"We don't owe anyone anything." Opinion on Abkhazia's attitude to the West and to Russia

Abkhazia and the world

Abkhazian public figure Akhra Bzhaniya believes that, despite the current geopolitical situation, Abkhazia cannot close itself off from the world:

“I think if the US recognized Abkhazia, no one would object. Well, yes, they allow same-sex marriages in most States, what can we do … let’s forgive them somehow. But there’s Apple, Tesla, Starlink.

This is what I am for. The fact that someone has not yet recognized me does not mean that he is my enemy and a fiend. After all, Russia also did not recognize us for fifteen years, insisted on returning us to the bosom of the “big brother”, then decided to recognize Abkhazia instead because the geopolitical alignment has changed.

And it may change again, so that at some point we will be recognized by Turkey, the Arab world, and even Europe. So when they say that the ‘collective West’ our my enemy, this is an ideological stamp behind which there are no specifics.

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A lot of things in Western civilization are good — the cult of work, healthy adventurism, the spirit of reform, and compliance with law … It’s a long list, but if at least some of these fundamental features of the “damned West” could be applied on our soil, life would change for the better. So it seems to me that energy should be spent not on fighting virtual opponents – especially since they are most likely not in the know – but on finding friends, or at least adapting to their social mores.

Our government must strive for mutually acceptable relations with all who do not claim our territory.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should open, not close the doors. Why these moves to expel and declare personae non gratae completely harmless people? People who fell in love with Abkhazia and wish her well? Let’s all climb into the basement and sit there so that no one sniffs out our secrets.

Who do we want to serve? If your friends’ relationship with their neighbors has deteriorated, this does not mean that they should affect you.

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Of course there is resentment towards the West (and towards the East too) because our historical choice is not recognized by everyone. And yes, our path could be much easier, and we would not have to face the nightmare of the post-war blockade and today’s restrictions on rights. But this is how the world works: nothing is easy and the hardest thing is freedom.

So if you want to preserve this freedom, you must act accordingly. So that all over the world your choice will be obvious, that it will be understood and accepted by everyone.

By the way, perhaps the Georgian establishment will make a difficult admission, namely that 30 years ago their government acted as an aggressor sending troops here in order to teach us a lesson, to take Abkhazia in three days, to hold a concert of the deceased on the embankment Kikabidze, plant a puppet government and declare it a legitimate part of great Georgia.

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But we chose freedom! With hunting rifles and miner’s ammunition, we met the army with tanks, guns, aircraft and ammunition from the ZaKVO, transferred to Shevardnadze by Yeltsin. No one at the state level helped us, only volunteers — eternal gratitude to them! For every single cartridge was paid, and another price also had to be paid.

So calling us occupied territory is stupid and looks like self-justification. And instead, you just need to recognize and at the same time already solve a lot of problems for yourself, the entire South Caucasus and Russia.

I wrote this hefty text to say simple things: we owe nothing to anyone, we are open to everyone who does not claim our land, we won our freedom ourselves, we do not intend to part with it and consider it the main contribution to the future.”

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