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Ahkhazia is an administrative division of northwestern Georgia. Its capital is Sukhumi, and it measures 3,320 sq. miles.
(AHD, 1971, p.3)

1931        USSR leader Joseph Stalin turned Abkhazia into an autonomous region of Georgia. Beria, his secret police chief, later resettled Georgians from the western part of the country in Abkhazia.
    (Econ, 7/5/08, p.64)

1992-1993    Separatists in the northwestern province of Abkhazia took over control in a civil war. War between Abkhaz forces and Georgians killed 10,000 and left the Black Sea region as a de facto independent but unrecognized state. The Georgian inhabitants, who had numbered 45% of the population, were forced out of the region.
    (SFC, 2/21/98, p.A10)(SFC, 5/26/98, p.A8)(Econ, 8/21/04, p.41)(Econ, 7/5/08, p.64)

1993        Mar 19, Georgia shot down a Russian warplane over the separatist Abkhazia region, killing its pilot and heightening tensions.
    (AP, 3/19/03)

1993        Georgia became a member of Russia's Commonwealth of Independent States; Russia, in return, backed Shevardnadze against Abkhaz rebels.
    (http: ICL)

1994        Nov, Abkhazia declared independence from Georgia and set up its own government. No other country gave recognition. Residents of the area numbered about 200,000 and spoke their own language. Vladislav Ardzinba became president.
    (SSFC, 9/24/06, p.A20)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3261059.stm)

1994        Georgia reached a cease-fire with Abkhazia.
    (SFC, 11/24/03, p.A11)

1998        May 25, Fighting between Abkhaz forces and Georgian irregulars raged inside a Russian patrolled buffer zone despite an agreed 1993 cease-fire. Georgia later claimed that 100 people died and that 38,000 Georgians were driven from their homes.
    (SFC, 5/26/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/26/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 5/28/98, p.A1)

2001        Dec, Abandoned Soviet nuclear batteries were found in the mountains of Abkhazia filled with strontium 90. Efforts followed to retrieve the devices.
    (SFC, 2/1/02, p.A14)

2002        Mar 21, It was reported that Georgian fighters expected to use their US training against secessionists in Abkhazia, which was unofficially protected by Russia.
    (SFC, 3/21/02, p.A1)

2002        Apr 12, Russia sent troops into the Kodori gorge of Georgia to watch the Abkhazia border. The move was condemned by Georgian officials and troops were soon withdrawn.
    (SFC, 4/13/02, p.A11)(WSJ, 4/15/02, p.A1)

2004        Feb 26, Mikhail Saakashvili, the new president of Georgia, said he is ready to negotiate full autonomy for the separatist Abkhazia region to end the decade-long conflict.
    (AP, 2/26/04)

2004        Dec 5, In Abkhazia (Georgia) the two candidates vying for the region's presidency agreed to conduct new elections and run on a joint ticket.
    (AP, 12/6/04)

2007        Aug 25, A senior official of the separatist region said a plane of uncertain origin went down over Abkhazia, a day after Georgia reported that its forces fired on a plane believed to be Russian that had violated the country's airspace.
    (AP, 8/25/07)

2007        Sep 20, A clash between Georgian and separatist Abkhazian forces too place some 330 yards inside Abkhaz-held territory. Several Abkhaz soldiers were wounded and 2 former Russian military officers were killed.
    (SFC, 10/30/07, p.A6)

2007        Oct 15, The Security Council voted unanimously to extend the UN observer mission in Georgia, expressing "serious concern" at violence that has escalated tensions between Georgia and the breakaway region of Abkhazia.
    (AP, 10/15/07)

2008        Mar 6, A lawmaker said Abkhazia, a region that broke away from Georgian government control in the 1990s, intends to seek international recognition as an independent nation, citing Kosovo as a precedent.
    (AP, 3/6/08)

2008        Apr 20, A Georgian unmanned reconnaissance flight was shot down over the Georgian rebel region of Abkhazia. The next day Georgia's air force commander said a Russian fighter jet shot down the spy plane as it flew over Abkhazia, but Russia said it had been shot down by separatist forces and that the flight violated UN ceasefire agreements. A UN report on May 26 said a Russian jet shot down the spy drone.
    (Reuters, 4/22/08)(AP, 4/22/08)(SFC, 5/27/08, p.A12)

2008        Apr 29, Russia announced it was beefing up its peacekeeping force in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, saying it had evidence Tbilisi was readying its forces for an attack.
    (Reuters, 4/29/08)

2008        May 1, Russia said an extra contingent of its troops had begun arriving in Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, a move Tbilisi said was an illegal act of military aggression.
    (AP, 5/1/08)

2008        May 4, Abkhazian anti-aircraft forces shot down 2 unmanned Georgian spy planes. A Georgian Foreign Ministry official, dismissed the claims as "completely absurd disinformation" aimed at increasing tension in the area.
    (AP, 5/4/08)

2008        May 8, Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia said it had shot down another Georgian spy drone.
    (Reuters, 5/8/08)

2008        Jun 5, The European Parliament called for the peacekeeping mandate for Russian troops in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia to be revised. The chamber also demanded the EU sends its own border mission into the conflict zone in Abkhazia.
    (AP, 6/5/08)

2008        Jul 8, Abkhazia's leader Sergei Bagapsh rejected a US proposal to deploy an international police force there.
    (AP, 7/8/08)

2008        Aug 9, Separatist forces in Georgia's breakaway province of Abkhazia launched air and artillery strikes to drive Georgian troops from their bridgehead in the region. The Abkhazian move was prompted by Georgia's military action to regain control over another breakaway province, South Ossetia.
    (AP, 8/9/08)

2008        Aug 11, Swarms of Russian jets launched new raids on Georgian territory and Georgia faced the threat of a second front of fighting as Russia demanded that Georgia disarm troops near the breakaway province of Abkhazia.
    (AP, 8/11/08)

2008        Aug 12, Georgia's Pres. Mikhail Saakashvili said his government will declare that its breakaway regions are occupied territories and will designate Russian peacekeepers as occupying forces. Russia ordered a halt to military action in Georgia, after five days of air and land attacks sent Georgia's army into headlong retreat and left towns and military bases destroyed. More than 2,000 people were reported killed. A Dutch television journalist was killed overnight when Russian warplanes bombed the central Georgian city of Gori.
    (AP, 8/12/08)

2008        Aug 16, Russian forces pulled back from the center of a town not far from Georgia's capital after Russia's president signed a cease-fire deal. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later suggested there would be no immediate broader withdrawal. Georgia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that Russian-backed separatists from the province of Abkhazia had taken over 13 villages in Georgia and a power plant. Russian troops blew up a key railroad bridge linking the Caucasus to the Black Sea coast.
    (AP, 8/16/08)(SSFC, 8/17/08, p.A4)

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