Thirty-four years ago, on August 14, 1992, an armed confrontation began in the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia.
According to official reports, the State Council of Georgia, in agreement with the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia, Vladislav Ardzinba, deployed government forces to protect the Sochi–Ingiri section of the railway from increasingly frequent armed attacks.
The Georgian National Guard and police encountered armed resistance from the so-called Abkhaz Guard in the Ochamchire and Gulripshi districts, leading to the outbreak of full-scale hostilities. The deployment of Georgian government forces to the region was preceded by the declaration of so-called independence by local separatists. The Russian military joined the combat operations in support of the Abkhaz formations.
The war in Abkhazia, which lasted 13 months and 13 days, claimed between 10,000 and 30,000 lives among military personnel and civilians, according to various estimates. Up to 300,000 people were internally displaced.
To this day, Abkhazia remains occupied by Russia. Russia also occupies the Tskhinvali region.
Following the war that began in August 2008, Moscow recognized the occupied territories of Georgia as “independent.”
