User:Tamokk/Abkhazia

¹ -^[24] Georgian authorities did not acknowledge the results of this census and consider it illegitimate. Several international sources also consider these figures unrealistically high. The International Crisis Group (2006) estimates Abkhazia's total population to be between 157,000 and 190,000 (or between 180,000 and 220,000 as estimated by UNDP in 1998),^[25] while Encyclopædia Britannica puts it at 177,000 (2006 est.).^[26] The State Department of Statistics of Georgia estimated, in 2005, Abkhazia's population to be approximately 178,000.^[27] About 2,000 people (predominantly ethnic Georgians) live in Georgia-controlled Upper Abkhazia.

[edit] History

Main article: History of Abkhazia

[edit] Early history

In the 9th–6th centuries BC, the territory of modern Abkhazia became a part of the ancient Georgian kingdom of Colchis (Kolkha), which was absorbed in 63 BC into the Kingdom of Egrisi. Greek traders established ports along the Black Sea shoreline. One of those ports, Dioscurias, eventually developed into modern Sukhumi, Abkhazia's traditional capital.

The Roman Empire conquered Egrisi in the 1st century AD and ruled it until the 4th century, following which it regained a measure of independence, but remained within the Byzantine Empire's sphere of influence. Although the exact time when the population of Abkhazia was converted to Christianity is not determined, it is known that the Metropolitan of Pitius participated in the First Œcumenical Council in 325 in Nicea. Abkhazia was made an autonomous principality of the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century — a status it retained until the 9th century, when it was united with the province of Imereti and became known as the Abkhazian Kingdom. In 9th–10th centuries the Georgian kings tried to unify all the Georgian provinces and in 1001 King Bagrat III Bagrationi became the first king of the unified Georgian Kingdom.

In the 16th century, after the break-up of the united Georgian Kingdom, the area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, during this time some Abkhazians converted to Islam. The Ottomans were pushed out by the Georgians, who established an autonomous Principality of Abkhazia (abxazetis samtavro in Georgian), ruled by the Shervashidze dynasty (aka Sharvashidze, or Chachba).

[edit] Abkhazia within the Russian Empire and Soviet Union

The expansion of the Russian Empire into the Caucasus region led to small-scale but regular conflicts between Russian colonists and the indigenous Caucasian tribes. Eventually the Caucasian War erupted, which ended with Russian conquest of the North and Western Caucasus. Various Georgian principalities were annexed to the empire between 1801 and 1864. The Russians acquired possession of Abhkazia in a piecemeal fashion between 1829 and 1842; but their power was not firmly established until 1864, when they managed to abolish the local principality which was still under Shervashidze rule. Large numbers of Muslim Abkhazians — said to have constituted as much as 60% of the Abkhazian population, although contemporary census reports were not very trustworthy — emigrated to the Ottoman Empire between 1864 and 1878 together with other Muslim population of Caucasus in the process known as Muhajirism.

Modern Abkhazian historians maintain that large areas of the region were left uninhabited, and that many Armenians, Georgians and Russians (all Christians) subsequently migrated to Abkhazia, resettling much of the vacated territory. This version of events is strongly contested by some Georgian historians^[28] who argue that Georgian tribes (Mingrelians and Svans) had populated Abkhazia since the time of the Colchis kingdom. According to Georgian scholars, the Abkhaz are the descendants of North Caucasian tribes (Adygey, Apsua), who migrated to Abkhazia from the north of the Caucasus Mountains and merged there with the existing Georgian population.

The Russian Revolution of 1917 led to the creation of an independent Georgia (which included Abkhazia) in 1918. Georgia's Menshevik government had problems with the area through most of its existence despite a limited autonomy being granted to the region. In 1921, the Bolshevik Red Army invaded Georgia and ended its short-lived independence. Abkhazia was made a Soviet republic with the ambiguous status of Union Republic associated with the Georgian SSR, In 1931, Stalin made it an autonomous republic within Soviet Georgia. Despite its nominal autonomy, it was subjected to strong central rule from central Soviet authorities. Georgian became the official language. Purportedly, Lavrenty Beria encouraged Georgian migration to Abkhazia, and many took up the offer and resettled there. Russians also moved into Abkhazia in great numbers. Later, in the 1950s and 1960s, Vazgen I and the Armenian church encouraged and funded the migration of Armenians to Abkhazia^{[citation needed]}. Currently, Armenians are the largest minority group in Abkhazia.

The repression of the Abkhaz was ended after Stalin's death and Beria's execution, and Abkhaz were given a greater role in the governance of the republic. As in most of the smaller autonomous republics, the Soviet government encouraged the development of culture and particularly of literature. Ethnic quotas were established for certain bureaucratic posts, giving the Abkhaz a degree of political power that was disproportionate to their minority status in the republic. This was interpreted by some as a "divide and rule" policy whereby local elites were given a share in power in exchange for support for the Soviet regime. In Abkhazia as elsewhere, it led to other ethnic groups - in this case, the Georgians - resenting what they saw as unfair discrimination, thereby stoking ethnic discord in the republic.

[edit] The Abkhazian War

Main article: Georgian-Abkhaz conflict

As the Soviet Union began to disintegrate at the end of the 1980s, ethnic tensions grew between the Abkhaz and Georgians over Georgia's moves towards independence. Many Abkhaz opposed this, fearing that an independent Georgia would lead to the elimination of their autonomy, and argued instead for the establishment of Abkhazia as a separate Soviet republic in its own right. The dispute turned violent on 16 July 1989 in Sukhumi. Sixteen Georgians are said to have been killed and another 137 injured when they tried to enroll in a Georgian University instead of an Abkhaz one. After several days of violence, Soviet troops restored order in the city and blamed rival nationalist paramilitaries for provoking confrontations.

The Soviet republic of Georgia boycotted March 17, 1991's all-Union referendum on the renewal of the Soviet Union called by Mikhail Gorbachev - but 52.3% of the Abkhazia's population (virtually all the ethnic non-Georgians) took part in the referendum and voted by an overwhelming majority (98.6%) to preserve the Union.^[29][30] Most ethnic non-Georgians later boycotted a March 31 referendum on Georgia’s independence, which was supported by a huge majority of Georgia's population. Within weeks, Georgia declared independence on 9 April 1991, under former Soviet dissident Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

Gamsakhurdia's rule soon became unpopular, and that December the Georgian National Guard, under the command of Tengiz Kitovani, laid siege to his government's offices in Tbilisi. After weeks of stalemate, he was forced to resign in January 1992. Former Soviet foreign minister and architect of the disintegration of the USSR Eduard Shevardnadze replaced Gamsakhurdia as president, inheriting a government dominated by hardline Georgian nationalists. He was not an ethnic nationalist but did little to avoid being seen as supporting his administration's dominant figures and the leaders of the coup that swept him to power.

On 21 February 1992, Georgia's ruling Military Council announced that it was abolishing the Soviet-era constitution and restoring the 1921 Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Georgia. Many Abkhaz interpreted this as an abolition of their autonomous status. On 23 July 1992, the scessionist Abkhazian regime declared effective independence from Georgia, although this gesture went unrecognised by any other country. The Georgian government accused Gamsakhurdia's supporters of kidnapping Georgia's interior minister and holding him captive in Abkhazia. The Georgian government dispatched 3,000 troops to the region, ostensibly to restore order. Heavy fighting between Tiblisi's forces and Abkhazian militia broke out in and around Sukhumi. The Abkhazian authorities rejected the legal government's claims, claiming that it was merely a pretext for an invasion. After about a week's fighting and many casualties on both sides, Georgian government forces took control of most of Abkhazia, and closed down the region's assembly.

The Abkhazians' military defeat was met with a hostile response by the self-styled Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, an umbrella group uniting a number of pro-Russian movements in the North Caucasus, including Chechens, Cossacks, Ossetians and hundreds of volunteer paramilitaries from Russia, including the little-known Shamil Basayev, later a leader of the anti-Moscow Chechen secession, sided with the Abkhaz separatists to fight the Georgian government. Regular Russian forces also reportedly sided with the secessionsts. In September, the Abkhaz and Russian paramilitaries mounted a major offensive against Gagra after breaking a cease-fire, which drove the Georgian forces out of large swathes of the republic. Shevardnadze's government accused Russia of giving covert military support to the rebels with the aim of "detaching from Georgia its native territory and the Georgia-Russian frontier land". The year 1992 ended with the rebels in control of much of Abkhazia northwest of Sukhumi.

The conflict remained stalemated until July 1993, when Abkhaz separatist militias launched an abortive attack on Georgian-held Sukhumi. Threy surrounded and heavily shelled the capital, where Shevardnadze was trapped. The warring sides declared a truce at the end of July, but it collapsed in mid-September 1993 after a renewed Abkhaz attack. After ten days of heavy fighting, Sukhumi fell on 27 September 1993. Shevardnadze narrowly escaped death, after vowing to stay in the city no matter what. He was forced to flee when separatist snipers fired on the hotel where he was staying. Abkhaz, North Caucasian militants and their allies committed numerous atrocities ^[1] against the city's remaining ethnic Georgians, in what has been dubbed the Sukhumi Massacre. The mass killings and destruction continued for two weeks, leaving thousands dead and missing.

The Abkhaz forces quickly overran the rest of Abkhazia as the Georgian government faced a second threat: an uprising by the supporters of the deposed Zviad Gamsakhurdia in the region of Mingrelia (Samegrelo). In the chaotic aftermath of defeat almost all ethnic Georgians fled the region, escaping an ethnic cleansing initiated by the victors. Many thousands died — it is estimated that between 10,000-30,000 ethnic Georgians and 3,000 ethnic Abkhaz may have perished — and some 250,000 people (mostly Georgians) were forced into exile.^[1][31][32]

During the war, gross human rights violations were reported on the both sides (see Human Rights Watch report^[33]), and the ethnic cleansing committed by the Abkhaz forces and their allies is recognized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Summits in Budapest (1994)^[34], Lisbon (1996)^[35] and Istanbul (1999).^[36]

[edit] De jure Government of Abkhazia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

Main article: De-jure Government of Abkhazia

The De jure government of Abkhazia, formerly known as The Council of Ministers of The Abkhazian Autonomous Republic is the only body internationally recognized as the legal authority of Abkhazia, whose jurisdiction is recognized as official. ^[39][40]. However, after the war the legitimate authorities of Abkhazia were forced to flee from the separatist onslaught on September 27 1993 and remained in exile until 2006. After the Kodori crisis of 2006, the Government of Abkhazia, along with its ministers, relocated to the north-eastern part of Abkhazia (known as Upper Abkhazia) in Chkhalta. ^[41]

The Council of Ministers of the autonomous republic was created during the Soviet period which included the Presidium where representatives (elected) from all regions in Abkhazia governed the affairs of the republic. The members of the Cabinet of Ministers and the Presidium included ethnic Georgians, Abkhaz and Armenian minorities.

Zhiuli Shartava was elected as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers just before the outbreak of the war. When the hostilities reached their climax in 1992, the separatist wing of the government left the Presidium and moved to Gudauta. From Gudauta, the separatist activists initiated the declaration of independence from Georgia and started to arm militia groups (allegedly supplied by the Russian military base in Gudauta) which were used during the attacks on railways and governmental offices. ^[42]

The Council of Ministers remaining in Sukhumi still maintained its ethnic Abkhaz representatives, who rejected the separatist call for secession. ^[43] Two of them, leading Abkhaz politician Raul Eshba and Sumbat Saakian, a representative of the ethnic Armenian Diaspora, refused to leave Sukhumi and stayed along with Zhiuli Shartava, Guram Gabiskiria and other members of the government in Sukhumi until the tragic events of September 27th 1993, when Shartava, Eshba, Gabiskiria, Saakian and other members of the government were extensively tortured and killed by the separatists and their allies (see Sukhumi massacre). The remaining survivors of the government fled to the capital Tbilisi where they organized the headquarters of the Abkhaz government in exile headed by Tamaz Nadareishvili (great grandson of Abkhaz Prince Shervashidze). ^[44] In 1998, Georgians in the Gali region of Abkhazia (which was populated mainly by ethnic Georgians) launched partisan activities against the de facto authorities in Sukhumi. The Abkhaz government in exile allegedly supported the rebel movement known as The White Legion. However, as a result of this insurrection, the Abkhaz separatist authorities launched a full scale attack on the Gali region, killing and expelling its ethnic Georgian inhabitants. ^[45] In 2004, Nadareishvili died leaving the government in a disorganized state. After the Rose Revolution and Kodori events of 2006, the de jure Abkhaz government was revived and reorganized. Malkhaz Akishbaia, a Western-educated Abkhaz politician was elected in April 2006 and is the current head of the de jure Government of Abkhazia. Akishbaia appointed ethnic Abkhaz ministers Temur Mzhavia and Ada Marshania to key positions and included former members of Council of Ministers in his government. The government moved to Upper Abkhazia (within the administrative borders of the autonomous republic) with its headquarters in Chkhalta.

On September 27, 2006 President Mikheil Saakashvili, Nino Burjanadze, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II and others members of the central government visited Kodori Valley and officially changed the name and designated the area as "Upper Abkhazia". President Saakashvili addressed the nation during the opening of de jure Government headquarters in Chkhalta, Upper Abkhazia:

"We are here – Upper Abkhazia, very close to Sokhumi - and we are not going to leave this place. We will return to Abkhazia very soon, but only through peaceful means...We have told every foreign ambassador in Georgia that Abkhazia and Tbilisi are not separate entities...From now on the protocol of each foreign diplomat [visiting Abkhazia], apart from trips to Sokhumi, will also include the route to Abkhazia’s administrative center in the village of Chkhalta where the chairman of the Abkhaz government is Malkhaz Akishbaia."^[46]

[edit] Politics

Main article: Politics of Abkhazia

Much of the politics in Abkhazia is dominated by the territorial dispute with Georgia, from which the territory seceded, and by the fight over the presidency in 2004/2005.

On 3 October 2004 presidential elections were held in Abkhazia. In the elections, Russia evidently supported Raul Khajimba, the prime minister backed by the ailing outgoing separatist President Vladislav Ardzinba. Posters of Russia's President Vladimir Putin together with Khajimba, who like Putin had worked as a KGB official, were everywhere in Sukhumi. Deputies of Russia's parliament and Russian singers, led by Joseph Kobzon, a deputy and a popular singer, came to Abkhazia campaigning for Khajimba.

However Raul Khajimba lost the elections to Sergey Bagapsh. The tense situation in the republic led to the cancellation of the election results by the Supreme Court. After that a deal was struck between former rivals to run jointly — Bagapsh as a presidential candidate and Khajimba as a vice presidential candidate. They received more than 90% of the votes in the new election.

The President appoints districts' heads from those elected to the districts assemblies. There are elected village assemblies whose heads are appointed by the districts heads.^[6]

The People's Assembly, consisting of 35 elected members, is vested with legislative powers. The last parliamentary elections were held on March 4, 2007. The ethnicities other than Abkhaz (Armenians, Russians and Georgians) are believed to be under-represented in the Assembly as the number of the parliamentarians of these ethnicities is less than their share in the republic population.^[6]

About 250,000 ethnic Georgian residents of Abkhazia are restricted from settling in the region by the Abkhazian separatist regime and cannot participate in the elections.^[47]

[edit] International involvement

The UN has played various roles during the conflict and peace process: a military role through its observer mission (UNOMIG); dual diplomatic roles through the Security Council and the appointment of a Special Envoy, succeeded by a Special Representative to the Secretary-General; a humanitarian role (UNHCR and UNOCHA); a development role (UNDP); a human rights role (UNCHR); and a low-key capacity and confidence-building role (UNV). The UN’s position has been that there will be no forcible change in international borders. Any settlement must be freely negotiated and based on autonomy for Abkhazia legitimized by referendum under international observation once the multi-ethnic population has returned.^[48] According to Western interpretations the intervention did not contravene international law since Georgia, as a sovereign state, had the right to secure order on its territory and protect its territorial integrity.

OSCE has increasingly engaged in dialogue with officials and civil society representatives in Abkhazia, especially from NGOs and the media, regarding human dimension standards and is considering a presence in Gali. OSCE expressed concern and condemnation over ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia during the 1994 Budapest Summit Decision^[49] and later at the Lisbon Summit Declaration in 1996.^[50]

The USA rejects the unilateral secession of Abkhazia and urges its integration into Georgia as an autonomous unit. In 1998 the USA announced its readiness to allocate up to $15 million for rehabilitation of infrastructure in the Gali region if substantial progress is made in the peace process. USAID has already funded some humanitarian initiatives for Abkhazia. The USA has in recent years significantly increased its military support to the Georgian armed forces but has stated that it would not condone any moves towards peace enforcement in Abkhazia.

On August 22, 2006, Senator Richard Lugar, then visiting Georgia's capital Tbilisi, joined the Georgian politicians in criticism of the Russian peacekeeping mission, stating that "the U.S. administration supports the Georgian government’s insistence on the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from the conflict zones in Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali district."^[51]

On October 5, 2006, Javier Solana, the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union, ruled out the possibility of replacing the Russian peacekeepers with the EU force."^[52] On October 10, 2006, EU South Caucasus envoy Peter Semneby noted that "Russia's actions in the Georgia spy row have damaged its credibility as a neutral peacekeeper in the EU's Black Sea neighbourhood."^[53]

On October 13, 2006, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution, based on a Group of Friends of the Secretary-General draft, extending the UNOMIG mission until April 15, 2007. Acknowledging that the "new and tense situation" resulted, at least in part, from the Georgian special forces operation in the upper Kodori Valley, urged the country to ensure that no troops unauthorized by the Moscow ceasefire agreement were present in that area. It urged the leadership of the Abkhaz side to address seriously the need for a dignified, secure return of refugees and internally displaced persons and to reassure the local population in the Gali district that their residency rights and identity will be respected. The Georgian side is "once again urged to address seriously legitimate Abkhaz security concerns, to avoid steps which could be seen as threatening and to refrain from militant rhetoric and provocative actions, especially in upper Kodori Valley". Calling on both parties to follow up on dialogue initiatives, it further urged them to comply fully with all previous agreements regarding non-violence and confidence-building, in particular those concerning the separation of forces. Regarding the disputed role of the peacekeepers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Council stressed the importance of close, effective cooperation between UNOMIG and that force and looked to all sides to continue to extend the necessary cooperation to them. At the same time, the document reaffirmed the "commitment of all Member States to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Georgia within its internationally recognized borders."^[54]

The HALO Trust, an international non-profit organisation that specialises in the removal of the debris of war, has been active in Abkhazia for a long time and has completed the removal of land-mines in Sukhumi and Gali districts. It plans to finish its operations in 2007/2008 and to declare Abkhazia a "mine impact free" territory.^[55]

[edit] Religion

Main article: Religion in Abkhazia

The population (including all ethnic groups) of Abkhazia are majority Orthodox Christians (appx 75%) and Sunni Muslims (appx 10%).^[56] 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.^[57] The Jehovah's Witnesses organization have officially been banned since 1995, though the decree is not currently enforced.^[58]

The earliest accounts of the introduction of Christianity into the present-day Abkhazia date from the first century^[59] and in 325 the bishop of Pityus participated in the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea^[60]. 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. ^[61][62][63] 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.^[64] Current head of orthodox church in Abkhazia is Archbishop Daniel of Tskhum-Apkhazeti Eparchy ^[65] 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.^[66]

The Georgian church officials complain that the Russian church interferes in Abkhazia by training and sending in priests loyal to Moscow.^[58] 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.^[67] 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.^[66]

Islam spread in Abkhazia in the times of Ottoman domination in the region in the 16th-18th centuries.^[68] The Russian conquest of the area forced most of the Muslim Abkhaz to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire as Muhajirs in the 1870s.

According to the Constitution of Abkhazia the adherents of all religions (as well as atheists) have equal rights before the law.^[69]

[edit] Gallery of Abkhazia

This section seems to be an image gallery. Wikipedia is not a collection of images. Please help by moving freely licensed images to Wikimedia Commons, possibly creating a gallery of the same name if one does not already exist. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for further suggestions.

New Athos monastery	Gagra	Geg waterfall	View of Sukhumi 1
View of Sukhumi 2	Sukhumi quay	Sukhumi botanical garden front entrance	Chanba Dramatic theatre in Sukhumi

[edit] See also

• Law enforcement in Abkhazia
• Military of Abkhazia
• Sport in Abkhazia

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Wikimedia Atlas of Abkhazia

• (English)/(Russian)/(Abkhaz) President of the Republic of Abkhazia. Official site
• (English)/(Russian) Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia. Official Site
• (English) BBC Regions and territories: Abkhazia
• (English) The Autonomous Republic of Abkhazeti - from Georgian National Parliamentary Library
• (English) Abkhazia.com Official website of the refugees from Abkhazia
• (Russian) Abkhazian news
• (Russian) State Information Agency of the Abkhaz Republic
• (English) Abkhazia Provisional Paper Money
• (Russian) Orthodox Churches of Abkhazia
• (Russian) Archaeology and ethnography of Abkhazia. Abkhaz Institute of Social Studies. Abkhaz State Museum

Geographic locale
v • d • e Administrative divisions of Georgia Autonomous republics Abkhazia1 · Adjara Regions Guria · Imereti · Kakheti · Kvemo Kartli · Mtskheta-Mtianeti · Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti · Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti · Samtskhe-Javakheti · Shida Kartli2 City with special status Tbilisi (capital) 1 Self-proclaimed republic which de jure is part of Georgia.   2 Includes the self-proclaimed Republic of South Ossetia. v • d • e Countries and regions of the Caucasus      Adygea  Armenia  Azerbaijan  Nagorno-Karabakh  Chechnya  Dagestan  Georgia  Abkhazia  South Ossetia  Ingushetia  Kabardino-Balkaria  Karachay-Cherkessia  Krasnodar Krai  North Ossetia-Alania  Stavropol Krai v • d • e Non-sovereign territories of Europe Dependent territories and autonomous regions Adjara (Georgia) · Akrotiri and Dhekelia1 (UK) · Åland (Finland) · Azores (Portugal) · Canary Islands1 (Spain) · Ceuta1 (Spain) · Corsica (France) · Crimea (Ukraine) · Faroe Islands (Denmark) · Friuli-Venezia Giulia (Italy) · Gagauzia (Moldova) · Gibraltar (UK) · Greenland1 (Denmark) · Guernsey (UK) · Jersey (UK) · Madeira1 (Portugal) · Man, Isle of (UK) · Melilla1 (Spain) · Mount Athos (Greece) · Nakhchivan1 (Azerbaijan) · Sardinia (Italy) · Sicily (Italy) · Trentino-Alto Adige (Italy) · Valle d'Aosta (Italy) Unrecognized republics, territories, or regions Abkhazia (Georgia) · Kosovo (Serbia)2 · Nagorno-Karabakh (Azerbaijan)1 · South Ossetia (Georgia) · Transnistria (Moldova) · Northern Cyprus (Cyprus)1, 3 1 Entirely on another continent but having sociopolitical connections with Europe. 2 Recognized by a limited number of states. 3 Recognized only by Turkey.