Georgians threaten to frustrate the Olympics

Georgia’s minister for reintegration of separatist territories, Temur Yakobashvili commented on situation with attacks on Georgian buses on day of Parliament election. In his interview to Russian newspaper “Vremya Novostey”, he stated that “Russia should leave Abkhazia alone and withdraw its peacekeepers-occupiers”.

“Unresolved conflict in the Caucasus threatens to frustrate the Sochi Olympics”, Georgia’s minister warned.

 

“This is a terrorism”, Yakobashvili said, commenting the attack on bus. “The attack on civilians is called as terrorism. The objective is to frighten the civilian population, in particular, in order to make people not go to Georgian elections. That is, the existing peacekeeping formats can not ensure the smooth movement of people living in the Gali district.  All these so-called peacekeepers and general security scheme, existing in the region, should be reviewed “.

 

“Now we can see, for example, the so-called increase of Russian peacekeepers, which are in fact the occupation forces. They did not fit into the peacekeeping operation and can not ensure the safety of the Georgian population in Gali district. There is an urgent need to replace these so-called peacekeepers by another operation. Also at this stage there, it would be expedient to provide police operation”, Georgian minister repeated the recent requirement of Georgian Foreign Ministry on the withdrawal of Russian military contingent.

 

Let us remind that earlier Georgia’s Foreign Ministry has sent a protest note to the CIS secretariat demanding so called illegal Russian troops and armaments be withdrawn from the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict zone. The ministry said that according to the UN, an airborne battalion, 50 BMD-2 airborne combat vehicles, two artillery batteries, each with five D-30 howitzers, have been deployed in Abkhazia. The ministry said this “was out of line with a 1995 resolution of the CIS presidents’ council”.

 

“I think the improvement of Georgian-Russian relations is inevitable. How much would try to spoil them and the one, and on the other hand. But the thing is not only in important religious, historical, human relations. There are purely pragmatic things. Peace would not be in the Caucasus, if Georgia would dismember and vulnerable. All the more it will not be in the North Caucasus. And holding the Olympics in 2014 in Sochi become problematic, where the unresolved conflict would be looming within 30 kilometers”.

 

Yakobashvili also said that “frozen” conflict in the Caucasus is not profitable, primarily, for Russian side.

 

The pressure of Moscow on Sukhumi will not yield any fruit, Georgian minister assure.

 

“Moscow believe that once America “takes” Georgia and Ukraine, there are a need to snatch Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Crimea”. At the same time, Russian will never recognize their independence Russia, he said.

Kavkaz Center