History of Abkhazia, Georgia

To any of you who think the Russians gave Georgia to the Georgians...


Between the 9th and 6th century BC, the territory of modern (and ruined) Abkhazia was part of the ancient Georgian kingdom of Colchis it was then absorbed in 63BC into the Egrisi Kingdom.


Between 1000 and 550 BC the Greeks established a trade colonies along the Black Sea coast, especially Pitiunt and Dioscurias which is now the capital of modern day Abkhazia. (My mum had been saying to mention Dioscurias because she had known that it was an ancient Greek city...now I know) Classical Authors had described, when going there, various people living there with alot of different languages, (my mum had told me that when she was young there were so many different dialects there and different types of people there and they always got along), Abkhazia, until the late 690's, was a princedom of the Byzantine authority. Anacopia was it's capital.


After the Ottoman Empire occupied the fort of Sukhumi, the Russian empire then engulfed the Georgian's into their Empire, 1864. In Georgian History it says that Abkhazia was populated by Georgian tribes, like Mingrelians and Svans, since the Colchis Kingdom so what this means is that Georgia was never given to the Georgians by Russia and Abkhazia was part of Georgia for many many MANY centuries. (My mum always has said that her family and family's ancestors have been living there for centuries, they didn't occupy it in the last 100 years..no! they have been there, along with many others, FOR CENTURIES)


Why do this...tare families apart and ruin the whole region? 
What has this resulted in?


NOTHING...
























reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abkhazia

Atrocities

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c35YOw8bmc&feature=related

If you could take a few mins to watch this...I'd appreciate it.

War brings nothing...what do they have now...just a city in ruins and lawlessness. The rebels created this mess for...nothing.

Abkhazia

Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia. Sukhumi, it's capital, is where my mum is from.

Sukhumi is regarded as a beautiful place by the people of there and also by the millions of tourists that went there every year back in the 1980's. Now Sukhumi "is a city half in ruins, whose few remaining residents joke bitterly about renting their houses out as sets for war movies."


Here's a summary of what happened in the War in Abkhazia 1992-1993.


The war started between Georgian government forces on one side and Abkhazian separatists in the other, who wanted Independence from Georgia. Ethnic Georgians fought on the Georgian government side and Armenians and Russians, who were part of the Abkhaz population, supported and most of them fought with the separatists. They were also  supported by thousands of North Caucasus and Cossack militants and also by the Russian Federation forces that were stationed in and near Abkhazia. 


In this war significant Human Rights were violated and there were horrible atrocities reported on both sides. It increased after the Abkhazian rebels captured Sukhumi on 27th of September 1993. This followed with a large scale ethnic cleansing of the ethnic Georgian population there (OSCE).


From 13,000 to 20,000 ethnic Georgians and approximately 3,000 Abkhaz have been reported to be killed, more than 250,000 Georgians became internally displaced or refugees and 2,000 of them are considered missing. This is what has happened to my mum's family. 


Many people that lived there and are living there still always remembered everyone getting along. No problems whatsoever until the separatists started to disturb the peacefulness in this beautiful region. 


The New York Times have an article with some quotes of the residents living there now and this is what they said:

http://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/30/world/sukhumi-journal-war-makes-a-ghastly-visit-to-a-black-sea-resort.html


""In peaceful times, this was heaven," said an elderly Russian woman named Luda, whose eyes filled with tears as she described the night of July 17, when artillery shells fired by Abkhazian separatists came raining down on her neighborhood. That night, Luda, who did not want to give her last name, ran for shelter to her neighbor's house and was in her basement when one shell crashed through the roof, and another sheared a jeep outside in half."


""We had all been living peacefully together forever," said the neighbor, Raisa Chitaia, 70, a Russian married to a Georgian who was born in the house ruined by shells that night. "For whom was all this necessary? It must have been profitable for the people in high places, because everyone else has been left a pauper." "


This was the bombings of Sukhumi where my mother's mum had died. She was helping an old lady in her apartment and when she was going out and opened the front door of the apartment, a bomb exploded on her killing her instantly (I hope). 


What this unrest has caused the people is horrible and what happened is inhuman. 
I will be researching more about what is happening now and what will happen to my mum's apartment in Sukhumi that Russian's will probably sell to other Russians. It's not acceptable because it is under my mum's and her brother's name and it's their property. 


This is just a background, not to everything that happened but some of what happened. I have a link to the New York Times article where those quotes are from if you would like to read more. 


We must raise awareness and thank you if you have read this...that is one more person that is finding out what is happening. 

Update

Ok I'm just informing you that this blog will not be just about whatever I want to write any more, it will be updates and information about what is happening in my mum's country, Georgia.

For anyone who doesn't know where it is, it's near Russia. It was part of the Soviet Union and unfortunately, the Russians still want Georgia for them. They want to be how they were before.

Right now where my mum is from, is occupied by Russians and it's very hostile there so she can't go there. No one who is Georgian and are from there can. It is a horrible situation and I just want to raise awareness because I know that NO ONE really knows what's going on.

I hope to get as much information as I can about what's going on and hopefully people will start following and telling people. So we can STOP THIS!


Take care out there and remember without LOVE there never will be PEACE.

This Country is beautiful and the people are but with UNREST no one can live in peace.

Avon Anew Youth Awakening Lipstick

I had ordered a sample of Anew Youth Awakening Lipstick in Berry Bloom and have just tried it..

It is VERY moisturising. It isn’t sticky and it is a beautiful colour. What it does to your lips is amazing. The colour is so beautiful when the light hits it..it feels like I’m not even wearing lipstick. It’s a beautiful colour…it has hues of pink, red and purple.

I definitely recommend this! Can’t wait to try other colours.

DISCLAIMER: I am an Avon representative. I buy the products with my own money. Don’t get paid to review, just want to do it so I can help you decide if you want to buy or not :)

Avon's Advance Techniques Professional Hair Colour

Dyed my mum’s hair and now after it has developed an washed the colour is beautiful and it covered 99% of her gray hair!!! Her natural hair colour is very dark black and its so hard to colour the greys but this has done it!

She has tried SO many home dyes and NONE got rid of the greys like this did! She was amazed after she had conditioned her hair.

She will be buying it again. And for 8 euro it’s a good price for a brilliant hair dye.

Worth buying.

Being an Avon Representative so far..

I have been an Avon Representative for a week now and I can say that I enjoy it. So far one of my customers has been very happy with her products she got today…and yes she is my sister but at least she liked the products.

Yes the money isn’t as good as what you think it would be for the hard work you put in but I know that once you continue going out there handing out brochures and selling your money will become better and build up.

I can’t really say any more but so far it has been good and it’s nice to be able to get out there and meet new people and I think that this is probably one of the jobs where you do get to interact with people more.

For anyone who is thinking of being an Avon Representative I say go for it because it is enjoyable and the money will add up in the end. Also you have control over when you do it so you are in control of your work.