Tbilisi/Agency Caucasus – Georgia, which was heavily defeated in its last war in August in the Caucasus, seeks to retake the buffer zones over which it lost control in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Georgia’s Foreign Minister Yekaterina Tkeshelashvili said during his meeting with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner who went to Tbilisi for a two-day visit that Russia has to leave unconditionally the Akhalgori area in South Ossetia and the Kodor Gorge in Abkhazia.
The Georgian foreign minister argued that the ceasefire deal which Russia agreed to requires that the parties should return to their positions prior to the events in August.
Sergey Bagapsh, Abkhazia’s President, said that the Abkhaz forces will continue to remain in Kodor because they will offer the added advantage of strengthening the frontier between his country and Georgia.
Since 1992, Georgia was allowed to keep its peacekeeping forces in the region of Akhalgori in accordance with the joint peace operation. The Ossetians, however, viewed the presence of Georgians in Akhalgori as the main reason for acts of violence that they heavily suffered throughout their country. Kodor ought to be demilitarized according to the 1994 Moscow Agreement. However, Georgia sent in its troops in 2006 to the Kodor Gorge, thus militarized it. Although Georgia was urged by the Security Council of United Nations (UN) several times to pull its troops from Kodor, it continued to keep its forces there. After Georgia launched a military offensive against South Ossetia in early August this summer, Russia responded with a wide-scale launch of military operation against Georgia, and forced the Georgian troops to abandon Kodor. The Kremlin then said that it was morally obliged to enter Georgia to protect South Ossetia and Abkhazia from genocide by Georgia.
The European Union (EU) foreign ministers are expected to decide whether to resume talks on a strategic partnership with Russia or not at a summit in Geneva that will begin on October 15. The talks have been put on hold until Russia is verified to comply with the ceasefire deal thoroughly.
In the meantime, Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, confirmed on Friday that Russia has fully withdrawn in accordance with an international ceasefire its forces from the buffer zones that it set up inside Georgia.
"I am happy to announce that EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) patrols have confirmed that Russian armed forces have completed their planned withdrawal from the areas adjacent to Abkhazia and South Ossetia," Solana said in a statement to the press. He expressed his wish that the withdrawal of Russian troops would help the internally displaced people to return to their former conditions of living soon.
HAS
