Taklama

Last Friday, President Alexander Ankvab addressed the protests that erupted in December (as covered by ApsnyPress and EkhoKavkaza) over the construction of a 14-storey mixed-use building in the Sinop neighbourhood of Sukhum, along the Kodor highway. Opponents of the plan, led by publicist Nadezhda Venediktova, pointed out that a previous …

Reports about the condition of President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez differ widely, and one should be careful not to prematurely declare his days numbered — recall how often Fidel Castro's imminent death has been announced, and yet still he lives. But Chavez was evidently not fit to be sworn in for …

In his annual end-of-year speech to Parliament, President Alexander Ankvab has proposed the abolition of the posts of Prime Minister and (First) Vice Premier. The announcement does not come completely unexpected, as the large number of 'leading' positions in the Abkhazian government has been an irritant for a long time …

Ever since it burned down in the final days of the 1992–1993 war, when Abkhazian forces retook Sukhum, the carcass of the old government building has served as a grim reminder of the past violence, mainly because it is one of the few high-rise buildings in the city centre …

The Caucasus — an introduction

Thomas de Waal

Oxford University Press, New York
August 2010
272 pages
ISBN: 978-0-1953-9976-9

It is always possible to find fault with a book if only one makes an effort. In the case of The Caucasus, Thomas de Waal's new book, the most serious issue thus …

The Post-Soviet Wars — Rebellion, Ethnic Conflict, and Nationhood in the Caucasus

Christoph Zürcher

New York University Press, New York
November 2007
302 pages
ISBN: 978-0-8147-9709-9

Despite its general title, The Post-Soviet Wars covers only the major wars that took place in the Caucasus: the Karabakh war, the two Russo-Chechen wars …

Georgisches Reisetagebuch

Jonathan Littell
Translation: Hainer Kober

Berlin Verlag, Berlin
October 2008
56 pages
ISBN: 978-3-8270-0854-1

Georgisches Reisetagebuch is a translation into German and slight adaptation and extension of an article by the author Jonathan Littell, originally written in French for Le Monde 2 (the supplementary magazine now simply called …

The results of the 2011 census in Abkhazia have at last been released in book form on 4 October, and the ethnic break-down has been added to the invaluable ethno-kavkaz.narod.ru. As I predicted in December (when full results were not yet known) the very high population growth since …

Georgia Diary — A Chronicle of War and Political Chaos in the Post-Soviet Caucasus Thomas Goltz
M.E. Sharpe, Armonk
June 2006
(second edition: February 2009)
296 pages
(second edition: 342 pages)
ISBN: 978-0-7656-1710-1
(second edition: 978-0-7656-2416-1)

Georgia Diary is the final episode of a series of three books in which …

Last month, Leonid Dzapshba was indicted for corruption. The charges relate to his Chairmanship of the Abkhazian Football Federation, but Dzapshba is better known as the previous Interior Minister of Abkhazia. The indictment has caused some rumour because Dzapshba defended himself, first in an interview with Nuzhnaya and then through …