The pro-Russian leader of Abkhaziaseparatist region of Georgiasaid Saturday he was ready to “resign” if the demonstrators agree to leave parliament, which they entered the day before to protest against an economic agreement with Moscow. Abkhazia, a small region located between the Caucasus mountains and the Black Sea coast, unilaterally declared its independence in 1992, which was recognized by Moscow but not by almost the entire international community.
On Friday, demonstrators broke into parliament and a presidential administration building to prevent the ratification of an agreement allowing Russian companies to invest in Abkhazia. In particular, they demanded the resignation of the leader Aslan Bjania. “Those who attempted a coup must liberate the building complex, after which I am ready to organize elections, ready to resign.”said Aslan Bjania on Saturday, according to Russian state agencies.
Around ten people were injured during Friday’s demonstration. Demonstrators had already blocked bridges in this territory, around Sukhumi, a town of some 65,000 inhabitants, for a few hours this week, following the arrest of five opponents of the agreement with Moscow, who were eventually released. The opposition fears that the agreement signed at the end of October will pave the way for Russians to buy apartments in Abkhazia, in the many seaside towns on the Black Sea coast.
The sale of residential property to foreigners was banned in 1995 in Abkhazia, which has a population of around 240,000. The Russian Foreign Ministry said its “concern” at these tensions, and regretted that the opposition had not “did not consider it possible to resolve its differences with the country’s legitimate authorities through civilized and respectful dialogue”.. Following a brief war which saw its army enter Georgian territory in 2008, Moscow recognized the independence of two separatist regions bordering on its territory, Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia has maintained a military presence there ever since.
Abkhazia had unilaterally declared its independence from Georgia after the collapse of the USSR, and defended it during a war against Georgian forces in the early 1990s, with unofficial support from Moscow.