Otobia – Georgian village in occupied Abkhazia

Otobaia is the bordering village of Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia, at the shore of the river Enguri. As you pass the Georgian jurisdiction zone, you will discover Otobaia. But it is not so easy now. You cannot cross the conditional border directly. First, you need to go to Zugdidi and then it is possible to cross the border by several roads and eventually you will get to Otobaia.

If you take a bus from Zugdidi railway station to the village Orsantia, you will approach the bridge where Georgian soldiers are standing, and on the opposite side, sometimes Russians, sometimes Abkhazian soldiers – so-called frontiers. Most of the time, nobody can tell you their name or nationality. If you approach the bridge on foot, you will find out that a bus full of people stands there, but does not move. The passengers look in the bridge direction. If somebody comes out, they ask how the “frontiers’’ camped in the beginning of the bridge are doing and if they find out that nobody will hinder them with transportation, the bus starts moving. Sometimes, they do not let anyone pass, and you have to wait forever. People wait when the “frontiers’’ get hungry and leave their post. If the “frontiers’’ are brought food in their place, the passengers have to wait for 4 more hours. When no guard is standing on the opposite side of the bridge, the passengers risk crossing.

If you do not like to wait, you can take Otobaia “mini-bus” from Zugdidi, which is further taking more dangerous roads, but it will definitely get you to Otobaia. The driver of the mini-bus, as soon as he crosses the Georgian jurisdiction zone, calls someone who lets him know about the obstacles on the road. Obstacles, of course, do not imply traffic jams. If the separatists are trafficking on the roads at this time, the mini-bus driver waits until the separatists are done with patrolling and then go on their way.

There is a third way for getting to Otobaia, but I cannot say that it is safer. You take the car till the village Orsantia situated at the Abkhazia administrative border, which is part of Zugdidi municipality. Here, you have to leave your car at the friend’s house. If your car does not have the Abkhazian license numbers, you should not take it to Otobaia. If the separatists see the car with Georgian license numbers, they will confiscate it and then give it back for certain money, or not give it back at all, as it happened several years ago to my family. The ransom is high, of course, and besides, you will need mediators. Years ago, this was rather profitable “business’’ in Abkhazia. Finally, the population got so scared that most of the people sold their cars; some found an easier solution – to leave the car at their relatives in the village Orsantia and cross the border on foot or by cart. So, if you happen to visit Orsantia and see many cars in one yard, do not be mistaken thinking that these cars belong to some rich family. These cars are not theirs.

After leaving the car in Orsantia, they proceed on the road of Otobaia by cart. First, the cart needs to cross river Enguri. We took this road as well. That day, as it had just rained, the road was completely flooded and rather risky to cross. This is visible in our photo.


People already got used to hard conditions in Otobaia, but every new day brings new limitations and these processes become more painful. Everybody has the same problem there – no road. People are tired of complaining about this.

The land is cultivated by tractor in Otobaia, seldom – by plough. Four tractors serve the village this year. These tractors belong to local peasants. ploughing 1 hectare costs 20 lari and extra 20 litre oil is needed. If we consider that Otobaia is rather a big village, 4 tractors are few for them. So, sometimes, peasants have to wait for the whole week or more for their turn. Nobody complains about this, because people remember last year when only one tractor served the whole village.

One more serious problem of spring-summer season is fertilization. The majority of the population buys the fertilization and other products in Zugdidi, but the problem is the transportation of this heavy load.


Nobody has escaped from here after the 2008 August war, otherwise – everybody was running here. What was the reason? Nobody neither attacked, nor protected it, but several armed groups which opened up headquarters in the abandoned houses and asked population for food. This scene does not look as dramatic if we consider that Senaki, Poti and Zugdidi were being bombed and robbed meanwhile. All the robbed goods went through Otobaia roads to Gali, and then the news came from Gali that the robbed computers were sold for 1000 Russian rubles. Resident of the village Otobaia, Larisa Khupenia says, Abkhazian separatists, who had headquarters opened near her house, did not harm anyone.

“We brought our frightened relatives here from Zugdidi. This place was full of children. When Abkhazian soldiers saw this, they were saying to bring whoever was left on the other side of the river since they would be safer here.”

The headquarters of Abkhazians remained in Otobaia and surrounding villages until the end of the war, then they were replaced by other units.

“Abkhazian boys would tell us, we’ll leave and you’ll be in a terrible situation. They were saying this because they knew who they would be replaced by. Later, Russians came and the situation worsened. If we are caught on the border, Russians take us to Gali and draw the record, then we are fined and in case of repetition, warned about three year jail sentence,” – says Ms. Khupenia.


The people say that in the recent period, the mixed marriages between Abkhazians and Georgians become more common. This is very important for the restoration of relationships.

Few Abkhazians live in Otobaia nowadays, but many visit it. In the recent period, their visits become more common. The reason of this is the construction of military base in Pichori. The construction material is derived from the river Enguri that creates danger that this road may get closed soon.

In the center of Otobaia, where Russian soldiers stood, is occupied by Abkhazian separatists now, and the Russians are controlling the Enguri zone border. The soldiers deployed here wear mostly civil clothing. Only several are in military uniforms. At one glance it is hard to distinguish them from the ordinary civilians. It is true that Abkhazians working for de facto government services does not bother anyone, but according to the residents, neither they have friendly relations.


Irina Lomia teaches Abkhazian language in the school of Otobaia, at the same time, she is a student and studies at the philological faculty of the state university. The student of the fifth year is already a member of the political party “United Abkhazia.” One of the reasons of my going to Abkhazia was taking interview for Abkhazian teacher. I contacted Irina Lomia through a common acquaintance and learned that she would agree on the interview only without videotaping. At the personal meeting, she firmly refused to answer any type of questions. The reason, she said was the advice from Sokhumi authorities to restrain from it.

As it was found out, Irina Lomaia had a hard experience with Georgian journalists in the past. As she says, the journalists broadcasted the distorted statements taken out of context. When these video materials were shown on TV, she had serious problems.

“Actually, I’m a patriot of my country. Finally, I could prove that the information broadcasted in the reportage had nothing to do with me. I don’t want this to happen again. That’s why I’m refusing to be interviewed. If you leave this place and write that I’m opposing the independence of Abkhazia, this would be a lie, but it could be plus for you. But this would create problems for other teachers of this school.”

To tell the truth, we were not going to talk about the independence of Abkhazia with Irina Lomia. We were more interested in how a young Abkhazian girl teaches Georgian children Abkhazian, how the children are doing, what kind of relationships she has with Georgian colleagues and so on… Hopefully, this interview will be conducted some day. For now, we will say goodbye till the next reportage from Otobaia.