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Religion in Abkhazia

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Pitsunda Cathedral

Most inhabitants (including all ethnic groups) of Abkhazia are nominally Christian (Eastern Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox), Sunni Muslim or irreligious, but most people who declare themselves Christian or Muslim do not attend religious service.[citation needed] The influence of traditional Abkhaz religion also remains strong among Christians, Muslims and non-believers. There is a very small number of adherents of Judaism, Jehovah's Witnesses and New religious movements.[1] The Jehovah's Witnesses organization has officially been banned since 1995, though the decree is not currently enforced.[2]

According to the constitutions of both Abkhazia and Georgia, the adherents of all religions (as well as atheists) have equal rights before the law.[3]

Christianity

According to a survey held in 2003, 60% of respondents identified themselves as Christian.[1] The two main churches active in Abkhazia are the Abkhazian Orthodox Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church. There are approximately 140 church buildings in Abkhazia, most of which date from the first millennium.[4].

The Abkhazian Orthodox Church operates outside the official Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical hierarchy, as all Eastern Orthodox churches recognise Abkhazia as belonging to the jurisdiction of the Georgian Orthodox church.[5][6] The Georgian Orthodox Church lost effective control over the Sukhumi-Abkhazian eparchy following the 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia, when ethnically Georgian priests had to flee Abkhazia. It maintains its structures in exile, where the current head is Archbishop Daniel.[7] The Abkhazian Orthodox Church came into existence when the ethnically Abkhaz branch of the Sukhumi-Abkhazian Eparchy declared on 15 September 2009 that it no longer considered itself part of the Georgian Orthodox Church and that it was re-establishing the Catholicate of Abkhazia disbanded in 1795.[8]

The Georgian Orthodox Church has accused the Russian Orthodox Church of interfering in its internal affairs, thereby violating Orthodox Church canon law, by training and sending into Abkhazia priests[2], publishing translations of the Gospels into the Abkhaz language and annexing Georgian Orthodox property in Abkhazia.[9] The Russian Orthodox Church claims that the priests it has sent serve in Abkhazia only temporarily while the local Orthodox believers do not have contacts with the Georgian Orthodox Church.[10]

The Armenian Apostolic Church is the main church of ethnic Armenians in Abkhazia.

History of Christianity in Abkhazia

The earliest accounts of the introduction of Christianity into the present-day Abkhazia date from the first century AD[11], and from 325, when the bishop of Pityus (present day Pitsunda) participated in the First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea[12]. From around the 9th century onwards, the Orthodox dioceses of Abkhazia were governed by the Catholicate of Abkhazia, subordinated to the Georgian Orthodox Church. The Catholicate of Abkhazia and the Georgian Orthodox Church were abolished in 1795 and 1811 and the dioceses taken over by the Russian Orthodox Church. The Georgian Othodox Church regained its independence in 1917, after the fall of Tsar Nicholas II.

During the 1992-1993 war in Abkhazia, the Georgian Orthodox church effectively lost control of Abkhazian church affairs as ethnically Georgian priests had to flee Abkhazia and the Abkhaz Priest Vissarion Aplaa became acting head of the Sukhumi-Abkhazian eparchy. In the following years, recently consecrated clerics from the neighbouring Russian Maykop Eparchy arrived in Abkhazia, who eventually came into conflict with Vissarion. Through the mediation of Russian church officials, the two sides managed to reach a power-sharing agreement at Maikop in 2005, but this did not hold.[10]

In April 2008, the last Georgian Orthodox priest remaining in the predominantly Georgian-populated Gali district was expelled, reportedly by Abkhaz security officers, after a "special decree" of the Sukhumi-Abkhazian Eparchy, effectively leaving the local Georgian community without access to clergy.[13] After the capture of the Upper Kodori Valley by Abkhazian forces during the August 2008 South Ossetia war, the two remaining monasteries of Georgian Orthodox monks and nuns there were pressured by the Abkhazian authorities to submit to the Abkhazian Orthodox authorities or else leave Abkhazia. The Abkhazian Deputy Foreign Minister Maxim Gvinjia said the Abkhazian authorities did not plan to defend Georgian monks and nuns.[14] The monks and nuns refused, and in April 2009, they were expelled from Abkhazia.[15]

On 15 September 2009, the Sukhumi-Abkhazian Eparchy led by Vissarion declared that it no longer considered itself part of the Georgian Orthodox Church, that it was re-establishing the Catholicate of Abkhazia, and that it would henceforth be known as the Abkhazian Orthodox Church.[8]

Islam

Sukhumi mosque

According to a survey held in 2003, 16% of respondents identified themselves as Muslim.[1] There are two mosques in Abkhazia, one in Gudauta and one in Sukhumi.[16]

History of Islam in Abkhazia

Islam spread in Abkhazia during the times of Ottoman domination in the region from the 16th until the 18th century.[17] Throughout the 19th century Russo-Turkish wars, Abkhazian nobility was split along religious lines, with Christians being generally pro-Russian, and Muslims siding with the Ottomans against Russia. Russia's final victory in the area in the 1860s-70s and two Abkhazian revolts forced most of Muslim Abkhaz to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire as Muhajirs in the 1870s.

A spiritual leader of the Abkhaz Muslims and imam of the Gudauta Mosque, Hamzat (Rokki) Gitsba, was assassinated in Gudauta on 18 August 2007.[18] The death of Gitsba, who had fought against Georgians during the 1992-1993 war and was among pro-Chechen hijackers of a Turkish passenger ship Avrasia in 1996, as well as other facts of alleged anti-Muslim discrimination led to serious concerns by the Abkhaz Muslim community about their security.[19]

In 2009, muslims in Abkhazia for the first time received an invitation from the King of Saudi Arabia to go on the Hajj to Mecca.[16]

Judaism

Main article: History of the Jews in Abkhazia

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c http://www.portal-credo.ru/site/print.php?act=fresh&id=188 Александр Крылов. ЕДИНАЯ ВЕРА АБХАЗСКИХ "ХРИСТИАН" И "МУСУЛЬМАН". Особенности религиозного сознания в современной Абхазии.
  2. ^ a b Georgia: International Religious Freedom Report 2005. The United States Department of State. Retrieved on May 24, 2007.
  3. ^ http://dp.abhazia.com/konstitut.html Constitution of the Republic of Abkhazia, art. 12 Template:Lang-ru
  4. ^ Kuchuberia, Anzhela (17 November 2009). "Абхазская православная церковь обратилась к духовенству Грузии с братским посланием" (in Russian). Caucasian Knot. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
  5. ^ Witness through troubled times : a history of the Orthodox Church of Georgia, 1811 to the present, Abashidze, Zaza.
  6. ^ A long walk to church: a contemporary history of Russian Orthodoxy, 2nd ed, Davis, Nathaniel
  7. ^ Autocephalous Orthodox Churches centered at Constantinople
  8. ^ a b "Сухумо-Абхазская епархия переименована в Абхазскую Православную церковь с Сухумским и Пицундским патриархатами" (in Russian). Администрация Президента Республики Абхазия. 2009-09-16. Retrieved 2009-09-26.
  9. ^ The Georgian Times on the Web: Comprehensive news site, daily international, national and local news coverage , breaking news updates, sports, reviews
  10. ^ a b Вновь обострился конфликт внутри православной общины Абхазии. Blagovest.info May 15, 2006. Retrieved on June 26, 2007 Template:Ru icon
  11. ^ http://www.patriarchate.ge/istoria/1e.htm HISTORY OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF GEORGIA
  12. ^ http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/syriac_misc.htm EXTRACTS FROM THE SYRIAC MS. NO. 14528 IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. WRITTEN A.D. 501. Names of Bishops
  13. ^ Abkhazia: Only Georgian Orthodox priest expelled.. Forum 18 News service, April 23, 2008.
  14. ^ ABKHAZIA: "Of course" authorities won't defend Georgian monks and nuns. Forum 18/UNHCR. September 4, 2008.
  15. ^ Abkhazia expels clergymen to Georgia for refusing to recognize local church - official. Interfax. 6 April 2009
  16. ^ a b Kuchuberia, Anzhela (2009-11-16). "Группа мусульман Абхазии совершит хадж в Мекку" (in Russian). Caucasian Knot. Retrieved 20 November 2009.
  17. ^ http://dp.abhazia.com/nasledie5.html Template:Lang-ru
  18. ^ Muslim leader in Abkhazia slain - source. Interfax. August 18, 2007.
  19. ^ ДУХОВНОЕ УПРАВЛЕНИЕ МУСУЛЬМАН АБХАЗИИ ОБЕСПОКОЕНО СИТУАЦИЕЙ, СЛОЖИВШЕЙСЯ ВОКРУГ МУСУЛЬМАНСКОЙ ОБЩИНЫ РЕСПУБЛИКИ. Apsnypress. August 27, 2007.
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