The commentary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Ossetia

Pertaining the statement of G. Margvelashvili

The President of Georgia after visiting the military airdrome and obviously satisfied by observing Georgian military helicopters flights made very strange statement that Georgia plans to regain the territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia solely by peaceful means “and if Russia recognize that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are part of Georgia it will no longer be the enemy of Georgia”.

As the resent history shoes Southossetian people do knows the meaning of peaceful initiatives of Georgian presidents whatever their family names sounds. For Georgian leadership it’s time to understand that the Republic of South Ossetia as an independent state exists rather large period of time and mere assertions of returning of territories which never belongs legally to Georgia sounds absurd putting it mildly.

No less than strange seems the tendency of present Georgian authorities to cancel out the truth of August aggression 2008 i.e. suppress the fact that Georgia attack South Ossetia and trumpet that the war was ostensibly between Russia and Georgia. One should not forget that the victim in that war was Southossetian side and Russia forced Georgia to peace to save the people of South Ossetia.

As for the application by Georgia meanings of “occupation” and “occupied territories” towards South Ossetia, Southossetian side at Geneva International Discussions more than once proved their absurdity. Comprehensive special joint discussion of this topic with participation of independent international experts in the sphere of international law who were invited by Co-chairs to the 20-th session of Geneva discussions clearly showed that deployment of Russian troops at the territories of Republic of South Ossetia and Republic of Abkhazia cannot be seen as an “occupation” and these territories cannot consider as “occupied”.

It is worth noting that RSO authorities maintained an effective control over their territory and population long before the events of 2008 and recognition of South Ossetia as a sovereign and independent state. And Russian military bases diploid in South Ossetia on the ground of bilateral agreements with Russia.

And if Georgian authorities are really ready for good neighbor relations they must first of all sign a legally binding document of non-use of force, recognize the independence of the Republic of South Ossetia and their responsibility for the genocide of people of South Ossetia and give and appropriate assessment to military aggressions and offset a disadvantage to our country.

 

Tskhinval, September 10, 2014

 

21.10.2014