Religion in Abkhazia
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The population (including all ethnic groups) of Abkhazia (internationally recognised to constitute an autonomous republic of Georgia but de facto independent) is in majority Orthodox Christians (appx 75%) and Sunni Muslims (appx 10%).[1] Most of the ethnic Armenians living in Abkhazia belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church. However most of the people who declare themselves Christian or Muslim do not attend religious services. There is also a very small number of Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses and the followers of new religions.[2] The Jehovah's Witnesses organization have officially been banned since 1995, though the decree is not currently enforced.[3]
According to the constitutions of Georgia and Abkhazia the adherents of all religions (as well as atheists) have equal rights before the law.[4]
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[edit] Christianity
The earliest accounts of the introduction of Christianity into the present-day Abkhazia date from the first century[5] and in 325 the bishop of Pityus participated in the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea[6]. Since the late 9th century, the Orthodox dioceses of Abkhazia were subordinated to the Georgian Orthodox Church, later functioning there as the Catholicosate of Abkhazia.
The orthodox church in Abkhazia is officially part of the Georgian Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church (Tskhum-Apkhazeti Eparchy) with Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II as its head. [7][8][9] After Georgian-Abkhaz conflict, the autocephalous church of Georgia lost the control and jurisdiction over its property in Abkhazia. However, all autocephalous churches of the orthodox faith, including Russian and Patriarchate of Constantinople, recognise Abkhazia as part of the Georgian autocephalous church.[10] Current head of orthodox church in Abkhazia is Archbishop Daniel of Tskhum-Apkhazeti Eparchy [11] However, the Georgian Orthodox Church is unable to operate there and most of its clerics as well as the parish have been expelled during the Abkhazian war and in its aftermath.
After the war in Abkhazia, the only remaining Orthodox priest of the Georgian Church, ethnic Abkhaz Vissarion (Apliaa) headed the local Orthodox community. In the following years, the recently consecrated clerics from the neighbouring Russian Maykop Eparchy arrived in Abkhazia and soon engaged in a conflict with Vissarion. Through the mediation of Russian church officials, the two sides managed to reach a power-sharing agreement at Maikop in 2005, and organised themselves into the Eparchy of Abkhazia whose canonical status remains undefined. This failed, however, to settle the disagreement and the eparchy continues to straddle the division. Currently, there are a dozen or so Orthodox clerics in the region, most of whom belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, while the de facto head of the eparchy, Vissarion, nominally remains a subordinate to the Georgian Orthodox Patriarchate.[12] In April 2008, the last Georgian Orthodox priest remaining in the predominantly Georgian-populated Gali district was expelled, reportedly by the Abkhaz security officers, after a "special decree" of the canonically unrecognized Eparchy of Abkhazia, effectively leaving the local Georgian community without access to clergy.[13]
The Georgian church officials complain that the Russian church interferes in Abkhazia by training and sending in priests loyal to Moscow.[3] The Russian church officials published translations of the Gospels in Abkhazian, which drew protests from the Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church as a violation of Orthodox Church canon law, constituting a meddling in the internal affairs of another Orthodox church and annexation of Georgian Orthodox property in Abkhazia.[14] The Russian Orthodox Church claims that the clerics of Maykop eparchy serve in Abkhazia only temporarily as the local Orthodox believers do not have contacts with the Georgian Orthodox Church.[12]
[edit] Islam
Islam spread in Abkhazia in the times of Ottoman domination in the region in the 16th-18th centuries.[15] Throughout the 19th century Russo-Turkish wars, Abkhaz nobility was split along the religious lines, with Christians being generally pro-Russian, and Muslims siding with the Ottomans against Russia. Russia's final victory in the area in the 1860s-70s and two Abkhaz revolts forced most of Muslim Abkhaz to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire as Muhajirs in the 1870s.
A spiritual leader of the Abkhaz Muslims and imam of Gudauta Mosque, Hamzat (Rokki) Gitsba, was assassinated in Gudauta on August 18, 2007.[16] The death of Gitsba, who had fought against Georgians in 1992-3 and was among pro-Chechen hijackers of a Turkish passenger ship Avrasia in 1996, as well as other facts of alleged anti-Muslim discrimination led to serious concerns by the Abkhaz Muslim community about their security issues.[17]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Flashpoints Site Directory. Abkhazia-Georgia
- ^ http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/print.php?act=fresh&id=188 Александр Крылов. ЕДИНАЯ ВЕРА АБХАЗСКИХ "ХРИСТИАН" И "МУСУЛЬМАН". Особенности религиозного сознания в современной Абхазии.
- ^ a b Georgia: International Religious Freedom Report 2005. The United States Department of State. Retrieved on May 24, 2007.
- ^ http://dp.abhazia.com/konstitut.html Constitution of the Republic of Abkhazia, art. 12 Russian: {{{1}}}
- ^ http://www.patriarchate.ge/istoria/1e.htm HISTORY OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF GEORGIA
- ^ http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/syriac_misc.htm EXTRACTS FROM THE SYRIAC MS. NO. 14528 IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. WRITTEN A.D. 501. Names of Bishops
- ^ Witness through troubled times : a history of the Orthodox Church of Georgia, 1811 to the present, Abashidze, Zaza.
- ^ The Eastern Orthodox churches: concise histories with chronological checklists of their primates, Burgess, Michael, London.
- ^ Autocephalous Orthodox Churches centered at Constantinople
- ^ A long walk to church: a contemporary history of Russian Orthodoxy, 2nd ed, Davis, Nathaniel
- ^ Autocephalous Orthodox Churches centered at Constantinople
- ^ a b Вновь обострился конфликт внутри православной общины Абхазии. Blagovest.info May 15, 2006. Retrieved on June 26, 2007 (Russian)
- ^ Abkhazia: Only Georgian Orthodox priest expelled.. Forum 18 News service, April 23, 2008.
- ^ The Georgian Times on the Web: Comprehensive news site, daily international, national and local news coverage , breaking news updates, sports, reviews
- ^ http://dp.abhazia.com/nasledie5.html Russian: {{{1}}}
- ^ Muslim leader in Abkhazia slain - source. Interfax. August 18, 2007.
- ^ ДУХОВНОЕ УПРАВЛЕНИЕ МУСУЛЬМАН АБХАЗИИ ОБЕСПОКОЕНО СИТУАЦИЕЙ, СЛОЖИВШЕЙСЯ ВОКРУГ МУСУЛЬМАНСКОЙ ОБЩИНЫ РЕСПУБЛИКИ. Apsnypress. August 27, 2007.
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