Photo: Fehim Taştekin

By Fehim Taştekin

It was a rainy day when I travelled to the Abkhazian border. I travelled over Lazarevsky, Sochi and Adler to the Abkhazian border. Abkhazia is one of the places I most wanted to visit at the coastal Black Sea at the Caucasus.

It was the first days of January 2002 when I noticed an article at the internet web site of the Georgian Parliament. It was trying to present the realities of the embargo on Abkhazia, imposed by The Commonwealth of Independent States, The CIS since year 1995. The article detailed how the embargo was evaded over Russia.

I also had written an article in October 2001 and had named it "An Abkhazian Photograph." I had reviewed the embargo on Abkhazia as regards to its handicaps in communications, in travel, in business and in diplomatic channels. There was an international conference in Brussels on 25-26 October 2001 and I presented this article to the participants of The Conference for Stability at Caucasus.

Any reader of the internet-article of The Georgian Parliament naturally wonders whether there is an embargo on Abkhazia.

Georgia utilizes and profits from the exaggerated number of refugee Abkhazian-Georgians and likewise the Abkhazians could have been utilizing the embargo message to get the World know about the oppression on them.

There you have questions now: Does the Abkhazian Government is hiding behind the embargo and trying to launder its failures. Embargo feeds monopoly, black market, smuggling and underground economy. The people are the victims of embargo and the same creature is a blessing for some and makes them rich. Privileged are protected by state power, police and politicians. Officials either have direct benefit or gets a commission.

The life of the oppressed

Peddlers of tangerines on the road to Abkhazia are reminders of embargo. Soon I view shanties on both sides of the road. 70 year old elders are here to sell some tangerines and earn the daily bread. Caucasian elders are healthy but their backs are arched out of the embargo.

I say myself, I wish I had the money to buy all of these tangerines and save these people from this burden.

Armenians leads the business

This place seems like a free port. There is activity here. Everybody is trying to sell and go back to their homes. Their faces looks unhappy and even stressed. The Caucasians I just visited at Adyghea were very relaxed in North and it is just the opposite here. Armenians leads the business here in hard currency and they are the shop owners.

Russian and Abkhazian passports

Elders and children freely move with Russian and Abkhazian passports. Abkhazian passport has a symbolic value at abroad. Russian passports let them travel at abroad. Other means to override the embargo is to bribe the Russian soldiers to go to the South of Russia. Other countries is a luxury for Abkhazian People. And I am at the border to view the Abkhazia.