Abkhazia.com
Sept 25 2011
End of Ideology of Ardzinba Featured
Written by Irakli Tskitishvili
On August 26th extraordinary “presidential” elections were held in
occupied Abkhazia. These elections were caused by the death of leader
of the puppet regime Sergei Bagapsh, in which, according to available
information, the hand of Russia is clearly seen. The population of
Abkhazia, which in summer is usually focused on resort problems, had
to engage in political battles. Three candidates aspired to the post
of leader – Alexander Ankvab, who after the death of Bagapsh performed
his duties, Sergey Shamba, head of the puppet government and
opposition candidate Raul Khajimba, who did not quite got to becoming
the “president” in 2004. This year, as it is already known, the chair
of “president” of Abkhazia will be taken by Alexander Ankvab.
Two out of these three candidates came to the elections from the
government. Therefore, probability of use of administrative resources
in these elections was quite high. The third candidate (Khajimba) had
long been in opposition, had a stable number of voters, was considered
the successor of the ideology of Ardzinba and came from nationalist
positions. Interest towards the elections was caused by one thing –
what ideology, what values would win and what demands the Abkhazian
society had. There are no two opinions about the fact that the
elections were illegitimate and it was carried out without
participation of the population that were expelled as a result of the
ethnic cleansing. There was no doubt that whoever would win, the
prospect of warming of the Georgian-Abkhazian relations would not
increase, because all candidates were coming from the pro-Russian
positions, they could not see Abkhazia without Russia and spoke only
of “good-neighbourly” relations with Tbilisi.
At the beginning of the election race Sergei Shamba and Alexander
Ankvab had pretty good positions. We also note that compared to 2004
Khajimba had significantly lost poisitons. He has almost no chance of
winning. With regards to him the interesting thing was whether he
retained his contingent of his supporters or not. At the same time
Khajimba was interesting because if it was to be the second round of
elections his supporters could have decided the fate of the election.
Shamba began her campaign quite actively. First, he waited 40 days to
pass from the death of Bagapsh and only then began his official
campaign. This should have had a positive effect on his image. After
that, choosing the right strategy Shamba began to hold meetings with
groups that would guarantee him victory. Such group was primarily
considered to be Armenian population of Abkhazia, as Georgians,
compared to 2004, had limited resources to support any candidate. We
should remind that since it was Georgian votes that decided the fate
of the election in 2004, it was decided to limit their participation
in elections by allowing to take part in the elections only that part
that had “Abkhazian passports.” And such people were only around 8000
in the Gali district. Thus their votes could not have become decisive.
Neither Ankvab sat around idly. Despite the fact that he had
administrative resources that would have been definitely used by him
his team actively held meetings with voters. His rivals were spreading
rumours that allegedly members of his team were paying voters for
their votes; however there was no determined information on this
point. Ankvab did not disregard Georgian population of the Gali
district. During campaigning there headquarters of Ankvab urged
Georgians to get “Abkhazian passports” as quickly as possible to have
opportunity to take part in determining the path of future development
of Abkhazia. It should be noted that other candidates also encouraged
Georgians to obtain passports and that to a large extent determined
the victory of Ankvab.
At the starting position chances of Shamba looked more solid.
Moreover, his team was pursuing an aggressive to a certain extent
campaign. By early August few doubted that Shamba would win. But …
he, his team and his Moscow lobbyists made serious mistakes resulting
in solid victory of Ankvab.
Russian Moskovskaya Pravda interview with former Georgian Defense
Minister Tengiz Kitovani in which he accused Ankvab of cooperation
with the Georgian special services during the war of 1992-1993 was
like a strike of thunder for the Abkhazian society. The purpose of the
spread of this propagandistic material is clear. It aimed at dealing a
serious blow to the image of Shamba’s main rival, at setting people
against him, or even completely eliminating him from the campaign
after which chances of Shamba would have doubled. In any case, by
recalling the past the Shamba team tried to play “Georgian card”
against Ankvab where name of Vladislav Ardzinba was used. As it is
known Ankvab and Ardzinba had disagreements in connection with the war
period. That was the question the Shamba team decided to raise anew.
It should be also noted that Shamba cannot be altogether blamed for
starting this smear campaign. Or rather, it looks more like a style of
those Russian lobbyists, who were behind the Shamba team and who were
willing to go to any lengths for Shamba to win. As some noted it was
the same lobbying group that “sunk” Raul Khajimba in 2004 – brothers
Kolesnikov and PR group of Beslan Butba. Russian publications such as
the Moskovsky Komsomolets and its journalist, propagandist Marina
Perevozkina who was awarded with a medal by Eduard Kokoity, emerged as
defenders of interests of Shamba.
Dirty methods of political struggle provoked a backlash. Abkhazian
society deemed playing the “Georgian card” unacceptable. It condemned
Shamba’s tricks and accused him of running the dirty campaign.
Besides, it was not just an expression of dissatisfaction of society.
Answers were demanded of Shamba. Members of the old and the new
convocation of the parliament summoned all three candidates and
demanded answers from them for those processes that have caused
tension in the society. It was Shamba who was having the worst time.
It was his team that picked up the statement of Kitovani, gathered
veterans that lived in different parts of Abkhazia in the centre of
Sukhumi and publicly showed interview of the former Georgian minister
directed against Ankvab. Shamba had to justify himself and say that he
did not do it and it was the doing of his team. This was followed by
fair question of parliamentarian Irina Agrba that if he could not
control his staff, how he would control the entire country. After the
meeting it became known that Shamba confessed with regards to the
Kitovani statement: “It was an order, but it did not come from
Sukhumi.” Given this, it became clear that the Shamba campaign was
controlled from Moscow. Since one of the PR managers of his team was
one of the brothers Kolesnikov, it seems that his team also was
controlled from Moscow. Accordingly, all this mud throwing which was
used by the Shamba team was work of those people who are not familiar
with the Abkhazian mentality, who do not understand Abkhazian reality
and acted upon their usual dirty methods accepted in Russian reality.
Because of this, many have turned away from Sergei Shamba. It should
be noted that statements in support of Ankvab were made by “grandees”
of the Abkhazian deputation – Socrat Jinjolia, Stanislav Lakoba, Oleg
Damenia, Leonid Lakerbaya and a number of well-known names. And
although some members of the parliament (old and new convocation)
supported Khajimba, none of them supported Shamba.
One of the mistakes of Sergei Shamba was that he lost support of the
former ruling party of Abkhazia the Edynaya Abkhazia Party.
Originally, this party was seen as a supporter of Shamba. Information
was coming from behind the scene that they have already reached an
agreement among them but suddenly the party supported Ankvab. It was
the first bomb in the election campaign. The second one was support of
the organization of Abkhazian veterans “Amtsakhara” of direct
competitor of Shamba – Ankvab. Although this fact is less surprising
since “Amtsakhara” was a force that, to some extent and along with the
Georgian factor, ensured the victory of Sergei Bagapsh in the previous
elections. But Bagapsh’s victory was achieved due to the image of
Ankvab and his efforts. Accordingly, it is not at all surprising that
“Amtsakhara” remained loyal to Ankvab. We can consider erroneous
manipulation of figures on the part of Shamba (as though he was
supported by 47.7 % of population) and his threats of revolution if he
was to lose the elections. The population of Abkhazia is fed up with
revolutions and this statement caused great dissatisfaction among
them.
Another major mistake made by Shamba in his campaign was a statement
that was as follows: when I come, I will remove all officials. Thus he
forced all officials to use administrative resources or various other
methods to retain their positions. We emphasize that while Shamba
maintained that the only threat coming from his main rival was that he
could use administrative resource, his statement was a huge mistake.
And though later Shamba said that he made the statement not
accidentally, but deliberately to refuse administrative resources,
it’s more like a lie. Otherwise, it is not clear what Shamba expected
in the elections. Russian and pro-Russian population of Abkhazia was
considered as his supporters. He was supported by an organization such
as “Officers of Russia.” He was also supported by Cossacks, but later
it became known that the statement was false and the union of Cossacks
of Russia denied that they supported Shamba. Armenian community, with
the exception of some of their leaders, who worked directly in the
Shamba camp, expressed support for Ankvab. The most surprising thing
was that there was not one veteran organization that would support
Shamba, who during the war served as “deputy defence minister,” and
who was head of the ideological hotbed of Abkhazian separatism
“Aidgilara.” he only got support of around a hundred Abkhazian
veterans. Then what did he hope for? Only Russia’s support? Two weeks
before the election, the election situation in Abkhazia changed
dramatically and in the last few days it became clear that Shamba had
no support.
Raul Khajimba, as we have already noted, got “his” 20% and, in
principle, should be pleased with this. His election campaign was not
very grand and it was overshadowed by the Shamba-Ankvab clash.
Khajimba was not visible, he was not using the media, was focused
mainly on nationalist (though in Abkhazia they call it patriotism)
orientated masses, used to say during his campaign that all ethnic
groups are equal, but Abkhazians are above them all as they do not
have another homeland. Khajimba did not claimed to have any
administrative resource, neither had he unlimited financial resources,
and at the same time he tried to conduct his campaign quite honestly
and worthily. Of course, one cannot even dream about winning in such
circumstances. However, it would be a good lesson for him. We also
note that neither inclusion of Ardzinba’s wife in his team helped him,
as we assumed before. And hope that population would support
Ardzinba’s wife just because of her name was a mistake. Elections have
shown that Ardzinba already belongs to the history.
As for Ankvab, a number of interesting processes developed around him.
We have already mentioned troubles associated with the Kitovani
statement. This gave Ankvab additional supporters, as opposed to the
assumptions of Russian lobbyists of Shamba. PR campaign against Ankvab
was a precondition for his victory. A great part in this was played by
those Russian journalists, who almost daily tried to pour dirt on
Ankvab in favour of Shamba. He was reminded about Ardzinba, and then
about Lominadze … Shamba even tried to use against him the fact that
Georgian politicians, former Georgian officials, experts and the media
called Ankvab a decent and honest man, as if he was a traitor, just
because Georgians said good words about him. Journalist and Shamba’s
great supporter Marina Perevozkina kept pace with him. There was
nothing that she did not thought of to complete the task; she used
every forged material and analysis that had nothing in it against
Ankvab other than confirmation that he really is a worthy and honest
person. Perevozkina left no statement of the Club of Experts
uncommented. We do not consider it necessary to comment on those
fantasies that Perevozkina used against us, as the population of
Abkhazia already gave a clear answer to them. Moreover, Ankvab showed
dignity in these elections and it was mentioned many times in his
rival camps. That is why personal qualities such as honour and dignity
are appreciated in Tbilisi, as well as in Sukhumi or Grozny. But
Russian journalists cannot understand and perceive the Caucasus in
general.
All political processes show attitude of society and its needs. These
elections were not exception either and they make it possible to draw
certain conclusions. The most important conclusion to be drawn on the
results of these elections is that the ideology of deified in Abkhazia
Vladislav Ardzinba has ended. This is the end of that violent
separatist ideology that Abkhazians have been using for the past 20
years were and on which their so-called “Independence” was built. the
elections was once again won by Ardzinba’s rival camp and this
indicates that the Abkhazian society is fed up with playing “Georgian
card”, it is fed up with tensions, they want peace and stability, they
need a steady hand to stop lawlessness of criminal clans. They just
want to live, work, raise children and be happy like everyone in the
world. Therefore, the defeat of Khajimba (who acted in tandem with
Ardzinba’s widow) and Shamba (whose campaign was based on the ideology
of “Aidgilara”) is the beginning of the destruction of the ideological
foundations which led to Abkhazians’ being “independent” minority. But
even then this is independence when even their own fate does not
depend on them.
It should be noted that and a special role in this election was also
played by Armenian and Georgian population. If everyone understood
importance of the first from the beginning, importance of Georgians
was taken into account to a lesser extent, due to reasons which we
have already mentioned above. But it was the fact of Georgian
population acquiring “passports”, their support for Ankvab that played
a quite interesting role in this election.
In general, these processes have shown that non-Abkhazian population
supported stability. As we have already noted, Khajimba was coming
from the nationalist positions, so he should not have laid great hopes
on non-Abkhazian population. Armenians of Abkhazia, as we know, are
fully engaged in the service sector, whether it concerns receiving
tourists, their transportation services, or etc. They do not want war,
they want money. And money loves peace, they say. At the same time
they got pretty fed up with lawlessness of Abkhazian criminals,
increasing number of drug addicts and thieves, and by supporting
Ankvab they expressed hope that it all would come to an end. The main
thing for the Georgian population is peace and stability, so that they
are not robbed, that they can have normal development, that they have
ability of free movement into the Georgian-controlled territory as
Ankvab promised them, so they can learn and develop in their native
language. For all these 20 years, the most affected was the Georgian
population of Gali district. Just during the period of deployment of
the Russian peacekeepers over two thousand Georgians were killed. They
are absolutely powerless, and have been living in the status of
third-rate people for the past 20 years in conditions of daily fear.
Another interesting fact is that part of Russians also supported
Ankvab, for example, in the mountainous village of Pskhu.
For us this election changes nothing. No matter who will be a Russian
puppet in Abkhazia – Ankvab, Shamba or Khajimba the issue of
territorial integrity of Georgia remains open and we should not hope
for any warming of relations. However, it should be noted that rivalry
is always more attractive with a worthy person than unworthy one.
Unfortunately, this worthy person has little saying in the painful for
us question and nothing depends on him since any move against Russia’s
interests may result in the same things that happened to Bagapsh. It
will be good if this worthy man at least let Georgians living there
feel that they are not third-rate people and will ensure their safety.