Young nuns read during a mass in Zugdidi, the capital of the Mingrelia region just south of Abkhazia in Georgia. Although Western reports routinely characterized the war for Abkhazia as a religious struggle between Moslem Abkhaz and Christian Georgians, the religious divide was greatly exaggerated. There are no mosques here, as many Abkhaz were Christianized when the region was absorbed by the Russian empire in the 19th century. In Georgia, Orthodoxy prevails, but Tbilisi also boasts mosques and a synagogue.
More from Aliciapatterson.org: " Fighting broke out in August 1992, when Georgian troops stormed north to the capital Sukhumi to quash the surging independence movement. At the time, given the province’s rich ethnic veining, Abkhaz comprised fewer than a quarter of the population. (Georgians dominated the last Soviet census with 44%; Abkhaz, Armenians and Greeks comprised the chief minorities.) However, mercenaries rushed to their defense from across the north Caucasus: Russians, Cossacks, Dagestanis, and most prodigiously, Chechens. In Abkhazia the hero of Grozny, rebel commander Shamil Basayev, first gained fame. His brigade even adopted the name, “The Abkhaz Battalion.” With Russian hardware and air support — Moscow’s MiGs regularly flew bombing sorties during the war — Sukhumi could claim victory by the fall of 1993." -
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"Although Basayev is hated by a lot of Chechens, there is a widespread belief that he owes his freedom to the loyalty of a network of supporters that stretches across the whole region and dates back to his involvement in the coalition that joined the Abkhaz fighting against Georgia in 1992-3. Ruslan, a former fighter who was with Basayev in that conflict, told IWPR, “He’s kept a lot of old friends in the North Caucasus since the war in Abkhazia.” In Abkhazia, Basayev led a battalion and was commander of the army troops of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples, a group formed in 1991 to unite the nations of the North and South Caucasus. Its president was Musa Shanibov, now a lecturer at the Kabardino-Balkar State University in Nalchik. Basayev later became the deputy defence minister of Abkhazia. Ruslan believes that Basayev spends a lot of time outside Chechnya, moving constantly around the North Caucasus and relying on old comrades. “There were people fighting in Abkhazia from practically all of the nationalities in the North Caucasus: Kabardinians, Cherkess, Balkars, even whole units of Cossacks,” Ruslan said. “And naturally, Basayev, being the deputy defence minister, had contact with all of them and continues to have contacts now.” -
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