In August 1992, simmering ethnic tensions in Georgia's Abkhazia region exploded into a 13-month war which ended in a military victory for Abkhaz separatists but a political stalemate that continues today.
The War For Abkhazia: 25 Years Later
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Russian tourists fleeing Abkhazia's resorts in mid-August 1992 as fighting broke out. With a hard-line separatist leader in power in Abkhazia, armored columns from independent Georgia rolled into Abkhazia in order to restore Tbilisi's authority.
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Abkhaz fighters near the highway to Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia. After a Georgian military commander announced he would take "no prisoners" and, later, a building storing cultural artifacts representing Abkhazia's heritage was gutted by fire, many Abkhaz saw the battle with Georgian forces as a fight for the survival of their people.
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Georgian troops in Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia. Georgian control of the city was to be short-lived as bands of “volunteers,” including Chechens linked to Islamist terrorist groups, slipped through the mountains to link up with the beleaguered Abkhaz.
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Unidentified fighters walk by a casualty of house-to-house fighting in Sukhumi. While the Abkhaz were strengthened by Russian troops and a motley array of "mountain people," the Georgian side was bolstered by "emptying the jails." According to a Human Rights Watch report, Georgian criminals were released from prison in return for joining the fight in Abkhazia.