At YPT we love to jump in on debates about what exactly counts as a country, something we have strong opinions about. Therefore what do we think about the question is Abkhazia a country? Our simple answer to this would be a yes, but obviously there are a few nuances to this.

To validate our hypothesis we will have to deal with those who say it is not a country, as well as back up the reasons why we think that it is.

Abkhazia and the Montevideo Convention

Unless you are in the geeky world of micronations, such as those of us with the Principality of Islandia you may not have heard of this convention. In it the stipulations for what is needed to be a “country” are specified.

And they are;

“The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states”

How does Abkhazia rank on these, lets take a look!

1. There are almost 250,000 people in Abkhazia
2. The territory of Abkhazia covers 8.600 kilometers and has remained largely unchanged since the time often USSR
3. Abkhazia functions largely as democratic state, save some influence from Russia and its government arguably functions much bette then a number of United Nations (UN) states
4. Abkhazia has diplomatic relations with a number of states, although these are limited largely to those allied with Russia. Georgia who claim Abkhazia how also given de-facto recognition, of not de-jure.

So, on this basis Abkhazia is very much a functioning state in modern terms.

The case against Abkhazia being a country

Because Abkhazia gained and has arguably kept its status as a state due to the Russian military some would argue it is but a client state of them. If we were to use this as a benchmark tough much of the Americas at some point could have been argued as nor being independent. This would also include contemporary Compact of Free Association states.

The next argument would come from the 193, or 193 + 2 club. They would opine that not being a member of the UN means you are not a country. We would make multiple arguments against this. Firstly the UN ids a political organization, but more importantly plenty of states have exited without it. These would include China until the 1970, the two Koreas until the early 90’s and the Italian beating Swiss until 1994.

This very much fits into the YPT criteria on what counts as a country.

The conclusion? Abkhazia is very much a country?

And not just any country, but with which you can travel on group and independent tours to with Young Pioneer Tours. Check to link to see how to travel to Abkhazia with YPT.