Ancient Monuments of Abkhazia as a Means of Its History’s Falsification

Abstract

There are a lot of facts of deliberate falsification of history. Abkhazia and Georgia are neighbors geographically having a common history. In Georgian historiography, the denial of the Abkhaz people and Abkhazia’s existence became the norm: attempts are being made to prove that Apsua and Abkhaz are two different ethnic groups, that Abkhaz and Abkhaz language in medieval sources were used in the meaning of Georgian and Georgian language. Nowadays, Georgia claims that there are 1,100 Georgian architectural monuments on the territory of Abkhazia which include such ancient temples as the Church of Dormition of Lykhny of the 10th century, the Church of St. Simon the Canaanite (New Athos), the Dranda Cathedral (6th–8th centuries), and other religious objects, pieces of art. However, these political statements are not true. At various times, temple objects from Abkhazia surfaced in Georgia, storing the icon of the Pitsunda Mother of God in the Gelat Monastery, located near Kutaisi; the Golden Cup from the Bedia Church; the Gospel which belonged to the Mokva Archbishop’s Seat and is held now in the Museum of Art of Georgia in Tbilisi. Georgia considers these artifacts Georgian and refuses to return them to Abkhazia. The falsification also affected the Besleti Bridge, one of the ancient architectural monuments of Abkhazia located on the river Basla near Sukhumi. According to Abkhaz scientists, the date of the bridge’s construction was falsified in 1935 during the restoration work carried out by Georgian researchers. The biographies of well-known figures of science and culture of Abkhazia were also falsified. All these examples show that modern Abkhazia has a lot of work to do to rewrite its state history.