New web page dedicated to Abkhazia launched
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Monday, June 8
A new web page, www.ava.ge (Abkhazian Virtual Archives) dedicated to breakaway region of Georgia, Abkhazia, has been launched. Photos, videos, books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps and family archive materials regarding Abkhazia are collected in the online archive.
Ava.ge was created with the financial support of the Reserve Fund of the President of Georgia. Administration of the web page has released the statement, which reads that achieve was created for the people who are interested in the Abkhazia.
“The archive information is accessible to all users and it brings together documentary materials,” reads the statement.
Beside the official materials Ava.ge is also collecting family data. According to the administration, any interested person can send them materials and Ava.ge will make it accessible to all the web achieve users.
President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili stated that the web page is a clear message to Abkhazia. Margvelashvili said that Georgia is expressing its attitude towards the past and future of the country.
“Our strength and the wealth are in the diversity, which is not only valued, but also protected by the citizens of Georgia. The Georgian and international communities' unified policy towards the occupied regions has been being elaborated under the aegis of the presidential administration. In this sense, we have met a number of the groups including the social and political groups. And the unity, which is being intersected, that we see the future of our country as the future of a European-style developed country, which takes care, values and develops its ethnic diversity according to European standards,” stated Margvelashvili.
The Georgian National Archive, Georgian Art Palace, the Literature Museum, the Academic Centre for Georgian-Abkhaz Relations, the Georgian Parliament`s National Library, Georgian Public Broadcasting and the Ministry of Internal Affairs were involved in the AVA project.
Abkhazia, which is located in the north-western part of Georgia, is currently occupied by Russia. Approximately 200, 000 people had to leave region during the conflict in 90's. All of them have status of internally displaced person (IDP) and never had the possibility to return to their homeland.
