The Apsny.Iakhya media club recently published an interview with the secretary of the separatist so-called "Security Council of Abkhazia", Sergei Shamba, in which he assessed the current state of Abkhazian-Russian relations:

 "I believe that the current level of our sovereignty is unprecedented. Because as a historian, I can say that there have been different stages of development of our state, and we can always be proud of the Abkhazian kingdom's creation and existence. But even then we had a certain dependence on Byzantium because the Abkhazian kings received their titles from there and were important political officials of Byzantium. Today we are a completely independent state, as far as it can be in the world, of course, we have obligations that bind any state that participates in the global process, but today our main strategic ally and trade and economic partner is Russia, which offers us all opportunities for security and development, because the most important problem for society is security. It is quite obvious that having allied relations with such a great power, a nuclear power, we have quite reliable guarantees. Every small state in the history of mankind looks for allies, and finally, through a complex political struggle and military victory, we have such a reliable opportunity to protect our country and our society," said Sergey Shamba.

A very clever turn of events - Sergey Shamba knows very well that in today's Russia the concept of "succession" to Byzantium or Rome, in other words, "the Second Rome", is popular. We were once vassals of the "Second Rome", and Moscow became the "Third Rome".

As a historian, Sergei Shamba should know some important points.

The dependence of Georgian states on the Byzantine (or Roman) Empire was short-lived.  Abkhazia "separated" from this very "second Rome" and became a "gathering place" of Georgian lands thanks to the Khazar Khaganate, which supported the Orthodox Georgians against the iconoclasts who for a time seized power in the Roman Empire.

The inhabitants of what was then Abkhazia did not separate themselves from the fraternal Georgian people. They began to pray in churches in Georgian (and not in Greek, as in the original times of Byzantine domination), but retained their unique culture (unlike many peoples assimilated in Byzantium, who became "Greeks").

The first in the title of Georgian kings was "King of the Abkhazians" - this was the high position Abkhazia occupied in the united Georgian state as the original "nucleus". Over time, the united Georgian state not only became an "alternative" to Constantinople or a "second Rome" for the Christians of the Caucasus but soon surpassed that very "second Rome" in power.

Under Queen Tamar, after the fall of Constantinople to the Crusaders and the collapse of Byzantium, the Georgians established a "pocket Roman Empire" or "pocket Byzantium" based on their eastern possessions, with its center at Trebizond (modern Trabzon). The legitimate dynasty of the Comneni, related to the Georgian kings and based on the indigenous inhabitants of the eastern Black Sea region - the Lazi Georgians - was placed on top of this state formation.

In other words, the United State of Georgians and Abkhazians did not need to imagine itself as the "Third Rome" (as Moscow later declared about itself). Because the legitimate "Second Rome" ("the main part of Byzantium" - the Trapezunian Empire, which was not officially called "Trapezunian", but like Byzantium - Roman) became a vassal of Georgia (and not vice versa).

The "Roman Emperor" actually became a vassal of the "King of the Abkhazians"! This is such a glorious history of the Abkhazians and the brotherly Georgian people.

So what happens now with the alleged "sovereignty" of the Abkhazians? And what is happening is this: The Abkhazian people are dying out and their land is being colonised by foreigners (mainly Armenian migrants). Under the guise of imaginary "sovereignty", the separatist leadership is handing over Abkhazian land and the future of its people to outsiders. Recently, the Russian leadership took Pitsunda away from Abkhazia, simply not caring about the opinion of the Abkhazian people, and this is just the beginning.

So the level of Abkhazian separatist 'sovereignty' is currently unprecedented in the sense that never before in history has a state entity that considers itself 'sovereign' had so few real rights and opportunities. This includes the elementary right of self-preservation.

At the whim of the occupiers of the Russian Federation, they can simply take away any land from Abkhazia, wherever they think of it, be it in Pitsunda or near Sukhumi airport. In Abkhazia, the occupiers can, without asking anyone, set up any military facilities that put Abkhazia and the Abkhazian people under military attack. For example, likewise the base of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation in Ochamchira. Formally, the supposedly 'sovereign' separatist Abkhazia has not declared war on Ukraine. But it has already been dragged into it by occupiers against the will of the Abkhazian people. And today Abkhazians are dying on the Ukrainian front, and their relatives and friends have indeed become "legitimate targets" for Ukrainian strikes. After all, the whole of Abkhazia is a zone of deployment of the Russian military and its facilities.

The imaginary "sovereignty" of the separatists was well characterized by the Abkhazian public figure Tengiz Jopua on his Facebook page. In particular, he wrote a post pondering whether the Abkhazian separatist "elite" needs to be part of another state. Let it be the "Third Rome":

 "In this case, borders will disappear, including elitist ones, and competition will arise, and it will be so powerful and ruthless that our political elite will not have the character and firmness not only to stand on their feet but even to remain on all fours. They will be quickly "lowered" and shown a place, and not the best one, in the general "prison of nations", as Lenin correctly noted, and he noted it in the right context.

No, all this talk of a union state, let alone joining someone, is dust in the eyes. The elite knows how to flatter, grovel, and crawl on satin carpets because without all these lies there is no money and without money, there is no power. The people have been fed like fish in a pond, and the people are waiting for bread, only bread, and even spectacles are no longer needed.

Paradoxically, the erosion of state institutions that our political elite allows and supports is itself leading Abkhazia into foreign hands. If it becomes part of another state, the first to fall will be the elite and their entire family, all their lands, the wealth stolen from their people - everything will be taken away. And they feel it in their skin. They feel it and they are afraid of it.... As early as the mid-19th century, the question of the Abkhazian elite was raised in St Petersburg. Someone there wondered why the Abkhazian nobles had decided that they were nobles... So learn history and you will be happy" - reminded Tengiz Dzhopua.

Tengiz Dzhopua did not mention that the Abkhazian nobles retained the rights of nobility only because they proved that they were part of the Georgian nobility, which they were. No one questioned the nobility of the Georgian nobility in the Russian Empire.

If these Abkhazian nobles had proved their "separateness from the Georgians", not only would they not have been left with their noble rights and privileges, they would probably have been simply expelled, like the majority of the Abkhazian people. Only a small number of Abkhazians managed to stay in their homeland, largely because Georgian personalities stood up for them before the Russian tsarist government.

It is obvious that the Abkhazian people, whose future is guaranteed by the Georgian constitution, can only preserve their future in unity with the brotherly Georgian people. Without reconciliation with the Georgian people, without unity with Georgia, the Abkhazians have no future.

Completely dependent on the occupiers, the separatist pseudo-"sovereignty" is only used by outsiders to take over Abkhazian lands. And the Abkhazian people, already dying out, are under threat of either being expelled or destroyed in another war or 'special military operation'.

Alexandre Zakariadze