Foreign Minister Dmitriy Medoev’s Answers to Questions from TASS

Q: - The Catalan referendum for secession from Spain was held on October 1, 2017. What can you say about this event?

A: - Today the Catalan citizens like we in South Ossetia in early 1990-s have been defending and fighting for the fundamental and the most often declared European value – the right of the people for self-determination. Despite the police riots, it is obvious that the Catalans have honorably asserted their right to independence! The aggressive response of Spanish authorities to the referendum once again has shown to the world that not the rule of fundamental principles of international law, but double standards and barefaced hypocrisy has become the practice in the West. Having recognized the independence of Kosovo by rejection of a part of the Serbian territory, the so-called guardians of democracy have strongly opposed self-determination of the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. And when the people of South Ossetia were exposed to ethnic cleansings by Georgia when they had been asserting the right to independence, nobody in the West condemned the actions of Georgia.

Q: - What would be the results of the tragic events in Catalonia in your opinion?

A: - Firstly, the authors of the idea create the state of Kosovo should have expected that in future this fact would become a detonator of repartition of the European borders. The process of radicalization of national self-determination and secession of a number of autonomies, which they launched in Europe, has led to the sharp growth of tension in the European Union. Application of violence by the authorities against civilians has inclined to the independence from Spain even those layers of the Catalan society, which for various reasons didn't participate in the referendum. As a result the boomerang effect was gained – the gap between Barcelona and Madrid became huge.

Today the situation has reached the point of no return. The rest is a matter of time.

 

03.10.2017