Tuesday 26 May 2009

Benetton in Abkhazia


Benetton Turkey, the Turkish arm of Italy’s leading manufacturer, announced the opening of a store in Sukhum, the capital of Abkhazia. Benetton Turkey became the first global brand to do so, after opening up a store in Tbilisi, Georgia.

''Abkhazia is the door that opens the historical Silk Road to the sea. It has a strategic importance with its tourism and sea transportation
," said Zeynep Selgur, general manager of Benetton Turkey, in a statement. "Benetton was the first global brand to open a branch in Turkey in 1985. We are proud to continue this trend in Abkhazia. We would like to continue our investments in Turkic Republics and in Cyprus.''

Each year approximately 1.5 million Russian tourists visit Sukhum.


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6 comments:

  1. Bravo to the Turkish Benetton that managed to open Benetton shop in the capital of Abkhazia. Abkhazia is an independent country and it should, deserves to develop in all possible ways. I am very happy with such developments.

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  2. First of all, try to be kind. I know this is difficult for you but at least try...

    Second, Abkhazia's independence recognized by two countries: Russia and Nicaragua. Do you still think NOBODY?!

    Third, Independence in Abkhazia was proclaimed on 31st March 1921. Despite the fact that from 1921 to 1931 Abkhazia was a sovereign republic with a relationship to Georgia that was based on a union treaty, communist party organizational units of Abkhazia were subordinated to Georgia. This was the reason in 1931 (under pressure from Stalin) for Abkhazia to be incorporated forcibly as an autonomous republic within the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Vladislav Ardzinba, first president of Abkhazia, stated: “In 1931 Abkhazia was transformed into an autonomous republic within the Georgian SSR. Seemingly it was the only republic whose political status changed under pressure from Stalin not upwards but downwards”.(Pravda, newspaper, 14 July 1989).

    Lets read ''DECLARATION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE OF THE SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA on Independence of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Abkhazia.''

    21 May 1921

    The Menshevik’s power, being bourgeois by its nature, oppressed the revolutionary movement of the national minorities and bred the antagonism between the certain minorities residing in Georgia throughout the centuries.

    Soviet power has a different approach to this issue, advancing the principle of fraternal relations and equality between all workers.

    The right to self-determination declared by the Great October Revolution is recognized as the best remedy for the eradication of national prejudices and the strengthening of relations between the workers.

    On this basis, the Revolutionary Committee of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia recognizes and welcomes the establishment of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Abkhazia and believes that the relations between the Georgian SSR and the Abkhazian SSR will be decided at the first Congress of the workers and peasants of Abkhazia, as well as of Georgia.

    Let the workers of both socialist republics decide the forms of close and fraternal cooperation.

    Revcom of the Georgian SSR


    ------------------

    Historical Maps: Abkhazia at various times in history

    >> http://gallery.abkhazworld.com/#4.41

    The maps included here give an idea of the frontiers of Abkhazia at various times in history. The Abkhazians call their capital /Aqw'a/, but it is more usually known in other languages as Sukhum (Sukhum-Kalé or Sukhum-Kaleh in the period of Turkish influence along the Black Sea's eastern coast; /soxumi/ in Georgian). The ending -i in the form /Sukhumi/ represents the Georgian Nominative case-suffix, and it became attached to /Sukhum/ from the late 1930s when (Georgian) Stalin (Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili) and his Mingrelian lieutenant in Transcaucasia, Lavrent'i Beria, began to implement a series of anti-Abkhazian policies. Abkhazians today, for obvious reasons, resent the attachment of this element from the language of a people they see as oppressors.

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  3. Listen, first of all I do not know the source that you are quoting. And nobody can never prove unbiasness of the source. Second there are a lot of international and local historical books where you can easily read that during the centuries Abkhazia was an internal part of Georgia. Even if you look at the maps on the web site http://gallery.abkhazworld.com/#4.0 you will hardly find anywhere that Abkhazia was mentioned as an independent STATE/COUNTRY. Abkhazia as well as Megrelia and as Imereti and so on were different regions of WHOLE GEORGIA. I can hardly believe that you know Georgian history or even history of Caucasian countries. Whenever you will have time just read it.
    About my kindness: imagine somebody kicks you out from your own country, or home or even lets say chair that you are sitting on now! And says that it is main! Without any rights on it. Addition to this somebody is coming and confirming that aggressor (the person who kicked you out) is right. Will you be still kind with that person?!
    About Russia and Nicaragua: Russia is the AGRESSOR who pushes Georgians out from their houses and home land. And of course it will support that so called independence! And about Nicaragua: just ask yourself why it did this?! Do you think that Nicaragua people and government really care what is happening in Caucasus?!?!?!?! max only 1-5% of Nicaraguans know where the Georgia is! No, they played as marionettes of the Russian government. That’s why for me they are nothing(nobody) in this regard!

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  4. 1. It's NOT surprise that you don't know anything about my quoting. Unbiasnes source?! Are you sure? Please see: http://www.rrc.ge/law/declar_1921_05_21_e.htm?lawid=112&lng_3=en [DECLARATION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY COMMITTEE OF THE SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA on Independence of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Abkhazia.]

    What do you think?

    2. http://gallery.abkhazworld.com/#4.0 Please look at the HISTORICAL MAPS again. Is Abkhazia part of Georgia?

    Map of Europe in Year 800, Southeast - KINGDOM OF ABKHAZIA
    http://www.euratlas.com/travel_time/europe_south_east_0800.html

    in Year 900
    http://www.euratlas.com/travel_time/europe_south_east_0900.html

    in Year 1000
    http://www.euratlas.com/travel_time/europe_south_east_1000.html

    Abkhazia was part of a united Georgia ONLY in the Middle Ages, when it united with Georgian speaking lands by right of dynastic inheritance. When the USSR was formed, in recognition of local realities, Abkhazia had the status of a FULL republic. It was only after Stalin had established himself in the Kremlin that in 1931 he was able to reduce its status to that of an autonomous republic within Georgia. Abkhazians NEVER willingly accepted this, and what happened from the first clashes in 1989 is too well known.

    3. The question is WHO STARTED - WHO INVADED to Abkhazia in 1992? Let me show you a quote please.

    ''In February 1992, the provisional Georgian Military Council announced Georgia’s return to its 1921 constitution. The Abkhaz Supreme Soviet was concerned that Abkhazia’s status was not adequately taken into consideration and so a draft treaty outlining plans on federal relations was sent to Tbilisi. Tbilisi did not respond and in July 1992 the Abkhaz Parliament reinstated the 1925 Abkhaz Constitution.

    On 14 August 1992 Georgian armed forces entered the Gali region of Abkhazia...

    ...From summer 1992 to summer 1993, Georgian troops controlled much of Abkhazia, including Sukhum(i).

    Source: http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/country-profiles/europe/georgia?profile=politics&pg=7

    ----

    Refugees is always a big problem and it was NOT Abkhazia who bare responsibility for them - it is Georgia that STARTED the war and created huge humanitarian catastrophy. And the Georgian population fled before Abkhaz Army entered the occupied territories. An exceprt from UNPO's Abkhazia report: ' THE MAJORITY OF GEORGIANS, HOWEVER, FLED BEFORE ABKHAZIAN AND NORTHERN CAUCASUS TROOPS ARRIVED.' http://www.unpo.org/downloads/Abkhazia_Georgia_report_1992.pdf

    Please see also 'DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGE IN ABKHAZIA'
    http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2008/08/demographic-change-in-abkhazia.html

    4. You have said that 'NOBODY' recognized Abkhazia as independent state. Russia and Nicaragua recognized to Abkhazia as independent state. Do you think Russia and Nicaragua 'NOBODY'?! They can be ''NOBODY'' only for you but i know that they are two members of United Nations, am i wrong?

    Let me ask you a similar question (If it's a really question!!!). Do you think Georgian people and government really care what is happening in South America?!?!?!? (I only wanted show your simple mind)

    [Official Site of the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Abkhazia in Venezuela: http://www.abjasia.org.ve]

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  5. When most of Abkhazia was denuded of its native population in the wake of (a) the end of the Great Caucasian War in 1864 and (b) the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, the question arose as to who would make the most appropriate substitute-population. One of the leading Georgian intellectuals of the time, the educationalist Iakob Gogebashvili, wrote an interesting article in Tiflisskij Vestnik in 1877 entitled /vin unda iknes dasaxlebuli apxazetshi?/ (WHO SHOULD BE SETTLED IN ABKHAZIA?). In this article he argued that the neighbouring Mingrelians would make the best /kolonizatorebi/ (colonisers)... And this is precisely what they subsequently became.

    The resettlement of Georgians in Abkhazia took place on a mass scale. It was no accident that the Georgian newspaper ‘Shroma’ considered Georgian acquisition of the land in Abkhazia and Circassiya as ‘one of the most wonderful events’ in the life of the Georgian nation. ['Shroma', 1882, №15 (in Georgian)]

    On 4 Feburary 1879 another newspaper, the ‘Droeba’, urged its readers: ‘Let us expand while there is still time to do it, before other peoples come and settle the empty spaces of our Caucasus.’ While the aforementioned issue of ‘Shroma’ pleaded with its readers: ‘Send us lots of Rachintsy, Lechkhumtsians, Upper Imeretians and Mingrelians from our mountainous regions!’ ['Shroma', 1882, №15 (in Georgian)]

    The mass-immigration of Kartvelians (mostly Mingrelians) goes back to the late 1930s. Abkhaz's script was then altered from a roman to a Georgian base. Abkhaz-language schools were summarily closed in 1945-6, following by a ban on broadcasting and publications. The Abkhazians as a nation were due to face transportation (like the numerous other peoples transported by Stalin from the Koreans in the late 1930s through to Abkhazia's Greeks in the late 1940s), and, as a 'scholarly' justification for that, the literary-historian Pavle Ingoroqva was commissioned to argue in print that the Abkhazians only arrived in Abkhazia in the 17th century, conquering the 'original' Abkhazians of history, who were thus a 'Georgian' tribe. This calumny was revived in the heady days of Georgian nationalism from 1988 AND IS WIDELY BELIEVED BY MANY ORDINARY KARTVELIANS, who for this reason still regard the Abkhazians as unentitled to be living in Abkhazia.

    The Georgian general leading the invading forces in the autumn of 1992, Gia Qarqarashvili, stated on TV that he would sacrifice 100,000 Georgians to kill all 97,000 Abkhazians, if that is what it took to keep Georgia's borders inviolate', [VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzvtaZIMy98]

    A similar threat came from the head of Georgia's wartime administration, Giorgi Khaindrava, on the pages of Le Monde Diplomatique in April 1993. Goga (Giorgi) Khaindrava, told the correspondent from Le Monde Diplomatique that "there are only 80,000 Abkhazians, which means that we can easily and completely destroy the genetic stock of their nation by killing 15,000 of their youth. And we are perfectly capable of doing this."

    If you were an Abkhazian, would you welcome back your former Kartvelian neighbours, knowing how many of them think Abkhazians should not be in Abkhazia?

    And it was no accident that the Abkhazian research-institute and archives were torched (after cherry-picking) in Nov 1992 -- it was done to try to erase documentary proof of the Abkhazians' presence over the centuries (not to say millennia) on Abkhazian soil. See related article: Abkhazia's archive: fire of war, ashes of history & Related Video http://circassianworld.blogspot.com/2008/07/abkhazias-archive-fire-of-war-ashes-of.html

    And you should not forget that it was Abkhazia which unilaterally decided to open the gates for the (largely Mingrelian) refugees to return to Abkhazia from Georgia in 1999. Georgia at that time was actually accusing these refugees of being TRAITORS to Georgia...

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  6. Be honest some arguments for me were new...I will try to find out more about each argument you gave...I will comment on them later. But very shortly want to tell about General Karkarashvili speach, if you know Russian (I think u should know) try to listen it very carefuly. But if you still can not understand in which context the sentances was said later I will provide you with word by word translation. About "simple mind" if you still think that recognition from Nicaragua is not MARIONETTE decission than insted of showing to others something first think maybe it fits you, better then others?! P.S. my advise lets continue in more constructive manner

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