Ketevan Tsikhelashvili, the State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality, and Zurab Pataradze, head of Adjara’s regional government, opened Abkhaz language classes in two Batumi schools on January 31.

According to the State Minister’s office, one group will function in Batumi and two groups in village Peria, just outside of Batumi. Each of the groups will have four hours of Abkhaz language schooling a week and will be available for students of all ages.

“It is our duty to preserve the Abkhaz language, identity and culture. The Abkhaz is a state language alongside Georgian and we will take more steps in this regards,” Ketevan Tsikhelashvili said after the class opening in village Peria.

“[Ethnic] Abkhaz, [ethnic] Georgians, mixed families live here, in this village and this people speak on the necessity of reconciliation, [on] what they do in this village together and what we have to manage through engagement, reconciliation policy and peaceful settlement of conflict,” the Minister Tsikhelashvili added.

Abkhaz is recognized as the official language of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia alongside Georgian, according to the Constitution of Georgia.

In Georgia’s 2014 population census (conducted outside of Abkhazia and South Ossetia), 272 out of the total 864 ethnic Abkhaz identified Abkhaz language as their mother tongue. Among them, 113 native speakers reported living in Adjara region.

Georgian Public Defender’s Office has called on the Government to promote the Abkhaz language teaching in Adjara numerous times in 2016.

“The Abkhaz language was, unfortunately, put on the list of endangered languages in 2011. Bearing this in mind, the Public Defender thinks that it is necessary to open a Sunday school or language groups for Abkhaz community at schools in Adjara region in order to preserve and develop the Abkhaz language in Georgia,” the Public Defender’s December 5 appeal to the Reconciliation Minister stated.

The Tbilisi-based Abkhazian government-in-exile, which has been kept by Tbilisi since the armed conflict in Abkhazia in early 1990s and is formally deemed by Tbilisi as the only legitimate government in Abkhazia, has been running Abkhaz language classes since 2015 in four schools under its authority in Zugdidi, Tbilisi and Senaki.