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Text File  |  1992-09-01  |  768b  |  21 lines
  1. Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within
  2. Georgia, USSR, situated on the Black Sea;
  3. area 8,600 sq km/3,320 sq mi; population
  4. (1989) 526,000. Abkhazia, a Georgian kingdom
  5. from the 4th century, was inhabited
  6. traditionally by Abkhazis, an ethnic group
  7. converted from Christianity to Islam in the
  8. 17th century. By the 1980's some 17% of the
  9. population were Muslims and two-thirds were
  10. of Georgian origin. In Mar-Apr and July 1989,
  11. Abkhazis demanded scession from Georgia and
  12. reinstatement as a full Union republic;
  13. violent inter-ethnic clashes erupted in which
  14. at least 20 people died. Georgian
  15. nationalists, however, want the republic to
  16. be incorporated as part of Georgia. The
  17. dispute triggered nationalist demonstrations
  18. throughout Georgia.
  19.  
  20. Subject by: Russell Webb
  21.