A European Path for Abkhazia

Yesterday's Pipe Dreams?

Author(s): Walter Kaufmann
Editor(s): Lili Di Puppo, Iris Kempe, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 7
Pages: 2-6
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Jefferson Institute, Washington D.C.; Heinrich Böll Foundation, Tbilisi; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2009

In 2004, many optimistic observers hoped that a democratizing Georgia with the prospect of European integration would provide a more attractive interlocutor for Abkhazia to negotiate a mutually acceptable resolution to the conflicts, with the possibility of a reconfigured political relationship between Sukhumi and Tbilisi. Those hopes came into question after hostilities in South Ossetia in summer 2004 and then faded after the Georgian military operation in the Kodori Gorge in July 2006 and the increasing political standoff between Georgia and Russia caused by Georgia's striving for NATO membership. The Abkhaz leadership never warmed to European initiatives because they always started with support for Georgia's territorial integrity. A number of unresolved questions now burden Europe's efforts to contribute to a conflict resolution process in the region at a time when the most likely outcome is that Russia will be able to effectively annex Abkhazia.

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