Abkhazian President Sergey Bagapsh watches a military exercise in Sukhumi, Abkhazia on August 19, 2005.
Photo: Valery Melnikov
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Unrecognized Allies
// Abkhazia and South Ossetia Help Russia in the Fight Against Georgia
The Sukhumi authorities have announced that Abkhazia is prepared to approach Russia with the request that Russia recognize the republic as an independent state. A referendum on independence will be held on November 12 in South Ossetia, which will also probably appeal to Russia with a similar request. In doing so, the unrecognized republics are playing into the hands of Moscow, which is continuing to exert severe pressure on Tbilisi.
Yesterday Abkhazian President Sergey Bagapsh announced that the republic is preparing to send a message to the Russian State Duma in the next few days requesting that Russia recognize Abkhazia's independence. "Our social organizations suggested that the republic's parliament turn to Russia with a request to recognize [our] independence. Soon our parliament will have prepared the request," said Mr. Bagapsh. The authorities in Sukhumi emphasize that the question of recognition will not be opened to public discussion. "Our referendum took place in 1999, and an overwhelming percentage of the population was in favor of independence. That is included in the law concerning state sovereignty. As such we do not think it is necessary to hold a new plebiscite," the unrecognized republic's government press service told Kommersant.
In order to convince everyone, especially Georgia, that Abkhazia is capable of standing up for itself, the local authorities are planning to carry out military exercises involving more than 1,500 soldiers at the end of October. According to Abkhazia's first deputy defense minister, Lieutenant General Anatoly Zaitsev, the maneuvers will take place on October 23-26. "During the training we will work on the deployment of one of our army brigades to the region of a military mission," he said.
A second mutinous region will soon raise again the question of its own independence: on November 12, South Ossetia will hold a referendum on independence. While the goal of Sukhumi is full independence, however, Tskhinvali is not concealing its desire to join Russia. "In today's geopolitical arena, it is impossible to talk about full independence for such a small republic, especially since our other half, North Ossetia, is located within Russia," explained South Ossetian Information Minister Irina Gagloeva. "I can only say for certain that we want to live without Georgia. South Ossetia will never join that country."
Tskhinvali underlines the impossibility of returning to Georgia's fold by a weighty argument: yesterday the parliament of South Ossetia sent a message to the leadership of the Russian republics of North Ossetia-Alaniya, Karachaevo-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria with a call to recognize Georgia's legal and moral responsibility for the genocide of South Ossetians in 1920 and in 1989-1992. It is obvious that the deputies were influenced by the vote yesterday in the French parliament to support legislation that would make denial of the genocide of Armenians by Turkey in 1915 a criminal offense.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia are bringing up the question of independence at a precarious time for Tbilisi, at the height of the confrontation between Georgia and Russia. In doing so, Abkhazia and South Ossetia are playing right into the hands of Moscow, which has more than once used self-proclaimed states in its own interests. Alongside a raft of economic sanctions and a transportation blockade imposed by Russia, the unrecognized regions will become powerful levers of political pressure on Georgia.
Russia is simultaneously continuing its diplomatic assault on Georgia. Moscow won an important victory by convincing the international community of the necessity of resuming patrols of upper Abkhazia's Kodorsky Gorge that were suspended in the summer of 2003. Together with UN military observers, Russian peacekeepers are also taking part in the monitoring of the gorge, something that the Georgian side has actively protested. Georgia has insisted that Russia's peacekeeping forces be replaced by an international police force.
The observers are planning on thoroughly inspecting Kodori, where this summer Georgian troops carried out large-scale special operations against forces loyal to former Georgian presidential representative Emzar Kvitsiani. After the purge, the Georgian authorities changed the name of the gorge and installed a "government of Abkhazia in exile" in the region. These actions were sharply criticized by Moscow. And now, when Russian military inspectors are permitted into Kodori, the consequences of the monitoring may be inauspicious for Tbilisi. For example, Georgia is accused of breaking a 1994 ceasefire agreement, according to which Georgian troops were not supposed to be in Kodori.
Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Yakovenko has already announced that "Georgia's provocation of a dangerous escalation, fraught with a renewal of armed confrontation, demands an adequate response from the UN Security Council." "We intend to firmly insist on the corresponding fulfillment of the resolution discussed by the Security Council concerning an extension of the UN mission's mandate to observe in Georgia, which is set to expire on October 15 of this year," promised Mr. Yakovenko. "We will direct the attention of the Council to the illegal actions taken by the Georgian side in the Kodori Gorge, the impermissibility of its flouting of the aforementioned Moscow agreements, and the important role played by the peacekeeping forces of the CIS in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict."
Vladimir Novikov (Tbilisi) and Vladimir Solovyov
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 13, 2006
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