Viacheslav Chirikba

Personal life

Chirikba was born on 17 March 1959 in Gagra. From 1966 until 1976, he attended School №5 in Gagra. Chirikba is married and has three sons.

Academic career

1977 – 1982 Student of Foreign Languages Department, V.N.Karazin Kharkov State University.

Diploma Work “Literary Paradox in the Works of George Bernard Shaw, O. Wilde and W. Shakespeare”.

Supervisor: I.V. Gavrilchenko.

1982 – 1986 Postgraduate Student of the Institute of Linguistics, USSR Academy of Sciences.

Candidate’s Dissertation “System of Whistling and Hissing Sounds in Abkhaz-Adyghe Languages”.

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. M.A. Kumakhov.

1986 – 1991 Research Fellow at the Department of Caucasian Languages of the Institute of Linguistics, USSR Academy of Sciences.

1991 – 1996 Doctoral Candidate at the Institute for Descriptive and Comparative Linguistics, Leiden University, Netherlands. In 1996 he defended the doctoral thesis “Common West Caucasian. The Reconstruction of its Phonological System and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology”. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. F.kortlandt, Dr. R. Smeets.

1996 – 1997 Invited Researcher at the Institute of International Relations “Clingendael”, The Hague, Netherlands. Research topic: “Abkhaz-Georgian Conflict”.

2000 – 2004 Postdoctoral Research Project «Grammar of Sadz Abkhaz », Lecturer of Caucasian Languages at the Institute for Descriptive and Comparative Linguistics, Leiden University, Netherlands.

Courses taught: Introduction to Caucasian Linguistics; Abkhaz Grammar; Georgian Grammar.

2005 – 2006 Lecturer of Caucasian Languages, Department of Assyriology, Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands.

Course taught: Abkhaz Grammar.

2007 – Head of Political Science and Conflictology Department at D.I. Gulia Abkhaz Institute of Humanitarian Studies.

2007 – present, Lecturer at the Department of the Abkhaz Language, Abkhaz State University.

Courses taught: Introduction to the Caucasian Linguistics; Grammar of the Ubykh Language.

2010 – 2013 Lecturer at the Department of History and Theory of International Relations, Abkhaz State University.

Course taught: Abkhazia in the Modern World (Geopolitics).

Member of the Abkhazian Academy of Sciences.

Leading Research Fellow at the Department of Caucasian Languages of the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.

Head of the Department of Geopolitics at the Centre for Strategic Studies under the President of Abkhazia.

Journals and academic organisations

1989 – 1990 Editor of “Alashara” Newspaper of the Abkhaz Society “Nartaa”, Moscow.

1994 – 1995 Publisher and Co-editor of “Caucasus Review” Journal, Leiden, Netherlands.

1998 – 2001 Editor of Electronic "Abkhaz Bulletin", The Hague, Netherlands.

Diplomatic and Political Career

1993 – 1994 Member of the Abkhaz Delegation at the Georgian-Abkhaz Negotiations under the UN Aegis in Geneva.

1993 – 1998 Plenipotentiary Representative of the Republic of Abkhazia to the Countries of Western Europe.

1998 – 2007 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Abkhazia to the Countries of Western Europe.

2005 – Member of the Executive Board of Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).

2007 – 2008 Foreign Policy Adviser of the President of the Republic of Abkhazia.

2008 – Head of Delegation of the Republic of Abkhazia at the International Geneva Discussions.

On 11 October 2011, Chirikba was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs by newly elected President Alexander Ankvab. On 17 October 2014, Chirikba was one of few government members to be re-appointed in the cabinet of Prime Minister Beslan Butba following the May 2014 Revolution and subsequent election of Raul Khajimba as President. Chirikba was again re-appointed under Prime Minister Artur Mikvabia, but on 20 September 2016, after the appointment of Beslan Bartsits as Prime Minister, he released a statement in which he announced his resignation because he was unable to continue in his post under the current circumstances. The Presidential press service responded by claiming that Chirikba had not been re-appointed because he had failed to lead a delegation to Transnistria in early September. Chirikba refuted this in another statement in which he explained that he had not been able to lead the delegation due to an attack of hypertension and claimed that the decision to re-appoint him had already been made at that point and that he had originally submitted his resignation on 31 August after Khajimba had for more than a month refused to meet him to discuss foreign affairs. In a press conference one week later, Khajimba specified that Chirikba had not been active enough as Foreign Minister and that as head of the Ministry, he had to be held responsible for certain financial irregularities that had been uncovered by the Control Chamber. On 4 October Chirikba's successor Daur Kove was appointed.

Vice Chairman of the Committee on the Implementation of the State Program of the Abkhaz Language Development.

Founder and Chairman of Humanitarian Fund “International Centre for Information and Documentation about Abkhazia”.

Main Linguistic Publications

Aspects of Phonological Typology. Moscow: Nauka, 1991, 143 p.

Common West Caucasian. The Reconstruction of its Phonological System and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology. Leiden: CNWS Publications, 1996, 452 pp.

A Dictionary of Common Abkhaz. Leiden, 1996, 126 pp.

Abkhaz – Languages of the World/Materials 119. Muenchen: Lincom Europa, 2003, 92 pp.

Development of the Abkhaz language in the condition of a multi - ethnic society (Challenges and Prospects). Sukhum, 2009, 53 p.