Otyrba studied history at the
Institute of History and Archives in
Moscow, receiving his first degree in 1984, as well as a second degree from the
Institute of General History in 1990. He was appointed as a Professor in the Department of Modern History at
Abkhazian State University in the same year, and through the early 1990s, served as a visiting scholar in a number of universities around the world, including
Johns Hopkins University and
Maryland University in the
United States and the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem in
Israel, often dealing in topics associated with the civil war in his homeland. These experiences saw Otyrba take an interest in foreign policy, and in 1996, he underwent a course in mediation and human rights monitoring in
Austria. He became involved in trying to establish dialogue between the two sides, and in 1997, was appointed Deputy Foreign Minister of Abkhazia. In the same year, he became Director of the
Civil Society Development Centre a
non-government organization based in the city of
Gagra, a position which he held for approximately a year. Otyrba continued to both work in academia and serve as Deputy Foreign Minister for several years, and when long-serving Foreign Minister
Sergey Shamba resigned to run in the 2004 elections, Otyrba was a natural choice to fill in as a temporary replacement. However, the position only lasted for two months before he was replaced by
Igor Akhba on 28 July 2004., and Otyrba has since returned to his prior roles. In his capacity of acting Foreign Minister, Otyrba headed the Abkhazian delegation to the meeting on repatriation of refugees held 20 July 2004 in
Sochi. On 3 March 2007, Otyrba was appointed the first Commissioner for Human Rights of Abkhazia under the President of Abkhazia by
Sergei Bagapsh. Following the adoption of a law constituting a new, independent, Human Rights Commissioner, the old office under the President was abolished and Otyrba was formally dismissed by
Raul Khajimba on 4 May 2016. Otyrba is a native speaker of
Abkhaz and
Russian, speaks
English fluently, and is also competent in
Italian. ==References==