In the new episode of The Era of Blurred Reference Points, we will discuss the modern “new Muhajirism,” which is unfolding not through expulsion, but through assimilation, and whose tools are highly recognizable in today’s reality of Abkhazia.
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Language is one of the tools of assimilation. Abkhaz formally holds the status of a state language, but in everyday life, it is increasingly being displaced by Russian: in education, the media, and official administration.
The language is ceasing to be a medium of thought and is gradually turning into an optional symbol of Abkhazia’s questionable statehood and independence. Along with the language, identity itself is being eroded.
Another tool used by the Kremlin is demographic pressure. Attempts to settle Abkhazia with Russian citizens are presented as an economic necessity, a stimulus for development, and a way to attract investment. But behind this lies a well-familiar historical logic: altering the composition of the population as a way to change the future of a territory. This is no longer about ships carrying Muhajirs, but about manipulating the real estate market, spurring labor migration, and “natural processes” that could eventually turn the indigenous people into a minority on their own land.
The law on apartments holds a special place in this chain. Formally, it is an economic project promising revenue and development. In essence, it is a mechanism that opens the door for non-citizens to purchase real estate en masse and further solidify a foreign presence. This is assimilation formalized legally: without gunshots, without deportations, but with the exact same result—the blurring of boundaries between “one’s own” and “foreign,” until the former completely disappears. Perhaps this is why the Abkhazians are fighting so desperately against its adoption.
Given this reality, the historical memory of Muhajirism becomes not just a recollection of the past, but a warning. Many descendants of Abkhazians in Turkey preserved their identity because they knew they were in exile.
Today, however, assimilation is happening at home—and that is precisely why it is so difficult for the Abkhazians to recognize and stop.