The ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia, also known in Georgia as the genocide of Georgians in Abkhazia (), was the ethnic cleansing, massacres, and forced mass expulsion of thousands of ethnic Georgians living in Abkhazia during both the 1992–1993 and 1998 wars by the Russian-backed Abkhaz separatists and their allies. The pogroms against ethnic Georgians organised by Abkhaz leaders continued even after the end of wars, during peacetime.
In 2007, 267,345 Georgian civilians were registered as internally displaced persons (IDPs). The ethnic cleansing and massacres of Georgians have been officially recognized by Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) conventions in 1994, 1996, and 1999 during the Budapest, Lisbon, and Istanbul summits, which condemned the "perpetrators of war crimes committed during the conflict."
Each year since 2008, the United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution affirming the rights of Georgians ethnically cleansed from Abkhazia to return to their homes, reiterating the "unacceptability of forced demographic changes". The most recent resolution was adopted in 2026 with the support of 107 countries; only Russia, Belarus, Cuba, North Korea and a handful of other countries opposed.UN General Assembly Adopts Georgia IDP Resolution with 107 Votes in Favor, Civil Georgia, 5 June 2026 The resultion "[e]mphasizes the importance of preserving the property rights of refugees and internally displaced persons from Abkhazia, Georgia, including victims of reported "ethnic cleansing," and calls upon all the Member States to deter persons under their jurisdiction from obtaining property within the territory of Abkhazia, Georgia in violation of the rights of returnees."A/RES/62/249, A/62/PV.97
Background
Prior to the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993), the region had a diverse population. According to the 1989 Soviet census, Abkhazia had a total population of 525,061 people, composed of various ethnic groups. The largest ethnic group at the time was the Georgians, who constituted 45.7% (239,872) of the population. The second-largest group was the Abkhaz, accounting for 17.8% (93,267).
Abkhazia conflict
The ethnic conflict in Abkhazia largely began in July 1989 with the Sukhumi riots. In order to defuse tensions, Georgian President Zviad Gamsakhurdia agreed on an arrangement to grant a wide over-representation to Abkhazians in the local Supreme Council, with Abkhazians, while being only 18% of the population, getting the largest portion of seats. A two-thirds majority was to be required to pass "important legislation" to ensure that key decisions would not be taken without approval from both Abkhaz and Georgian deputies and each side would hold veto power in principle. The elections to the Abkhazian Supreme Soviet were held in September and October 1991. However, the power-sharing agreement soon proved to be unsustainable and broke down.
Ethnic Abkhaz Vladislav Ardzinba was elected Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Abkhazia. Ardzinba, who was a charismatic but excitable figure popular among the Abkhaz, was believed by Georgians to have helped to instigate the violence of July 1989. Ardzinba managed to consolidate his power relatively quickly and reneged on pre-election promises to increase the representation of Georgians in Abkhazia's autonomous structures; since then, Ardzinba tried to rule Abkhazia relatively single-handedly, but avoided, for the time being, overt conflict with the central authorities in Tbilisi. However, Ardzinba created the Abkhazian National Guard which was mono-ethnically Abkhaz, and initiated a practice of replacing ethnic Georgians in leading positions with Abkhaz. On 24 June 1992, the Abkhaz armed formations attacked the building of Abkhazian Ministry of Internal Affairs, beat up and forcibly removed ethnic Georgian minister Givi Lominadze from office, replacing him with ethnic Abkhaz Alexander Ankvab, without the consent of Georgian deputies. After this, on 30 June, Georgian deputies of the Supreme Soviet organized a walk-out and began boycotting the Soviet.
The political situation in Abkhazia changed into a military confrontation between the Georgian government and Abkhaz separatists. The fighting escalated as Georgian Interior and Defence Ministry forces, along with police units, took Sukhumi and came near the city of Gudauta. The ethnically based policies initiated by the Georgians in Sukhumi simultaneously created refugees and a core of fighters determined to regain lost homes. While both sides have committed violations of human rights and humanitarian law resulting in displacement, only the Abkhaz side has been singled out as responsible for a deliberate, as opposed to consequential, displacement "carried out as a military, strategic and political objective in its". Specifically, the goal was to reduce the Georgian population of Abkhazia, which constituted 47% before the war but only 0% in its immediate aftermath. 250,000 Georgians became victims of the mass ethnic cleansing.
Perpetrators The anti-Georgian military coalition was made up of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, Shamil Basaev's "Grey Wolf" Chechen division, the Armenian Bagramyan Battalion, Cossacks, militants from Transnistria, and various Russian special units.
Musa Shanibov, one of the leaders of the Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus, said during his speech to the militants from said organization in 1992:
Ethnic cleansing (1992–1993) Confronted with hundreds of thousands of ethnic Georgians unwilling to leave their homes, the Abkhaz side implemented a process of ethnic cleansing to expel and eliminate the ethnic Georgian population in Abkhazia.
The exact number of those killed during the ethnic cleansing is disputed. According to Georgian data, 5,000 civilians were killed and 400 were missing. Roughly 200,000 to 250,000 ethnic Georgians were expelled from their homes. More than 20,000 houses owned by ethnic Georgians were destroyed. Hundreds of schools, kindergartens, churches, hospitals, and historical monuments were pillaged and destroyed.
The 1994 U.S. State Department Country Report describes scenes of massive human rights abuse, which is supported by the findings of Human Rights Watch. According to U.S. State Department Country Report on Conflict in Abkhazia (Georgia):
The 1994 U.S. State Department Country Report notes that the victorious Abkhaz separatists "moved through captured towns with prepared lists and addresses of ethnic Georgians, plundered and burned homes and executed designated civilians." Georgians were specifically targeted, but all non-Abkhaz suffered.United States State Department Commission on Foreign Relations and International Relations, 104th Cong., 1st Sess., Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994, at 815 (Joint Comm. Print 1995), cited in: Melkonian v. Ashcroft (9th Cir. 2003) (United States) case. Asylumlaw.org.
After the end of the war, the government of Georgia, the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the refugees began to investigate and gather facts about the allegations of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and deportation conducted by the Abkhaz side during the conflict. In 1994 and again in 1996, OSCE officially recognized the ethnic cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia and condemned the "perpetrators of war crimes committed during the conflict."
According to Catherine Dale from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees:
The Human Rights Watch report drafted in 1995 included a detailed account of the war crimes and atrocities committed during the war. It concludes that "Human Rights Watch finds Abkhaz forces responsible for the foreseeable wave of revenge, human rights abuse, and war crimes that were unleashed on the Georgian population in Sukhumi and other parts of Abkhazia. In Human Rights Watch's judgment, these practices were indeed encouraged in order to drive the Georgian population from its homes."
According to Georgia, Vitaly Smyr said in 1992 "But also the Georgians can live here no longer. In Abkhazia, they can only die".
Below are a few examples taken from the Helsinki Human Rights Watch Reports, as well as documentation submitted for review to the United Nations and the Hague War Crimes Tribunal.
Fall of Gagra
On 3 September 1992, a Russian-mediated agreement was signed between Georgian and Abkhaz separatist sides, which obliged Georgia to withdraw its military forces from the city of Gagra. The agreement forced Abkhaz separatists from Gudauta to hold their attacks on the city. Soon after, the Georgian forces, which included Shavnabada, Avaza, and White Eagle battalions (along with their tanks and heavy artillery), left the city. Only small pockets of armed groups (made up of volunteer units of the ethnic Georgians of Gagra) remained. However, on October 1, the Abkhaz side violated the agreement and launched a full-scale attack on Gagra. The attack was well coordinated and mainly carried out by the Chechen (under the command of Shamil Basaev) and North Caucasian militants. Meantime in Gagra, small Georgian detachments lost control of the city suburbs (Leselidze and Kolkhida) and were destroyed in the city center by the end of October 1. With the fall of Gagra, the Georgian population was captured by the separatists and their allies. The first significant massacres and ethnic cleansings were committed during the fall of Gagra.
People of all ages were rounded up from Gagra, Leselidze, and Kolkhida and killed. When the separatist militants entered the city, civilians became a target of mass murder. The main targets were young people and children. According to the witness account: "When I returned home I was surprised to see a lot of armed people on the street. They were quiet. I mistook one of them for my Georgian neighbour, and I said, "How are you?" in Georgian. He grabbed me by the wrist and said, "Keep quiet." I wasn't afraid for myself; I thought they had killed my family. He asked me in Russian, "Where are your young people? We won't kill you, we'll kill them." I said they weren't here, that there were only old people left." Women and young girls captured by the militants became the victims of rape and torture. One elderly Georgian woman who lived through the October attack in Gagra recounted the following: "They brought over a blind man and his brother, who always stayed with him. They began to beat the blind man, his brother and his wife with a gun butt, calling him "dog!" and kicking him. He fell over. I saw blood. One soldier said: "We won't kill you, but where are the young girls?" I said there weren't any."
"My husband Sergo was dragged and tied to a tree. An Abkhaz woman named Zoya Tsvizba brought a tray with lots of salt on it. She took the knife and started to inflict wounds on my husband. After that, she threw salt onto my husband's exposed wounds. They tortured him like that for ten minutes. Afterwards, they forced a young Georgian boy (they killed him afterwards) to dig a hole with the tractor. They placed my husband in this hole and buried him alive. The only thing I remember him saying before he was covered with the gravel and sand was: 'Dali, take care of the kids!'"
After the fall of Gagra, the victors began to pillage, rape, and torture, followed by summary executions of everyone who was captured and failed to flee the city in time. At 5:00 pm on October 1, approximately 1000–1500 civilians were rounded up and placed under guard at the soccer stadium in downtown Gagra. On October 6, close to 50 civilians were found hanging on electricity poles. Soon after, children, elderly, women, and men who were detained at the soccer stadium were gunned down and dumped in mass graves not far from the stadium.