stormed the Abkhazian Interior Ministry office, which was headed by ethnic Georgians, and took control of local police and security units. At the same time, the Abkhaz separatists secured the assistance from the Confederation in the case of an armed conflict, and intensified their contacts with the Russian military leaders and hardliner politicians. Prior to that, Ardzinba had arranged for the redeployment of a Russian airborne battalion from the Baltic States to Sukhumi. According to the Russian historian Svetlana Chervonnaya, a number of Russian security servicemen arrived in Abkhazia as "tourists" during that summer:

“

The main load in the preparation of Abkhazian events was given to staff of the former KGB. Almost all of them go appointments in Abkhazia under cover of neutral establishments which had nothing to do with their real activities. To distract attention, various ruses were resorted to, such as the private exchange of apartments, or the necessity of moving one’s place of work to Abkhazia due to a sudden deterioration of health.

”

According to another Russian expert, Evgeni Kozhokin, director of the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies, prior to the outbreak of hostilities, Abkhaz guardsmen had been supplied with weaponry by Russia’s 643rd anti-aircraft missile regiment and a military unit stationed in Gudauta, Abkhazia. Ardzinba had major supporters in Moscow as well, including Vice President Alexander Rutskoy and the Chechen speaker of the Russian parliament, Ruslan Khasbulatov. It should also be noted, that just before the conflict, Georgia also received its limited share of the heritage of the former Soviet military under the Tashkent Agreement of May 15 1992.

On July 23, 1992, thirty-five of the sixty-five deputies of the Abkhazian Supreme Council - all non-Georgians - abrogated Abkhazia's functioning constitution and restored the 1925 constitution of the Abkhazian SSR. Abkhazia proclaimed itself a sovereign state, the Republic of Abkhazia, and declared its intention to conduct its relations with Georgia on the parity basis. The Georgian government condemned the decision and Abkhazia's Georgian population went on strike. The region was on the verge of the war.

[edit] Abkhazian War

On August 14, 1992, some 3,000 Georgian National Guard troops and police forces under Tengiz Kitovani entered Abkhazia, their official purpose being the protection of rail communications from Gamsakhurdia’s supporters operating in the region and gain the release of several Georgian governmental officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Kavsadze, who had been detained by the deposed president’s forces. Abkhaz leaders claimed this was in violation of the agreement of April 1992 whereby Georgian troops could enter Abkhazia with the permission of the Abkhazian government. The central Georgian government insisted that although the local Abkhazian authorities had already disintegrated, Shevardnadze informed Ardzinba about the forthcoming "anti-terrorist operation." Either way, the Abkhaz National Guards offered resistance, firing on the Georgian echelons at Ochamchire and Sukhumi. The Abkhaz militias were defeated and they engaged into a scattered guerilla actions. The Georgian forces entered Sukhumi and marched up to the Russian border, forcing the separatist government to leave, on August 18, Sukhumi for Gudauta, which was a home to the Soviet-era Russian military base. Ardzinba declared Gudauta Abkhazia's "temporary capital" and called in the North Caucasian Confederates to interfere.

[edit] Misc.

Monuments

Year	Georgians	Abkhaz	Russians	Armenians	Greeks
1886	34,114 (50.3%)	28,320 (42%)	971 (1.4%)	1,037 (1.5%)	2,056 (3%)
1914	44.8%	27.3%	(?)	11%	10%
1926 Census	67,494 (33.5%)	55,918 (27.8%)	12,558 (6.2%)	25,677 (12.7%)	14,045 (7%)
1959 Census	158,221 (39.1%)	61,193 (15%)	86,715 (21.4%)	64,425 (15.9%)	9,101 (2.2%)
1970 Census	199,595 (40.9%)	77,276 (15.9%)	92,889 (19%)	74,860 (15.3%)	18,114 (3.7%)
1979 Census	213,322 (43.8%)	83,097 (17.1%)	79,730 (16.4%)	73,350 (15.1%)	18,642 (3.8%)
1989 Census	239,872 (45.7%)	93,267 (17.7%)	74,914 (14.2%)	76,541 (14.5%)	14,664 (2.7%)

Cornell, Svante E. (2001), Small Nations and Great Powers: A Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict in the Caucasus, p. 156. Routledge (UK), ISBN 0700711627.