Council of ministries
Just over 2 hours from Sochi is the Capital of the little known breakaway country of Abkhazia. Abkhazia was a resort centre within the Georgian SSR which flourished in soviet times often being referred to as the "Soviet Riviera" even Stalin had a Dacha in Ritsa.
In the centre of the town stands the once proud former government building known as the Council of Ministries now a empty shell of the violent war.
In the early 1990's with the collapse of the Soviet Union imminent, lots of former Soviet satellite republic countries (SSR's) such as Georgia decided that they wanted to again rule themselves and began the process of independence, the people of Abkhazia did not see themselves as Georgian and if Georgia were going to be independent they would fight for their own country.
The war lasted from 1992 - 1993 and saw thousands dead (13,000 - 20,000 Georgians and 3,000 Abkhazians). Human rights violations were reported on all sides the worst of these occured on the 27 September 1993 when Abkhazian forces fought their way into the Georgian held Sukhumi as the Georgian forces crumbled one of the last buildings to be held was the Council of Ministries but this was soon stormed and the government ministers and employees who had remained behind refused to leave and they were rounded up and many executed.
The war would leave hundreds of thousands of Georgians displaced never able to return to the country in which they were born.
Abkhazia is now a country of its own, although only fully recognised by a few countries, Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru.
In the centre of the town stands the once proud former government building known as the Council of Ministries now a empty shell of the violent war.
In the early 1990's with the collapse of the Soviet Union imminent, lots of former Soviet satellite republic countries (SSR's) such as Georgia decided that they wanted to again rule themselves and began the process of independence, the people of Abkhazia did not see themselves as Georgian and if Georgia were going to be independent they would fight for their own country.
The war lasted from 1992 - 1993 and saw thousands dead (13,000 - 20,000 Georgians and 3,000 Abkhazians). Human rights violations were reported on all sides the worst of these occured on the 27 September 1993 when Abkhazian forces fought their way into the Georgian held Sukhumi as the Georgian forces crumbled one of the last buildings to be held was the Council of Ministries but this was soon stormed and the government ministers and employees who had remained behind refused to leave and they were rounded up and many executed.
The war would leave hundreds of thousands of Georgians displaced never able to return to the country in which they were born.
Abkhazia is now a country of its own, although only fully recognised by a few countries, Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru.
