1989 Sukhumi riots
By the time when the Soviet army managed to temporarily bring the situation under control, the riots resulted in at least 18 dead and 448 injured, mostly Georgians.
Anti-Georgian telegrams, letters and statements were sent to the central Soviet authorities in Moscow by the Abkhaz, while the Georgian inscriptions in Abkhazia were destroyed or falsified.
The Declaration, which unlike the prior 'Abkhazian Letter' was made public immediately saw mass opposition demonstrations from the Georgian community in Abkhazia.
[11] The protests climaxed in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and evolved into a major anti-Soviet and pro-independence rally on 9 April 1989, which was violently dispersed by Soviet Interior Ministry troops, resulting in the deaths of at least nineteen, mostly young women, and the injury of hundreds of demonstrators.
Sukhumi State University was established in 1978 as a part of the concessions towards the Abkhaz secessionist demands, which in its turn was triggered by the Georgian national mobilization in defense of their language and culture.
The Supreme Soviet in Moscow also launched a commission, which ruled that the Georgians had no authority to establish the university, as that was solely under its purview.
[28] Although a continuous presence of the Interior Ministry troops maintained a precarious peace in the region, outbursts of violence did occur, and the Soviet government made no progress toward solving any of the inter-ethnic problems.
[29] The Georgians suspected the attack on their university was intentionally staged by the Abkhaz secessionists in order to provoke a large-scale violence that would prompt Moscow to declare a martial law in the region, thus depriving the government in Tbilisi of any control over the autonomous structures in Abkhazia.
At the same time, they accused the Soviet government of manipulating ethnic issues to curb Georgia's otherwise irrepressible independence movement.
[33] The victory of a nationalist coalition in October 1990 only further led to increased issues, as the newly elected Chairman of the Georgian Supreme Soviet, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was outspoken in his desire to reduce the autonomy of the non-Georgian population in the country.
[35][36] A power-sharing deal was agreed upon in August 1991, dividing electoral districts by ethnicity, with the 1991 elections held under this format, though it did not last.
[32] However, with the breakdown of the Gamsakhurida government in Georgia, and efforts by Eduard Shevardnadze to delegitimize Gamsakhurdia by failing to honour agreements he signed, and Abkhaz desires to utilize the ongoing Georgian Civil War, it fell apart.
[37] Thus on 23 July 1992, the Abkhaz Supreme Soviet re-instated the 1925 constitution, which had called Abkhazia a sovereign state, albeit one in treaty union with Georgia.
