Description
On 27 September 1993 as the result of the large-scale offensive operation conducted by Abkhaz, Russian-Cossack and North Caucasian militants Georgian armed forces withdrew from the breakaway Abkhazia’s capital Sukhumi. The 1992-93 Abkhazian conflict led to the unprecedented mobilisation of foreign fighters from North Caucasus and other regions of Southern Russia. Hundreds of Chechen, Circassian, Ossetian, Russian-Cossack and even Transdnestrian insurgents fought alongside Abkhaz secessionists. The militant group such as Confederation of Mountain Peoples of the Caucasus played a crucial role in the victory of secessionist groups. Some of the non-indigenous veterans of the Abkhaz conflict, such as Shamil Basaev or Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelayev continued militancy in North Caucasus. Nevertheless, the transnational militant activism in Abkhazia remains neglected in Academic literature. The central research question of this article seeks to address is: how the coalition between Abkhaz secessionists and North Caucasian transnational militant activists has been formed? The article aims to analyse the process of coalition-building between Abkhaz and North Caucasian activists. In this sense, the article will analyse the ideological appeal to the Abkhaz conflict, role of kinship and ethnicity, the rise of ethnic nationalism in the Post-Soviet area and other developments which impacted on the movement and participation of the foreign fighters in the conflict in Abkhazia. The article will also analyse the transnational networks emerged during the conflict in Abkhazia. The paper will use Social Movement Theory’s concept of building a transnational coalition to analyse the typology of this coalition, political opportunities, sense of common threat to explain the mobilisation. Besides, the paper will examine the composition of transnational militant groups in Abkhazia by exploring the ethnic, religious and cultural background of the foreign fighters in Abkhazia.
