RESOLUTION OF THE CITIZENS OF SOCHI on joining Georgia

Having heard the speech of E.G. Gegechkori - the representative of the Democratic Republic of Georgia and the member of the National Council, the public assembly of the citizens of Sochi, convened at the initiative of the united Council of socialist parties, the Councils of workers’ deputies, the Council of Workers and the City Duma made the decision on the following:

1) Georgia is the only part of the former Russian state where the republican system has been established and recognized in the principal laws;

2) Having the aim to unite the different parts of Russia in one strong democratic republic, the democracy shall encourage the process of restoring the people’s rights;

3) Although the proper trade with Kubani Oblast is recognized as the favorable approach, the Assembly still finds that unification of Sochi Okrug with Kubani would extend the sphere of influence of military dictatorship and deprive the population of the Okrug from democratic freedoms;

4) Okrug’s development on the basis of a real freedom, democracy, land reform, democratic self-governance and promotion of the cultural forms of the class struggle is possible only through joining the Democratic Republic of Georgia.

On the basis of the aforementioned the Assembly of the Citizens of Sochi is formalizing through the special Decree the fact of joining of Sochi Okrug to the Republic.

Chairman of the Assembly Petr Izmaylov

Sochi, 20 September 1918

(The important era in the history of Abkhazia. Documents and Mareials. Compiler and author of the foreword academician B. E. Sagaria. Sukhum, 2002, p. 23/in Russian)