| Abkhazian passport | |
The front cover of a contemporary Abkhazian passport.
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| Issued by | Abkhazia |
| Type of document | Passport |
| Purpose | Identification |
| Eligibility requirements | Abkhazian citizenship |
The Abkhazian passport (Abkhaz: Атәылауаҩшәкәы; Russian: Абха́зский па́спорт) is issued to citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia for the purpose of international travel and for the purpose of legal identification within Abkhazia. As Abkhazia is only recognised by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru, for other destinations Abkhazians use Russian passports for international travel.
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Before the introduction of Abkhazian passports, Abkhazia still used Soviet Passports. These arrived in 1991 in Adjara, where they were not needed since Adjara and the rest of Georgia were introducing separate Georgian passports. They were then given by the Adjar leader Aslan Abashidze to the Abkhazian authorities, although it is not known how or when. People who could not obtain a Soviet passport, for example because they had not yet turned 16 when the Soviet Union disbanded or many of the inhabitants of the Gali District received a 'form no. 9', meant to certify a loss of passport.
The Soviet passports were set to expire in 2008, and so a new passport was needed. The issue of an Abkhazian passport was first discussed towards the end of the nineties. In 2003 finally passports were ordered from a private Turkish printing company, but the first shipment of 25,000 passports was intercepted and confiscated by Georgian authorities. The passports had been meant to be distributed before the 2004 Presidential election, but when the second batch arrived it became clear that the passports contained errors and so President Vladislav Ardzinba decided not to distribute them. After Sergei Bagapsh was elected to the presidency he decided not to waste the invested money and to introduce the passports in January 2006 despite the errors. The first passport was issued to former President Ardzinba, and the second passport posthumously to activist and academic Tamara Shakryl, who had been the only victim during the 2004 post-election crisis. President Bagapsh himself was the first person to regularly apply for an Abkhazian passport.[1]
The Abkhazian government said in 2007 that once the distribution of passports was completed, it would be the only legal form of identification within Abkhazia. It was announced that from the beginning of 2008, citizens could no longer receive a Russian pension without an Abkhazian passport.[2] Abkhazian passports will be the only possible form of legitimation for voters in the December 2009 Presidential election.[3]
On 20 October 2009 it was announced that a new passport will be introduced with additional security features, so as to satisfy all international criteria. The new passports will be printed by the Russian state enterprise Goznak. The current design of passports is insufficiently secure for them to be used to cross the border with Russia.[3] Abkhazia said it would start issuing passports to its citizens by the end of June 2010.[4]
By February 2007, they had been issued to 33,000 people.[5] This number subsequently rose to 45,000 in April,[6] 53,000 in May,[7] 63,000 in August,[8] 110,000 in July 2008,[9] 141,245 on 12 October 2009,[3] 142,625 on 1 November.[10] and 146,121 on 7 December.[11]
On 7 December 2009, the ethnic break-down of passport holders was as follows:
| Nationality | Passport holders | Percentage |
| Abkhaz | 73,622 | 50.4 |
| Armenians | 32.363 | 22.1 |
| Russians | 17.795 | 12.2 |
| Georgians | 12.156 | 8.3 |
| Ukrainians | 2.430 | 2.1 |
| Abazins | 2.138 | 1.7 |
| Greeks | 1.500 | 1.0 |
| Other | 4.117 | 2.8 |
| Total | 146.121 | 100.0 |
Also, of the total number of passport holders, 9910 were under the age of 18, and 5759 lived outside Abkhazia.[11]
The issuing of passports in the Gali District is a priority for the government in order to better integrate its inhabitants into the rest of Abkhazia, but it has been controversial for various reasons. It has been criticised by the Abkhazian opposition on the grounds that the large majority of inhabitants of the Gali District are Georgians who possess Georgian citizenship. The Abkhazian government has responded to this by pointing out that Abkhazian citizenship law does not allow for dual citizenship (except for dual Abkhazian-Russian citizenship) and that therefore, Georgian citizens first have to renounce their Georgian citizenship before obtaining Abkhazian passports. Georgia in turn has accused Abkhazia of forcing its citizens in the Gali District to renounce their citizenship and take up Abkhazian passports, but this is denied by the Abkhazian government. [12]
The Abkhazian government has declared that until 12 October 2009, 3522 residents of the Gali District had acquired an Abkhazian passport.[3]
The cover of the Abkhazian passport is dark green, it displays the coat of arms of Abkhazia with above it the short name of the country (Abkhazia) and below the word 'passport', both in Abkhaz and in Russian.