Akarmara (A Ghost Town), Tkvarcheli, Russia

Akarmara is a town in Tkvarcheli. It is situated on the river Ghalidzga (Aaldzga) and a railroad connects it with Ochamchire. Akarmara, an area within the town, is a ghost town with abandoned apartments and factories which became uninhabited in the early 1990s due to the War in Abkhazia (1992-3). Akarmara is a bustling coal mining town, is now overtaken by trees. It lies in Abkhazia, a breakaway region on Georgia's Black Sea coast. Wars and economic change have emptied the town of the 5,000 people who lived there in the 1970s. Now, with only 35-40 residents left, only the forest can really call it its own.

Almost all the mines have been closed. Most of Akarmara’s four- or five-story apartment blocks are inhabited by no more than one or two families. Some buildings are even being systematically dismantled by inhabitants for the brick and other materials.

Coal mining, which began in the area in 1935, grew in importance during the Second World War, especially after the Donbass was lost during the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Tkvarcheli was given town status on 9 April 1942.

During the War in Abkhazia (1992-3), Tkvarcheli withstood, through Russian military aid, an uneasy siege by the Georgian forces. Since 1995, it is the centre of the newly formed Tkvarcheli District. On 27 September 2008, President Sergei Bagapsh awarded it the honorary title of Hero City

Coal-mining has been the town's main industry, although now the Soviet mines are closed and coal is quarried only by the Abkhaz-Turkish Tamsaş company using the open pit method. Tamsaş's tax payments account for 75% of the Tkvarcheli district's budget however, the company was criticised for neglecting environmental requirements. Georgia regards all this investment as illegal, in clear violation of the 1996 CIS restrictions and has arrested several vessels, loaded with coal from Tkvarcheli, in its territorial waters, a measure that has reportedly brought Tamsaş to the verge of bankruptcy.

The town's population was 21,744 in 1989. The three main ethnic groups were Abkhaz (42.3%), Russians (24.5%) and Georgians (23.4%). As a result of the War in Abkhazia the town's industries all but stopped and its population decreased greatly and was between 7,000 and 8,000 in 2004 according to some sources and only 4,800 according to others. At the time of the 2003 census, its population was 4,786. By the time of the 2011 census, it had increased to 5,013. Of these, 66.5% were Abkhaz, 17.4% Georgian, 9.7% Russian, 1.3% Ukrainian, 1.1% Armenian, 0.4% Greek and 0.1% Svan

The post-war recovery has been slow to arrive in eastern Abkhazia, particularly in the district of Tkuarchal. More than 20 years have passed since the Georgian–Abkhaz war officially ended, but its scars still bear a heavy imprint in this part of the republic.

The abandoned villages of upper Tkuarchal District cut striking images. Villages such as Dzhantukha, Akarmara, Pyataya Shakhta, Polyana, and Kharchilava are located in Abkhazia’s coal basin. Today, mostly Russians and Abkhaz live here. The town's unique Soviet architecture is gradually disintegrating, and it’s little known, even by professional researchers. Akarmara now looks like an illustration for post-apocalyptic books and video games