შენ ნამდვილად არ გესმის ჩემი, როგორც ვხედავ! შენი მსჯელობების ყოველთვის არ ემთხვევა ერთმანეთს . . .
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History of Georgia
Abkhazia
By Natela B. Popkhadze
THE TOPONYM SOKHUMI IN ACCORDANCE WITH MAPS OF A. JENKINS, J. HONDIUS ETC
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Around 1860 Russian officials George Rozen and Piotr Uslar published booklets where the Absua language was improperly called the Abkhaz language and was considered to be the mother tongue of the indigenous population of Sokhumi region called Abkhazeti today—part of Sakartvelo i.e. Georgia.
This was the beginning of the abuse of the truth and the falsification of the reality that was widely adopted and repeated abroad. That hypothesis on the identity of two various concepts: the Georgian word ‘Abkhazi’ and, on the other hand—an alien word Absua (Afsua, Abzoa) became the basis for the creation of the autonomous status of Abkhazia in Soviet times..
In the Absua language there is no word ‘Abkhazi’ at all. The concept that the Georgians call ‘Abkhazi’ is rendered into the Absuan as ‘Absua’ and just that is improper. Those two words were not considered to be identical until the invention of the Rozen—Uslar supposition in mid 19th century. They wrote that the Absua ethnicity supposedly might be considered to be indigenous in Abkhazeti because the Roman scientist Pliny in the 1st c. carelessly mentioned the word ‘Absilai’ in a tiny region at the Black sea where Abkhazia now is and that the word ‘Absilai’ sounds somewhat like the word Absua—a self-name of an ethnicity that lives in various countries today.
The important thing is that Pliny indeed mentioned the population called ‘Abzoa’ in the Latin original of the description of the world, but far from the region called Abkhazeti today—in the lowlands of the River Volga called Ra in those days-- at the northern coast of the Caspian sea. According to Nicolas Marr, Teimuraz Botsvadze, Givi Nebieridze, Alexandr Starostin etc. the Absua ethnicity lived in the upper region of the River Volga basin before 1st century and that the tribes called the Voguls and the Ostiaks that still live there are their kin.
Professor Teimuraz Botsvadze wrote this in his summary that concerned the article of the author of this communication concerning the place where Pliny wrote the Absua ethnicity lived in the 1st century. T. Botsvadze wrote that these findings ought to be widely circulated through the media both in Georgian and other languages so that the public at large would learn the truth. In the last decade scientists in Georgia claim that the Georgian “Abkhazi”is not identical with the Absuan word ‘Absua’ and that the mistake introduced by G. Rozen must be eliminated.
To this effect we would like to mention that in mid 19th century a French scientist prof. Frederic Dubois de Montpereux that was born near Neuchatel in Switzerland and was Head of the Chair of Ethnology at the University in Strasbourg was sent by the French government to Georgia for investigation of the natural resources, the population and the political stability in the region. He spent in Caucasus region almost a year and traveled a lot. He investigated the scientific literature concerning Georgia in many languages including the Georgian (the Georgians helped him) and produced a huge work in six volumes in French and five Atlases of maps and drawings.
In 1839 he was awarded the Great Gold Medal of the Geographical Society in Paris for the first volume of this work called ‘Le Voyage Autur de Caucase ’where he, fascinated by the Georgian nation, wrote: ‘The great Georgian nation (la grand nation Georgienne) guards the Caucasus region since time immemorial. Invaders came and went, but Georgia was like a healthy vine-tree that bends to the ground and stretches the branches on the earth when the storms rage but spreads the branches to the sun again immediately as the storm is over. The folklore of the Georgians may tell the world much about the dawn of the civilization” F. Dubois’s Atlases were made and printed at the Neuchatel Geographical Society. In order to travel unhampered he visited the Russian Emperor Nicholas I and told him he was a lonely scientist and received a permit to visit places without any inconvenience. Sometimes he was considered to be a French spy and his Protestant Christian religion was unwelcome with the public at large, but the letter of recommendation given to him by the Emperor worked miracles. Map no.13 in F. Dubois’s Atlas called ‘Historical Geography’ was made according to the description of Georgia made by Pliny in the 1st century.
Pliny mentioned that his contemporary King Mythridatus was his informant in the description of Caucasus region and that he talked to him. That king was called Mythridatus of Iberia (Georgia) by the French translator of Pliny—Prof. F. Littre’ at the end of the 19th c. in Paris. King Mythridatus indeed ruled Iberia in Georgia at that time. Mithridatus was attacked by the Roman army in the Crimean peninsula , was charged for a plot against the Romans, was replaced by another person and sent to Rome where he spent twenty long years where he could indeed talk to Pliny as the latter was an esteemed statesman and admiral there.
Afterwards Mythridatus was assassinated by another Roman emperor for an alleged participating in a plot contrived against him. On the large map made by F. Dubois according to Pliny the Abzoa—Absoa ethnicity is attested in the River Volga basin—and not where Abkhazeti now is. Beside the word ‘Abzoa’ (‘e’ is added for the plural in Latin appearing as Abzoae) ‘Book 6, chapter 13’ is written so that the reader might easily find where this text is printed in Pliny’s Natural History—an Encyclopedia that has the description of every field of science of those days: Geography, History, Botany. Metallurgy, Art, Medicine, Agriculture etc. in 37 books. No one had checked whether Pliny indeed mentioned the Abzoa ethnicity at the Caspian sea or elsewhere until 1988 when the author of this paper checked the Latin originals of Pliny in several editions and also in the English, French, German translations available in Tbilisi and printed in England, France, Germany by various persons at various times.
It was easy to see after that that the Rozen—Uslar hypothesis was a deliberate fraud. The Soviet historian Prof. Lev Elnitski paid attention to the text of Pliny printed in Russian as an excerpt from ‘Natural History’ and deliberately hushed the truth concerning the place where the Abzoa—Absoa ethnicity was confirmed to live—in the Volga river basin . He published in various books that in the famous edition of Pliny edited by Prof .H. Racham the word ‘Anti’ is published instead of the word ‘Abzoa’ and thus ‘Anti’ is the right word there—and that was a lie; in another book L.Elnitski wrote that though Pliny mentioned the Abzoa ethnicity at the Eastern coast of the Caspian sea (in this again he lied, it was at the north-western coast) it did not matter at all as Pliny was the only person that mentioned that ethnicity in any language so far( L. Elnitski., Znania drevnikh o severnikh stranakh. 1961.Moscva. Izdatelstvo politicheskoi literaturi; Vestnic drevnei istorii. no.2. 1949. p.302). L. Elnitski was a famous Soviet historian and he was paid his salary just for investigating and publishing the data about Caucasus region written by the Greek and the Roman scientists.
The fact that he twice at various times—in 1949 and in 1961 deceived the public at large and the scientists means that he was determined not to reveal the truth concerning the ethnic Absuas --that they lived far from Abkhazeti in the 1st century—lest the Rozen—Uslar invention—a false hypothesis-- be damaged. The truth would reveal and prove that ethnic Absuas may not be called ‘Abkhazi’ in Georgian and in other languages—a fraud imposed by Russia since the 1860-ies. This was delivered in a communication at the International Conference in Byzantine Studies in Moscow at the session called History of the Byzantine Investigations where professor Karsten Fledelius was head of the session.
The participants at this session from Moldova, the Ukraine, Latvia etc. complained that scientists were persecuted for the truth and that they wrote the bias for decades in order to save the lives of their families in the USSR. Prof. Fledelius said he was amazed at the absurdities that the Soviet scientists sometimes wrote but now that he learned the reason everything was clear. I delivered a large map of F. Dubois, the copy of the original text of Pliny concerning the Abzoa ethnicity and a copy of the biased text of L.Elnitski concerning that text of Pliny. The participants of the session were able to see the fraud of L. Elnitski. Prof. Fledelius said at the end of the report that sometimes such improper things happen in the world and that the truth ought to be propagated through all kinds of the media—first of all new true schoolbooks need be written as they have the greatest impact upon the society. Prof. K Fledelius was elected President of the International Byzantine Society the next day. Today these data are introduced in several books and in many articles of various authors in Georgia and are displaied on the internet.
In 1995 Mr. T. Gvantseladze published a map of J. Gastaldi made in 1523 where the place name ‘Acua’ was depicted far from Abkhazeti region of Georgia—north of the northern Caucasus. Acua is an imposed official name of the Georgian ancient town Tskhumi ( distorted to ‘Sokhumi’ lately)-- in the Absua language since the forced sovietization of Georgia. The name ‘Tskhumi’ is still retained in the official ecclesiastical name of that region that consists of two regions as it historically used to be and is called “Tskhumi regional AND Abkhazeti regional Christian Orthodox eparchy of Georgia”; here the division is retained from former centuries and Tskhumi i.e. Sokhumi region is not included into Abkhazeti region but is outside Abkhazeti! Centuries ago the territory called Abkhazeti today was divided into three regions and only one small region was called Abkhazeti. Other two regions were those of Bedia and Tskhumi i.e. Sokhumi of our days. Abkhazeti did not mean the land of the Absuas, of cause. No one talked the Absua language and there were no ethnic Absuas in Southern or Northern Caucasus in those days.
A congress of ethnic Georgians from all over the world was held in Georgia in 1994. As part of that congress a scientific symposium “Sakartvelo (i. e .Georgia) was held in Tbilisi and continued in Batumi with the aim of ending the soviet time absurdities concerning Georgia. The main topic of the Symposium was the way to end the abuse of the rights of the Georgian nation performed in Soviet times by separating part of the Georgians, registering them as ethnic ‘Abkhazi’, equating them with the small group of the immigrants called Absuas, imposition of the Absua language as if it were a mother tongue of the Soviet Socialist nation called Abkhazi, denying these Georgians the right to their real ethnic name ‘Cartveli (Georgian) and to their real regional local name ‘Abkhazi’ in Georgian. The Symposium was led by Mrs. Denyse Sumbadze. Profs. Alexandre Oniani, Teimuraz Mibchuani, D.Tataraidze etc. insisted on the rehabilitation of the truth. At the end of the Symposium the adoption of the Resolution was planned on that problem but head of that Congress of the Georgians of the World—Mr. Revaz Chkheidze insisted that the guests were invited to the museum, therefore he closed the session in a hurry so that the resolution was not presented to the public that desired to ratify it Communications to the Symposium were published . Booklet no.2 contained our communication concerning the false Rozen—Uslar hypothesis and a large map of F. Dubois was printed at the publishing house as a separate edition and distributed among participants. In 1997 maps hitherto unknown in Georgia made by famous western European scientists of former centuries were published ( Iohanne Iohansonn, Nicholas Vitzen, F.de Vitte etc.) by T. Gvantseladze showing the place ‘Acua’ was far from Abkhazeti. In 1999 the author of this communication revealed two important maps made by famous Dutch mapmaker Jodochus Hondius in 1600 and Anthony Jenkins from London in 1562. J.Hondius placed the geographical place name Acua far from Abkhazeti—near the Northern coast of the Azof sea where the Ukraine is today.
A. Jenkins gave valuable information that the ’Afsua’ (Absua) ethnicity lived just where J. Hondius painted the place name ‘Acua’—where the Ukraine is today—north of the Azof sea and painted a galloping man on horseback there that was a sign that the population Afsua was nomadic even in 1600. The apparel of that man is a black gown and is not the Georgian apparel called ‘Chokha’ and falsely considered to be the national costume of the Absua that baselesly claim to be indigenous in Caucasus. I found the latter two maps on the website of the Yale University library where it is displayed since 1998. These maps are reprinted from Abraham Ortelius. Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Antwerp. 1657(I thank Mr. Frederick Musto from the Yale University Library for providing me that important information by e-mail in 1999).
It is important to note that the Georgian kings have never mentioned any Absua ethnicity anywhere in the world as apparently they were unknown to them.A famous professor in International Law, the Deputy Rector of the Tbilisi State University Prof. Sergo. Jorbenadze was head of the Committee for the investigations concerning Abkhazeti in 1992-ies. He was acquainted by the author of this communication with the data of the map of Pliny, F. Dubois and he found them to be very important. After his death Prof. Givi Lobjanidze substituted him as Head of the Juridical Commission on Abkhazeti .The author aquainted him with the data of Pliny, F. Dubois. Various alien recent terrorist immigrants –criminals are registered as ethnic Abkhazians and Absuas. Today immigrants demand Georgian territory and immigrants have committed the genocide of the indigenous Georgian population in Georgia.
The principle of the self-determination of nations was unjustly transferred from interstate to intrastate relations. This gave birth to ethnic conflicts in many countries. When the grandchildren and children of the generation of various persecuted alien population of immigrants that were granted the political asylum in a new country (in this case, in Georgia) and have been given equal rights and obligations with the Georgians there decide to create a new independent country of their own on the land of the host country, that is the violation of all decent human norms. The international society must not let such things happen.
Georgia declares that it follows the international judicial norms that forbid the creation of an independent political unit of any immigrant ethnicity on another nation’s territory(T. Gugeshashvili). This is already a norm in the international law but is ignored in the case of Georgia. No one need think that France, Italy, Germany etc. are made by the French, the Italians, the Germans etc., and Georgia is made by the Georgians, the Oss, the Absua(pseudoabkhazians), the Azeries, the Armenians, the Turks etc. Georgia is a country of the Georgian nation that is the first, the earliest population on the territory called Georgia. The Georgians have cultivated this territory from the vulgar uncultivated state millenia ago. The Georgians living in various parts of Georgia are accordingly called as their regions are called: those that live in Guria are called the Gurians unofficially(the present president of Georgia is the Gurian in that sense, while the first president of Georgia was from Samegrelo and hence Megreli); the Georgians from Meskheti are called the Meskhs or Meskhetians, the Georgians from Ajara are called Ajarians; the Georgians that live in Abkhazeti are called the Abkhazi etc. They are all ethnic Georgians but Ajarians, Gurians, Meskhetians, Abkhazians regionally. The Abkhaz are the same as the rest of the Georgians living in Abkhazeti. Declaring the Abkhazians to be a nongeorgian Absua ethnicity was done in Soviet days for the purpose of the separation of Abkhazeti from the rest of Georgia and for the subsequent annexation of Abkhazia by the Russian Federation( with the wrong principle that as Abkhazi are declared to be a separate ethnicity, a nation, that live on the territory called Abkhazeti then it means that they have the right to create their own country Abkhazeti. For that wiked reason was the creation of the Alphabet for the so called ‘Abkhaz’ nation undertaken by the Russian Tsarist and afterwards Russian Soviet officials.
There was not the word ‘Alphabet’ in the Absua language and the Georgian ‘Anbani’ was used for that term. The letters were mostly newly created as neither Georgian, nor Latin, nor Russian were able to convey the strange sounds of the Absuan and the alphabet was changed several times. We have to distinguish between two groups—the ethnic Georgian, regionally Abkhaz persons, and—on the other hand, ethnic indefinite, undetermined various, mostly recent immigrant population— that were willingly and freely registered in their Soviet passports as ‘the Abkhazians’ in Georgian( on the first page of their passports) and Russian (on the second page of the passports) but as ‘Absua’ in the Absua language on the third page of their Soviet passports. Before the Soviet times most of the persons that immigrated to Georgia did not have any passports whatever and lived a nomadic life elsewhere.
The Session of the Supreme Council of the regional government of the north-western region of Georgia (Abkhazia) adopted a Resolution on July 25 , 2002, saying that the Session resolves: To take into account that during Tsarist and Soviet rule the real historical meaning of the Georgian word ‘Abkhazi’, denoting the local Georgian population of the region Abkhazeti was falsified and it was officially accepted as the national name of the immigrant population that came from the North in recent times that identify their ethnicity as ‘Absua’.
Due to these manipulations the local indigenous Georgians were deprived of their regional name Abkhazi and it became practically possible to discriminate the indigenous Georgians , as, no longer ‘titular’ one—politically, socially, economically and in many other fields, and to repress it. In order to escape from these repressions many thousands of the local Georgians had to agree to the definition of their ethnicity in official documents as ‘Abkhazi’ (Abkhazian), but not in the true l sense of that word denoting local Georgian from the region called Abkhazeti, but in its new artificial meaning that was rendered into Russian as ‘Abkhazets’ and in Absua language as ‘’the Absua’.
History of Georgia
THE TOPONYM SOKHUMI IN ACCORDANCE WITH MAPS OF A. JENKINS, J. HONDIUS ETC
The attitude of the Russian Emperor ( before 1917) and the policy of the USSR were the same in this question. The name ‘Abkhazi’ (in Russian Abkhazets) was given to Absuas and only to those Georgians that consented that their nationality be registered in documents as not Georgian, but only ‘Abkhazi’= Abkhazets =Absua. Considering these facts and the acuteness of the ethnic repressions both under the tsarist and the Soviet rule , the indigenous Georgian population of Abkhazeti is recognized to be a victim population of tsarist and Soviet reppressions. In order to be in line with the historical truth, to be precise and to respect the terminological tradition of the Absua ethnicity, a series of the international and educational measures shall be undertaken to restore the name ‘Abkhazi’ in its true meaning as indicating the local identity of ethnic Georgians from the region called Abkhazeti(Abkhazia). It shall be clarified and explained both to the population of Abkhazeti and to the international community that it is very important to restore in the official terminology the ethnic identification ‘Absua’ for the persons that identify themselves to be ‘Absua’ which is their only identification name, having had no alternative in history, but that was identified as ‘Abkhazian’ since Soviet times so far. this terminological correction may neutralize one of the main sources of mutual distrust and fear between the Georgian and the Absua population of Abkhazeti and abolish the main obstacle standing between them.
The rehabilitation of the term ‘Abkhazi’ in its real historical meaning should be considered as a necessity to prevent the aggrevation of the present conflict, and to abolish the occupation of Abkhazeti by a foreign country. Abkhazeti region is ruled today by a fascist terrorist regime that has conducted the atrocities, the gross violation of the indigenous Georgian population, the act of the genocide of and the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Georgian population of Abkhazeti. The problems of the north-west Georgia called Abkhazeti and of the Tskhinvali region of Georgia should be considered as one—as the result of the subversive activity of Russia against Georgia...The Parliament of Georgia is requested to discuss the present resolution and to make due organizational and political inferences.
”The Vice-President of the Parliament of Georgia Mr. Vakhtang Kolbaia is head of the Parliamentary commission on the Conflict in Abkhazia (Georgia). He is well acquainted with the above mentioned documents and maps that were passed to his commission years ago. Nevertheless the Parliament of Georgia has not considered the abovementioned Resolution adopted a year ago. This Resolution of 25 July. 2002 was delivered to the participants of the session of this Conference and handed to the organization committee of this conference. The Georgian archives prove that the Georgian government asked the USSR statistical committee in 1927 to do away with the blemishes of the USSR population census of 1926 and to publish its results on Georgia in the following manner: The Georgians: among them: the Svans, the Ajarana, the Megrels, the Abkhaz. Moscow accepted the proposition almost completely, except that the Abkhazians were again registered as nongeorgian ethnicity and that was a n abuse of the reality. Other absurdities of the Soviet time population Census of Georgia were discussed in detail by prof. M Natmeladze and published several times. It is advisable to do away with those abuses of the reality.
Literature cited:
1. Mepis-dze Teimuraz (Bagrationi). History of Georgia (in Geo). Peterburg.1848
2. Pliny. Natural History. ed. by H. Racham. The Loaeb Classical Library.vol..2; Book 6. 1956
3. Abraham Ortelius. Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Antwerp.1657
4. F. Dubois. Voyage autour de Caucase... vol 1, Paris. 1839 and “Atlas”. I series. Neuchatel. 1845
5. Resolutions of the Session of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, 14 May and 25 July, 2002. Sakartvelo, Abkhazetis Khma, newsp. Jul.28, 2002
6. N. Popkhadze. Racism, Terror, Genocide Against Sacartvelo. Tbilisi. 2002
7. Archive of Political Parties of Georgia. F.14. Descr. 6. Doc. 158. p. 56
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Chkoniვგონებ ინგლისური იცი. იქნებ ნათელა ფოფხაძემ მაინც გაგაგებინოს ის, რაც მე ვერ გაგაგებინე
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