Lesser Abkhazia

Sadzen was an ill-defined region on the eastern shore of the Black Sea which used to be settled by the Sadz people, hence the name. In the mid-19th century, it came to be known in Russian and Western literature as Lesser Abkhazia. According to Ivane Javakhishvili it is a historical part of Georgia.[1]

A ruined medieval Sadz church in Loo, modern-day Sochi.

Lesser Abkhazia was the term used to refer to those lands of Abkhazia that were not subject to the direct control of the ruling Chachba dynasty. After the Russian-Circassian War, the bulk of the mountaineers relocated to the Ottoman Empire, while the depopulated coastline was gradually colonized by Christian settlers of various ethnicities.

The northern part of Sadzen today forms part of Greater Sochi, while the southern part falls within the borders of Abkhazia.[2] The Sochi conflict took place in Sadzen in 1918-1920.

See also

References
  1. Ivane Javakhishvili, Javakhishvili, Ivane (1919). Borders of Georgia.
  2. Abkhazia is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Abkhazia and Georgia. The Republic of Abkhazia unilaterally declared independence on 23 July 1992, but Georgia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory and designates it as a territory occupied by Russia. Abkhazia has received formal recognition as an independent state from 7 out of 193 United Nations member states, 1 of which has subsequently withdrawn its recognition.


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