War between Georgian forces and Abkhaz separatists — backed by North Caucasus volunteers and Russian elements — ends with the fall of Sukhumi (Sokhumi) on 27 September 1993 and the flight or expulsion of most of Abkhazia's Georgian population, some 200,000–250,000 people, amid documented ethnic violence on both sides.
Why it mattersGeorgia's deepest wound: a quarter-million displaced who have not returned a generation later, a de facto state on the Black Sea coast, and a Russian security role that recognition in 2008 would make permanent.