Towards the history of the descendants of Abkhazian muhajirs

Abstract

Owing to its exceptional geostrategic and transit position, the Caucasus has been, and remains, a significant object of international politics across all historical periods. From the sixteenth century onward, the Russian state joined the Ottoman Empire and Iran in actively contesting influence over the Caucasus. Russia skillfully exploited the favourable circumstances that emerged at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - the weakening of its principal rivals, the political fragmentation of Caucasian polities, and a degree of passivity among Europe's leading powers toward the "Eastern Question" in the wake of the French Revolution - ultimately achieving decisive supremacy in the Caucasian arena. Following the conquest of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti in 1801, Russia expanded its influence through both military campaigns and diplomatic means, effectively incorporating the entire Caucasus within imperial boundaries by the second half of the nineteenth century. The Principality of Abkhazia was similarly brought within the Russian Empire.

The Russian authorities deliberately embarked upon a set of political, economic, social, cultural, religious, and demographic measures designed to bring about the large-scale colonisation, thorough assimilation, and final integration into the empire of the Caucasus - a region of considerable strategic and economic importance. To this end, tsarism systematically sought to alter the demographic balance in the Caucasus by displacing and expelling indigenous populations deemed "unreliable" (who often also differed in religious affiliation) and resettling these territories with "trustworthy elements." This process profoundly affected the indigenous ethnic groups of the Caucasus: the Adyghe, the Abkhazians, the Georgians, and others. In this regard, the interests of Russia and the Ottoman Empire largely coincided.

Following the abolition of the Principality of Abkhazia, the process of Abkhazian exile (muhajiroba) assumed an organised and large-scale character. During the muhajiroba of 1867 alone, nearly 20,000 inhabitants of Abkhazia abandoned their native land and were resettled in the Ottoman Empire. The process of Abkhazian exile continued thereafter, up to and including the First World War. A significant portion of the Abkhazian muhajirs settled in Adjara for various reasons. Evidently, some of those who had departed as muhajirs subsequently sought to return to their homeland; however, the Russian authorities no longer permitted this. Thus, members of families such as the Aikutsbas, the Kudbas, the Kishindba, the Muskhajbas, the Chazmavs, and others - sometimes even siblings - found themselves divided: some settled in Adjara, while others remained within the territory of the Republic of Turkey. Historical circumstances precluded even the possibility of communication among the descendants of Abkhazian muhajirs who had settled in different states. This situation began to change at the close of the twentieth century, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The present study, drawing upon archival, field, and press materials and taking into account available historiographical data, examines selected aspects of the relations between the descendants of Abkhazian muhajirs residing in Adjara and in the Republic of Turkey at the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century.