Gudauta exhibition honours fighters killed in the 1993 July Offensive
The exhibition is open to visitors at the Gudauta museum until 15 July.
GUDAUTA — A photographic exhibition dedicated to the Abkhaz fighters who died during the July Offensive of 1993 has opened at the Museum of the Patriotic War of the People of Abkhazia (Georgian-Abkhaz War of 1992-93) in Gudauta, which is named after the wartime commander Sergei Dbar.
The exhibition brings together 49 photographs of men who volunteered for one of the operation's most perilous assignments. According to the museum's director, Gugutsa Dzhikirba, all of them joined the group of fighters who forced the Gumista River at Lower Eshera. The crossing was so hazardous that its members were known among their comrades as the "kamikazes".
That assault formed part of a wider offensive launched in early July 1993. Abkhaz forces struck Georgian positions on several fronts at once, combining a naval landing near Tamysh on the Eastern Front with a diversionary push across the Gumista to the north of Sukhum. The manoeuvre drew Georgian attention away from the main advance and helped Abkhaz troops seize the strategic heights to the north-east of the capital.
Abkhaz historians regard the July operation as the turning point of the Patriotic War. By taking the high ground above Sukhum, Abkhaz forces left the Georgian garrison in the city exposed and laid the groundwork for the decisive offensive that followed in September, when Sukhum was recaptured.
Veterans of the war spoke at the opening ceremony. They recalled the courage of their fellow fighters and the difficulty of the task they had been set. The losses of 3 and 4 July, they said, had been a grievous trial for the whole Abkhaz nation.
The exhibition is open to visitors at the Gudauta museum until 15 July.