The Abkhaz Foreign Ministry has commented on the statement by the Honorary Chairperson of Georgian Dream, Bidzina Ivanishvili, that the Georgian authorities are ready to apologize to the Ossetian people for the August 2008 war.
“Although this statement does not directly concern the Republic of Abkhazia, we would like to note that if it is supported by real steps towards reconciliation, based on a reassessment of past mistakes and apologies to the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the renunciation of methods of political and economic pressure and the signing of a peace treaty can be the beginning of a process leading to peaceful existence and good-neighbourly relations.” – he said in Sukhum.
According to the Abkhazian Foreign Ministry, Ivanishvili’s statement shows that in Georgia “there is still a resource for internal reassessment and recognition of one’s own mistakes, as has happened more than once in our relations.”
In Sukhum they recalled that in 1956, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia at the August plenum also condemned the actions of the Georgian leadership towards Abkhazia during the reign of Joseph Stalin AND Lavrenty Beria. June 27, 1978 Eduard Shevardnadze At the 11th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Georgia he stated:
“It must be said directly that in the past, in the period known to us, a policy was pursued towards the Abkhaz people, which in practice should be called chauvinistic, let’s call a spade a spade, which is fundamentally contrary to both the interests of the Georgian people and the interests of the Abkhaz people.”
Unfortunately, the Abkhaz Foreign Ministry noted, this did not prevent Shevardnadze from starting a war in Abkhazia in 1992.
“Let us hope that Mr. Ivanishvili will be more sincere in his intentions and find the right words in relation to the people of Abkhazia, that this time they will not deviate from the business and will end with the signing of a legally binding document on international guarantees of non-use of force between Abkhazia and Georgia and South Ossetia and Georgia,” – the Abkhaz Foreign Ministry reported.
As reported EADaily Speaking at one of the campaign events, Ivanishvili said that the Georgian authorities, after winning the parliamentary elections scheduled for October 26, would find the strength to apologize for the fact that the United National Movement in 2008 “engulfed Ossetian brothers and sisters in flames.”
