Many inhabitants ofAbkhazia areOrthodox Christians, With significant minorities adhering toIslam and theAbkhaz neopaganism, or the "Abkhazian traditional religion".[2] The influence of this last has always remained strong and has been experiencing a revival through the 1990s and 2000s.[3]
There exists a very small number of adherents toJudaism andJehovah's Witnesses, as well as non-believers.[4] The Jehovah's Witnesses organization has officially been banned since 1995, though the decree is not currently enforced.[5] According to the constitutions of both Abkhazia and Georgia, the adherents of all religions have equal rights before the law.[6][7]
The Abkhaz native religion has undergone a revival in recent decades.[3] As of 2003 8% of the population of Abkhazia (thus a higher percentage among ethnic Abkhazians) declares to be "pagan". It is worthwhile to note that the equivalent of the term "pagan" in Abkhazian (as well as Russian) language, язычникyazychnik, means "ethnic" rather than "country dweller" like its Western counterpart. One scholar has asserted that the Abkhazian traditional religion has become so well established and intertwined with the government to be almost the state religion of the country.[8]
In the Abkhaz native religion, Antsua (also spelled Antzva) is the supreme God and the creator of life. The native religion is animistic, there are deities that represents thunder and the weather like Afy, others that represent the forests, wild animals, and hunting like Ayerg and Azhvepshaa.[2] The religion has a host of different Gods that cater for each aspect of the world. Abkhaz gods have "Apaimbari" meaning angels and observers that function as representatives of the Gods on earth. They keep track of everything that is done amongst the people, while reporting everything back to the Gods.[9]
The followers of this religion have 7 holy temples among which 6 have been restored "Dydrypsh-nykha", "Lashkendar-nykha", "Ldzaa-nykha", "Lykh-nykha" and "Ulyr-nykha". The sixth sanctuary "Inal-Kuba" is located in a mountain valley of Pskhu, which is now populated by Russians. However, the name of the 7th temple is still disputed.[9]
According to the 2003 census, 60% of respondents identified themselves as Christian[4] and according to the 2011 census, 75% identified themselves asChristian.[10] The two main churches active in Abkhazia are theAbkhazian Orthodox Church and theArmenian Apostolic Church. There are approximately 140 church buildings in Abkhazia, most of which date from the first millennium.[11]
The Abkhazian Orthodox Church operates outside the officialEastern Orthodox ecclesiastical hierarchy, as all Eastern Orthodox churches recognise Abkhazia as belonging to the jurisdiction of theGeorgian Orthodox church.[12][13] The Georgian Orthodox Church lost effective control over theSukhumi-Abkhazian eparchy following the1992-1993 war in Abkhazia, when ethnically Georgian priests had to flee Abkhazia. It maintains its structures in exile, where the current head is Archbishop Daniel.[14] TheAbkhazian 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 theGeorgian Orthodox Church and that it was re-establishing theCatholicate of Abkhazia disbanded in 1814.[15]
TheGeorgian Orthodox Church has accused theRussian Orthodox Church of interfering in its internal affairs, thereby violating Orthodoxcanon law, by training and sending into Abkhazia priests,[5] publishing translations of theGospels into theAbkhaz language and annexing Georgian Orthodox property in Abkhazia.[16] 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.[17]
May 15, 2011 at the National Assembly of the Church in the city of New Athos (Anakopiya), proclaimed the establishment of a new church organization - the Holy Metropolis of Abkhazia.[18]
TheCatholic Church in Abkhazia is the third largest Christian denomination and mostly consists of mainly Armenians, Poles, and expatriates living in Abkhazia. The Holy See does not have diplomatic relations with Abkhazia, but has enjoyed two high level visits from the apostolic nuncio.
The earliest accounts of the introduction of Christianity into the present-day Abkhazia date from the 1st century AD,[19] and from 325, when the bishop of Pityus (present dayPitsunda) participated in theFirst Ecumenical Council in Nicaea.[20] From around the 9th century onwards, the Orthodox dioceses of Abkhazia were governed by theCatholicate of Abkhazia, subordinated to theGeorgian Orthodox Church. The Catholicate of Abkhazia and the Georgian Orthodox Church were abolished in 1814 and 1811 and the dioceses taken over by theRussian Orthodox Church. The Georgian Orthodox Church regained its independence in 1917, after the fall ofTsar 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 PriestVissarion Aplaa became acting head of the Sukhumi-Abkhazian eparchy. In the following years, recently consecrated clerics from the neighbouring RussianMaykop 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.[17]
In April 2008, the last Georgian Orthodox priest remaining in the predominantly Georgian-populatedGali 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.[21] After thecapture of the Upper Kodori Valley during theAugust 2008 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.[22] The monks and nuns refused, and in April 2009, they were expelled from Abkhazia.[23]
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 theCatholicate of Abkhazia, and that it would henceforth be known as theAbkhazian Orthodox Church.[15]
Representatives of the Holy Metropolis of Abkhazia, a new church organization in Abkhazia, are quite successful dialogue with theEcumenical Patriarchate of the decision of the Abkhazian Church issue.[24]
According to the 2003 census, 16% of respondents identified themselves as Muslim[4] and according to the 2011 census 10% of respondents identified themselves asMuslim.[10] There are two mosques in Abkhazia, one inGudauta and one inSukhumi.[25]
Islam spread in Abkhazia during the times ofOttoman domination in the region from the 16th until the 18th century.[26] The first evidence ofAbkhazian Muslims was given by theTurkish historianEvliya Çelebi in the 1640s, whose mother was Abkhazian. Throughout the 19th centuryRusso-Turkish wars, Abkhazian nobility was split along religious lines, with Christians being generally pro-Russian, and Muslims siding with the Ottomans against Russia.[27] Russia's final victory in the area in the 1860s-1870s and two Abkhazian revolts forced most of Muslim Abkhaz to emigrate to the Ottoman Empire asMuhajirs in the 1870s.
Thousands of Abkhaz, known asmuhajirun, fled Abkhazia forOttoman Empire in the mid-19th century after resisting theRussian conquest of the Caucasus. Today,Turkey is home to the world's largest Abkhaz diaspora community. Size estimates vary - Diaspora leaders say 1 million people; Abkhaz estimates range from 150,000 to 500,000.[28][29] In theCaucasus, Governor-GeneralG.S. Golitsyn reported toKonstantin Pobedonostsev, ober-procurator of the Holy Synod, in 1901 with alarm about a "massive movement of the Abkhaz to Islam" in Abkhazia, a matter "especially dangerous on a frontier that borders Muslim states".
In 2009, Muslims in Abkhazia for the first time received an invitation from theKing of Saudi Arabia to go on theHajj toMecca.[25]
On 19 December 2011, the Spiritual Board of the Muslims in Abkhazia held its fourth congress, after the death of its Chairman First Mufti of Abkhazia Adlia Gablia. Salikh Kvaratskhelia was elected the new Chairman, Roman Jugelia and Timur Dzyba Deputy Chairmen.[30]
Daur Mutsba, a member of the local Muslim community, and his wife Karin Nersesyan were shot dead on 2 July 2007 by an unknown gunman in the yard of the house they rented in the centre ofSukhumi. Mutsba was originally fromAdzyubzha,Ochamchira District.[31][32]Another murder took place on 17 August 2007 at around 13:00, whenKhamzat Gitsba was killed in Gudauta along withUfa resident Ruslan Assadulina. Gitsba was a member of the Spiritual Board of the Muslims of Abkhazia and an informal leader of Muslims in Gudauta.[32] Gitsba died on the site of the shooting and Assadulina died in hospital. The masked killer had shot the pair through a lowered back window of aChrysler stolen a few days earlier, using a machine gun withsuppressor. The burning wreck of the car was found later on the outskirts of town.[33][34][35] The death of Gitsba, who had fought against Georgians during the1992-1993 war and who had been amongthe pro-Chechen hijackers of the Turkish passenger shipMV Avrasya in 1996, as well as other perceived anti-Muslim violence led to serious concerns by the Abkhaz Muslim community about their security.[36] A similar incident took place in Gudauta on 8 October 2010, in which 34-year-old Arsaul Pilia was shot dead outside the mosque in a drive-by shooting. The car involved, aVolkswagen Touareg discovered to be registered to a resident ofKhimki,Moscow Oblast, was found burned about an hour later, outside the village of Achandara, near Gudauta.[37]
It was announced in June 2012 that, as part of the investigation of theFebruary 2012 assassination attempt on PresidentAlexander Ankvab, police had also reopened the case of the attempted assassination of theImam of theSukhumiMosqueSalikh Kvaratskhelia in July 2010.[38]It was not established whether there was a connection to the killing inGagra on 17 July 2010, of Emil Chakmach-ogly a member of the Spiritual Board of the Muslims of Abkhazia and a member of thePublic Chamber of Abkhazia, he had previously been a Deputy of the People's Chamber of Abkhazia. Chakmach-ogly was shot in the courtyard of his home around 2:00, after returning from his shop.[39][40]
During the 1992–93 war, theGeorgian Jewish population fled Abkhazia. As of 2012, there were an estimated 100–200 Jews in Abkhazia. The remaining Jewish community of Abkhazia is mainlyAshkenazi. They use the 1958 Georgian synagogue in Sukhumi for their religious services.[41]
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