the Chairman of the Abkhazian Organization of Ekvtime Takaishvili Historical Society of Georgia, the laureate of Giorgi Sharvashidze State Prize (1998), Rustaveli Foundation Scholarship winner (2010), the owner Order of Honour (2013).

Born in 1950 in Zugdidi; in 1972 he graduated with honors the Faculty of History of Tbilisi State University. From 1972 to 1975, he was a post-graduate student of the Lomonosov Moscow State University where he received a PhD in history for his thesis: “Georgia and Eastern Europe in 11th-12th centuries.” In 1991 he received his habilitation on the following thesis: “International Situation of Medieval Georgia. 970s – 1080s.” In 1994 he was awarded the title of Professor. From 1976 Zurab Papaskiri has worked at Sukhumi State Pedagogical Institute (Since 1979 – Abkhazian State University) on the position of a teacher, docent and as a Deputy Chair. In 1989-2005 he was the Chair of History of Georgia at Sokhumi Branch of Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. He also was the Deputy Director in Research. After the transformation of the institution to Sokhumi State University (2007), he was the Head of Scientific-Research Repartment (until 2019). In 1994-2006 he also worked in the Research Centre of the History of Georgian State and Popular Diplomacy at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University and was the Deputy Head of the Centre.

Zurab Papaskiri is the author of about 230 scholarly publications, from which should be highlighted the following monographs and books: “At the Origins of the Georgian-Russian Relations” (1982, in Russian); “Emergence of United Georgian Feudal State and Some Questions of Georgia’s Foreign-Policy Status” (1990, in Georgian); “Abkhazia is Georgia” (1998, in Georgian); “Studies in History of Present-Day Abkhazia” (Part I, 2004, Part II, 2007); “And Georgia Has Risen from Nikopsia to Daruband” (2009, in Georgian); „Abkhazia. Unfalsified History (2010, in Russian); “My Abkhazia. Memoirs and Recollections” (2012, in Russian); “Georgia. Historical Past and Present” (2016, in Georgian).