RESOLUTION OF the People’s Council of Abkhazia on the situation in Batumi and Batumi Oblast

19 March 1920

Having discussed the situation of the population of Batumi and Batumi Oblast, the People’s Council of Abkhazia at its session on 19 March – on the first anniversary of its existence, unanimously decided to make the following appeal to the Constituent Assembly of the Republic of Georgia and to the High Commissioner of Great Britain to Antanta:  The  Abkhaz People’s Council always considered the Brest-Lithuanian Peace-Agreement as a devastating factor to the democratic developments; under this Agreement the part of the Trans-Caucasus, together with Batumi was given to the despotic regime of Turkey, which fortunately so far failed to rule-out this historically Georgian province.  In early 1918 when Batumi fell down, as well as now the population of Abkhazia and the  People’s Council of Abkhazia realize the political and economic significance of the oblast and city for the Democratic Republic and having the benefit from the peaceful coexistence with the Democratic Georgia, stand ready to apply every possible means together with the rest of population of Georgia to bring this region back to the Republic and reunite forcibly separated Batumi Oblast with Georgia.

For the Chairman – T. Kvaratskhelia

Secretary – K. Akirtava

(Jemal Gamakharia, Badri Gogia, Abkhazia-Historical Region of Georgia. Tbilisi, 1997, p. 457-458/in Russian)