Ochamchira, Abkhazia. Magnolia tree.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Ochamchira, Abkhazia. Destroyed and abandoned building in Tkwarcheli.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Ochamchira, Abkhazia. Retired coal miners chatting outside of a semi-abandonded apartment building in Tkwarcheli.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Ochamchira, Abkhazia. Memorial dedicated to four young men who died under unclear circumstances a few months before the outbreak of the Georgian-Abkhazian war.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Ochamchira, Abkhazia. Helicopter landing strip of the russian military base outside of Tkwarcheli.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Akarmara, Abkhazia. Denis and Ramin, they are living with here families in a semi-abandoned building in the ghost town of Akarmara. They survive collecting corn and some domestic animals.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Ochamchira, Abkhazia. Flat in semin-abandonded building in Akarmara.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Ochamchira, Abkhazia. Denis wife feeding the pigs in the yard of a semi-abandonded building in Akarmara
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Ochamchira, Abkhazia. Children playing in a destroyed and abandonded building in Ocxhamchira.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Hospital in Okumi. Most people left the town after the outbreak of the Georgian-Abkhazian war. Until now, many families return. Gali is still a conflictive place in the Abkhazian republic. The habitants of this border region (Gali district) are Mingrelian, a georgian minority. The hospital receives not enough funding, they maintain a weekly visit of a doctor as basic healthcare service.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Hospital in Okumi. Most people left the town after the outbreak of the Georgian-Abkhazian war. Until now, many families return. Gali is still a conflictive place in the Abkhazian republic. The habitants of this border region (Gali district) are Mingrelian, a georgian minority. The hospital receives not enough funding, they maintain a weekly visit of a doctor as basic healthcare service.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Okumi, Gali district, former town hall. On the wall all fallen soldiers from the Second World War are displayed. The neighbours planned as their next project to rebuild the town hall as social meeting point with a café and a small theatre.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Okumi, Gali district, the old church. Another building which was restored by a group of neiighbours of Okumi. As there is no priest, they come together on important festivities and celebrate liturgy.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Okumi, Gali district, Natia and her daughter Valeria in their bedroom. Lekso, Natia and Valeria live together as a family in Okumi. They fled from their hometown when the Georgian-Abkhazian war started and lived for months as refugees in Kutaisi, Georgia in a former school house. Before the war ended they returned to their beloved village, challenging dangers and hardships and continued the construction of their house „under the flying bullets“. Today they live there with Leksos parents.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
relief of an Abkhazian legend in Ochamchira
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Church compound near Ochamchira. Father Sergej, the priest is widely known, people from other countries, mostly from Russia, come to see him because of his special power as exorcist. During his saturday evening service, up to six persons showed signs of possesion by demons, contact with incense or sacred items provoque harsh reaction, convulsions etc. They speak in deep voices, cry like animals, insult each other in different voices
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Church compound near Ochamchira. Father Sergej, the priest is widely known, people from other countries, mostly from Russia, come to see him because of his special power as exorcist. During his saturday evening service, up to six persons showed signs of possesion by demons, contact with incense or sacred items provoque harsh reaction, convulsions etc. They speak in deep voices, cry like animals, insult each other in different voices
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Church compound near Ochamchira. Father Sergej, the priest is widely known, people from other countries, mostly from Russia, come to see him because of his special power as exorcist. During his saturday evening service, up to six persons showed signs of possesion by demons, contact with incense or sacred items provoque harsh reaction, convulsions etc. They speak in deep voices, cry like animals, insult each other in different voices
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Church compound near Ochamchira. Father Sergej, the priest is widely known, people from other countries, mostly from Russia, come to see him because of his special power as exorcist. During his saturday evening service, up to six persons showed signs of possesion by demons, contact with incense or sacred items provoque harsh reaction, convulsions etc. They speak in deep voices, cry like animals, insult each other in different voices
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Church compound near Ochamchira. Father Sergej, the priest is widely known, people from other countries, mostly from Russia, come to see him because of his special power as exorcist. During his saturday evening service, up to six persons showed signs of possesion by demons, contact with incense or sacred items provoque harsh reaction, convulsions etc. They speak in deep voices, cry like animals, insult each other in different voices
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Market day in Gali, Abkhazia. Gali is the capital of Gali District, populated by Mingrelians, a ethnic subdivision of Georgians. Human rights situation in Gali district, bordering to Georgia, is still precarious.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Market day in Gali, Abkhazia. Gali is the capital of Gali District, populated by Mingrelians, a ethnic subdivision of Georgians. Human rights situation in Gali district, bordering to Georgia, is still precarious.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Sunday church service at Father Sergej´s church outside of Ochamchira. Father Sergej is widely known as exorcist, people from all over Russia visit him to seek his help.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Morning in Ochamchira, abandonded house, Georgians fled the village in the war, owners never came back.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Morning in Ochamchira, Black Sea in the morning
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
bear in a cage, in the eastern outskirts of Sukhum
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Bagrat, veteran of the Abkhazian-Georgian war. In 1992 he was 18 years old. He was his family only son, authorities representing abkhazian conflict party normally did not accept volunteers from families with only one son, but enthusiasm was too big. He took part in the storm on the parliament in Sukhum.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Khajina, migrant worker from Usbekistan on her fram planting onions and garlic, Arasadzikh.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Arasadzikh. Altar to „old god“, a pagan ritual taking place on 14-01, every year. Under earth is the family wine barrel, the three forks of the wooden stick represent lungs (air that we breath), heart (strength) and liver (life), meat that is eaten ritually with all clan members on that day.
family grave in Arasadzikh.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Farmer in Arasadzikh. Cutting firewood.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
Burning fields near Arasadzikh.
(Bild: Florian Bachmeier)
A frozen conflict, a disputed region, specially the district of Gali, the borderland with Georgia, populated mostly by Mingrelians, ethnic Georgians, living still with fear and in precarious conditions. Approximately 45.000 people fled from there at the outbreak of the Georgian-Abkhaz war in 1992 and returned in the years after the conflict to their homes, living under constant observation, with restricted rights in an underdeveloped, war-affected and poverty-struck region. After the fall of Sukhumi to Abkhaz Militia and their north-caucasian allies, outraged by rumors and reported killings of Abkhazian by Georgian military, many thousands of ethnic Georgians were executed and killed, 50.000 people abandoned the city fleeing to Georgia. War, war crimes and extreme cruelty left deep scares in society. Living in a place that does not exist on political maps, every individual struggles day after day with lack of perspectives and broken dreams. After more than 20 years of isolation, all hope is reduced to personal achievements on a small scale, to make the best out of a situation as a pawn in a time of new political tensions between Europe and Russia, at the same time protectors and jailer.
DE (Google Translate):
Aṗsny, werden in der alten Sprache die Menschen genannt, die in diesem kleinen Landstrich, zwischen dem nördlichen Ufer des Schwarzen Meeres und den schneebedeckten Gipfeln des südwestlichen Kaukasus, leben. Übersetzt bedeutet es: Land der Sterblichen oder Land der Seelen. Das Leben ist hier sehr zerbrechlich. Erinnerungen an Krieg, Tod und Exil sind in den Köpfen der Menschen noch frisch und allgegenwärtig.
Eine umstrittene Region, besonders der Bezirk von Gali, bevölkert vor allem von Mingrelians, ethnischen Georgiern, die noch mit Angst und in prekären Bedingungen leben. Etwa 45.000 Menschen flohen dort bei Ausbruch des Georgisch-Abchasischen Krieges im Jahr 1992 und kehrten in den Jahren nach dem Konflikt in ihre Heimat zurück, die unter ständiger Beobachtung mit eingeschränkten Rechten in einer unterentwickelten, kriegsbedingten und armutsgefährdeten Region stand. Nach dem Fall von Sukhumi nach Abchasien-Miliz und ihren nordkaukasischen Verbündeten, die von Gerüchten empört und von Georgien militärisch getötet wurden, wurden viele Tausende von ethnischen Georgiern hingerichtet und getötet, 50.000 Menschen verließen die nach Georgien fliehende Stadt. Krieg, Kriegsverbrechen und extreme Grausamkeit verließen tiefe Schrecken in der Gesellschaft. Lebt an einem Ort, der nicht auf politischen Karten existiert, jeder einzelne kämpft Tag für Tag mit Mangel an Perspektiven und gebrochenen Träumen. Nach mehr als 20 Jahren Isolation wird die Hoffnung auf eine persönliche Errungenschaft im kleinen Maßstab reduziert, um in einer Zeit neuer politischer Spannungen zwischen Europa und Russland das Beste aus einer Situation zu machen, zugleich Schützer und Gefängniswärter.