Language Aspect and National Minorities in Abkhazia.

OSCE  Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights  
 Human Dimension Implementation Meeting 2012 
2 October 2012, Working Session 12
 Rights of persons belonging to national minorities

As I mentioned in the previous presentations Abkhazia is building  a  democratic state although the circumstances, economic and social conditions, a bitter Abkhaz-Georgian war of 1992-93 and the humanitarian blockade  after it,  the international isolation  made their negative impact on the development of truly democratic processes in the country.

In spite  of the world community's neglect  (except the Russian Federation) the Abkhaz state holds the policy of integration of minorities into the Abkhaz society, and it is actively supported by the civil society which is deeply concerned  with  this very important  and hard matter.

One of the main problems of national minorities if not the most  problematic, is the promotion and respect to their language rights. No one denies that the problem of the language in the state is deeply political and trigger. The Abkhaz authorities fully understand the importance of providing equal opportunities for all ethnicities living today in Abkhazia and feel responsibility to take right measures in this direction in order not to increase any tensions which can be easily achieved by partial and wrong language policy.

People in Abkhazia remember yet the violent policy and terrible methods they  had experienced during  of the worst period of the Soviet time  of the Black Terror implemented  by Josef Stalin and his executioner Beria, both Georgian nationals when all the Abkhaz schools were closed for almost 15 years till Stalin’s death and the Abkhaz children were forced to study in Georgian, which was not their mother’s tongue.  The majority of intelligentsia were killed or repressed and the main state task performed was to georginize Abkhazians through  severe violation  and deprivation of language rights. Moreover the  Abkhaz identity was at threat of  total disappearance. Abkhazians only represented approximately 18% of the population at that time, mainly due to Georgia’s policy of resettling Georgian nationals in ethnic minority areas. The aggressive pursuit of Georgian nationalism after the collapse of Communism further alienated ethnic minorities and strengthened their fight for freedom from Georgia. The consequences of that policy echoes even nowadays as today the Abkhaz children are able to get just a primary education in native language and the Abkhaz.  Though today it is free from Georgian oppression there is a room for concern that it could yield to increasing spread of the Russian because of different reasons. Regretfully Abkhaz language is officially added to the list of endangered languages of UNESCO as it is at risk of falling out of use. Much is to be done to preserve it and prevent from disappearance and maintain as a functioning language, but one must have enough resources for it. The same can be said about South Ossetians.

  As for the other ethnicities and their language rights one should take into consideration that there are various schools of national minorities as Russian, Armenian and Georgian (in Gal region where mostly Georgians/Migrelians  live). No one forbids anyone in Abkhazia freely to use his mother tongue both in private and in public.

As for the language rights violations of Gal residents about which the  Georgian officials like to complain we should emphasize that no one has restricted the education at schools in Gal region in Georgian except the problem of textbooks especially on Geography and History, the content of which is conflict sensitive  and  the Abkhaz authorities suppose  to create new ones. It would be more then nice if the international organizations could  provide assistance in resolving this  complex problem.

Asida Lomiya

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“Veresk” Charity Foundation for Disabled and Amputees, Abkhazia

 http://www.osce.org/odihr/94679