Tamara Shakryl

Shakryl was a senior associate at the Institute for the Study of the Humanities at the Abkhazian Academy of Sciences. She was a strong supporter of Abkhaz independence, and had been sharply critical of major powers and international organizations for demanding that Abkhazia remain a province of Georgia.

Shakryl was a prominent supporter of opposition presidential candidate Sergei Bagapsh. On November 12, she was one of a crowd of Bagapsh supporters that stormed the parliament building as a drawn-out crisis over rigged elections neared its end. Reports of her death vary: some have claimed that guards fired into the air, and that Shakryl was hit by a ricochet, while others have claimed that she was killed by supporters of Bagapsh's rival, Raul Khadjimba, in an attempt to retake the parliament. In any case, she was shot, and died in hospital later that day, at the age of 78.

Shakryl's death caused outrage, and marked a significant turning point in the political crisis. After her death, Bagapsh changed tactics, urging his supporters to leave the parliament building, but then to remain outside, in a similar tactic to that used successfully in the Orange Revolution in Ukraine several weeks later. Bagapsh's supporters then detained two presidential guards over Shakryl's death, and brought them to the prosecutor's office. Security forces loyal to outgoing president Vladislav Ardzinba (Khadjimba's mentor) subsequently launched a raid on the prosecutor's office and freed the two men. However, this only exacerbated tension, and subsequently resulted in the decision of 2000 police officers to refuse to follow government orders. In many ways as a result of this crisis, Khadjimba backed down several weeks later, agreeing to run as Bagapsh's deputy in a re-vote.