September
11 - SUKHUM, ABKHAZIA - Today 14 years ago a prominent public figure
and a politician of Abkhazia Jury Nikolaevich Voronov perished. The
Vice Prime Minister, a MP, a world-known scientist Jury Voronov was
viciously slain on the night from September 11 to September 12, 1995 at
his apartment’s threshold.
Today, on September 11, his friend, family, schoolchildren have laid flowers to Jury Voronov's grave.
Obituary: Yuri Voronov
by George Hewitt - Independent, The (London) , Sep 15, 1995
The
assassination of Yuri Voronov at his home in Sukhum, capital of the
tiny Transcaucasian Republic of Abkhazia, robbed the Abkhazians of not
only their Deputy Prime Minister but also a staunch champion of their
struggle to establish their right to self-determination.
Born in 1941, Voronov specialised in the archaeology and ancient
history of the western Caucasus. He published widely, his books
including In the World of Abkhazia's Architectural Monuments (1978) and
Dioskuriada- Sebastopolis-Tskhum (1980) - three older, foreign
designations for Sukhum (Aqwa to the Abkhazians). His academic career
was spent at Abkhazia's Research Institute (burnt to the ground with its irreplaceable archive by the Georgians in late 1992);
here he distinguished himself as director of the excavations in the
mountain settlement of his native Tsebelda, where he was granted
honorary citizenship.
Voronov was ethnically Russian with a Georgian wife; his
objectivity soon saw him experiencing the same obstacles Abkhazian
scholars faced when presenting arguments that questioned the doctrines
of Abkhazian history and identity propounded by Georgian colleagues -
from 1931 to 1991 Abkhazia was a mere autonomous republic within the
Republic of Georgia, and the Georgian Academy controlled all
archaeological research within its Soviet bailiwick. Voronov wrote in
1992:
When in 1966 I began to concern myself with the study of Abkhazia,
my first articles in Moscow scholarly journals resulted in the
procurator issuing a search-warrant against me and in further
victimisation. Since I persevered in my investigations, matters reached
such a pitch that the government of Georgia in 1979 obtained, through
the agency of the Soviet Politburo ideologue Mikhail Suslov, a special
veto over the publication of my books in Moscow publishing houses on
the grounds that my work was not in harmony with the "achievements" of
Georgian scholars!
A somewhat other-worldly intellectual, Voronov nevertheless keenly
sensed the dangers of otherwise respectable scholars succumbing to the
blandishments of nationalism and outspokenly challenged unfounded
speculation by certain Georgian historians and linguists about the
origins of the Abkhazians. This earned him much animosity, and in the
Georgian-Abkhazian clashes of 1989 his house-cum-museum in Tsebelda was
torched.
Like his Abkhazian colleague the Hittologist Vladislav Ardzinba,
now President of Abkhazia, Voronov was propelled from scholarly life at
the institute into full-time politics with the collapse of the Soviet
Union, becoming leader of the Abkhazian branch of the organisation
Russian Home, producing (with his fellow human rights commissioner
Natela Akaba) detailed reports on Georgian human rights abuses during
the war of 1992-93, and co-compiling The White Book of Abkhazia
1992-93: documents, materials, testimonies.
Visiting the UK in 1993, he argued that Boris Yeltsin had been
consulted about and approved Eduard Shevardnadze's assault on Abkhazia.
His deep understanding of the issues from his participation in the
UN-sponsored peace talks made him an implacable opponent of the
federation with Georgia that a less knowledgeable and sympathetic world
is demanding for his homeland.
Following a civic reception in Sukhum's twin-town Kilmarnock, he
took enormous pleasure in a lightning visit to the Edinburgh home of
Sir Walter Scott, a long-standing favourite.
George Hewitt
Yuri Nikolayevich Voronov, politician and archaeologist: born Tsabal, Abkhazia 8 May 1941; died Sukhum, Abkhazia 11 September 1995.
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