On August 14, 34 years will have passed since the start of hostilities in Abkhazia.
Interpressnews reports that citizens and veterans have been visiting the memorial to heroes who died fighting for Georgia’s territorial integrity.
On August 14, 1992, by the decision of the State Council of Georgia, led by Eduard Shevardnadze, units of the Georgian Armed Forces were deployed to Abkhazia to restore order on the railway. When Georgian units entered Abkhazia, the so-called Abkhaz Guard, illegally formed by Vladislav Ardzinba, the Chairman of the Supreme Council of Abkhazia, opened fire on a Georgian detachment at a traffic police checkpoint in the village of Okhurei, Ochamchire District.
The main phase of the military operations that began in Abkhazia on August 14 lasted 13 months and 13 days, concluding with the fall of Sukhumi on September 27, 1993. In the operation to capture Sukhumi, alongside Abkhaz units, volunteers from the North Caucasus, mobilized Cossacks, and various units of the Russian Armed Forces, supported by the Russian government, participated.
As a result of the war, up to 300,000 people, predominantly ethnic Georgians, were forced to flee Abkhazia. The conflict claimed the lives of up to 10,000 people from the Georgian side, including both soldiers and civilians.
