Abkhazia, de facto states, sovereignty, international recognition

The submitted paper is a case study dealing with the criteria of statehood stated in the Montevideo Convention of 1933. The Convention sets four criteria of statehood: permanent population, defined territory, government and the capacity to enter into relations with other states. On the basis of these criteria, the submitted paper is divided to four chapters, where each chapter deals with one of the criteria of statehood applied to the case of Abkhazia. The resulting text primarily draws on resources from field research conducted in the capital of Abkhazia - Sukhumi between June and July of 2014.