Владислав Ардзинба: Абхазияның бірінші президенті

Soviet Abkhaz politician; President of Abkhazia (1945 2010)

Vladislav Ardzinba (, ; 14 May 1945 – 4 March 2010) was the first de facto president of Abkhazia. A historian by education, Ardzinba led Abkhazia to de facto independence in the 1992–1993 War with Georgia, but its de jure independence from Georgia remained internationally unrecognised during Ardzinba's two terms as President from 1994 to 2005. A noted specialist in Hittitology, he was a member of the first parliament to be elected democratically in the Soviet Union in 1989.

He was a member of the first parliament to be elected democratically in the Soviet Union in 1989. Ardzinba managed to consolidate his power relatively quickly and reneged on pre election promises to increase the representation of Georgians in Abkhazia's autonomous structures; since then, Ardzinba tried to rule Abkhazia relatively single handedly, but avoided, for the time being, overt conflict with the central authorities in Tbilisi. In mid 1991, he negotiated and accepted the Georgian concession on the reform of the electoral law that granted the Abkhaz wide over representation in the Supreme Soviet. However, Ardzinba created the Abkhazian National Guard that was mono ethnically Abkhaz, and initiated a practice of replacing ethnic Georgians in leading positions with Abkhaz. As the Georgian Abkhaz tensions rose, Ardzinba's rhetoric mounted, as he claimed in late July 1992 that "Abkhazia is strong enough to fight Georgia." In August 1992, a Georgian military force ousted Ardzinba and his group from Sukhumi when Abkhazian militants seized government buildings. They took shelter in Gudauta, a home to the Soviet era Russian military base. Ardzinba benefited from his contacts with the Russian hardliner circles and military leaders to garner critical support in the war against the Georgian government.

After the hostilities ended in 1994 and the bulk of the Georgian population was forced out of Abkhazia, the Abkhazian parliament elected Ardzinba to the presidency, a move that was condemned by Georgia and the United Nations as illegal. He won the first direct polls on 3 October 1999, without an opponent and was re elected as president of Abkhazia. He installed an autocratic regime and remained politically untouchable until his health seriously deteriorated in 2003. He once stated that independence from Georgia is not negotiable, and he has tried to align the state with Russia, whose political and economic support was essential to the republic. As a leader of the Abkhaz side he met the two successive Russian presidents, Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, as well as a President of Georgia, Eduard Shevardnadze. Under his rule, human rights records were extremely poor as most of the pre war Georgian population of Abkhazia were deprived the right to return, and those who remained were subjected to systematic ethnic cleansing. Ardzinba aroused some further criticism from the international community after issuing a decree banning Jehovah's Witnesses in 1995. During the last years of his presidency Ardzinba faced criticism for both failing to bring stability to Abkhazia and his increasingly low public profile. He had not appeared in public since 2002. As a result, the role of governing the state had been increasingly left to Prime Minister Raul Khajimba. He had been in extremely poor health and underwent treatment in Moscow for some time. Despite increasing calls from the opposition (particularly the Amtsakhara movement) for him to resign he had stated that he would finish his term, which was supposed to end in October 2004, but in fact did not end until 12 February 2005, due to disputes over the election of his successor. There were also calls for him to be impeached. However, although the Abkhaz Constitution allows for impeachment, the process would likely have not been completed before the end of his term, so no serious steps were taken to bring it about. He was unable to run for a third term due to constitutional restrictions, and it is unlikely that his health would have enabled him to do so even if this was allowed. He was replaced by Sergei Bagapsh, the winner of the presidential election of 12 January 2005 held one month after the contested 2004 election.

By 2010, Ardzinba's health was in decline and had been for some time. The cause of death was not released to the public. He is survived by his wife and daughter. Three days of mourning were declared in Abkhazia in remembrance of Ardzinba.