Comment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Ossetia in connection with the speech of Prime Minister of Georgia made at the spring session of PACE
April 23, 2013, Prime Minister of Georgia Bidzina Ivanishvili made a speech at the session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg and voiced the main trends and challenges in the foreign policy of Georgia. In particular, he said that "it is obvious to all, that 20 per cent of the country were occupied by Russia in 2008."
The so-called evidence of this fact has not caused any doubts among parliamentarians of the Council of Europe, because the West has been making great efforts to instill democratic standards in Georgia, and has easily forgiven Tbilisi for the acts of violence committed against the non-Georgian population, including thousands of Ossetians.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of South Ossetia is not less surprised at the fact that the Georgian leadership, as well as members of PACE, consider the heart of the August 2008 events the alleged war of Russia against Georgia, but not the Georgian aggression against the people of South Ossetia. This one-sided, in fact criminal position follows from a lack of access of the South Ossetian representatives to the international platforms where they could tell the world the whole truth about Georgia's crimes, including the aggression and genocide of South Ossetian people. In this regard, South Ossetia welcomes the initiative of the Russian delegation that "South Ossetia and Abkhazia should be accessed to the Assembly by the example of Kosovo."
In addition, the Prime Minister of Georgia said that "the government of Georgia committed a lot of mistakes over the last 20 years with respect to our Abkhaz and Ossetian brothers." People of South Ossetia are well aware of that the Georgians were being brought up in a decades-chauvinism and xenophobia atmosphere, and the Ossetian and Georgian people have never been brothers, but as the fates decree, they have been just neighbors. Ivanishvili has somehow forgotten the artillery bombardment of South Ossetia and how the Georgian tanks were driving along the streets of Tskhinval, brutally shooting the defenseless people. Apparently, it is acceptable in Georgia to show love for their brothers, using such methods.
The recent trend, according to which the criticism is focused on the first person of Georgia and is deliberately created the view that removing the next leader of Tbilisi, there would not be any guilty. And the Georgian people are always considered indifferent to the crimes!
In South Ossetia, no one has the slightest doubt that there is a continuity of ideas and ideology of Nazism in Georgia. This is proved by many examples; in particular, Ivanishvili in his speech stressed several times that abolition of the cynical law "On Occupied Territories" was irreversible. This once again shows the invariance of the position of Georgia towards South Ossetia.
People of South Ossetia do not believe the loud and false statements of the Georgian leaders, speaking from the high European platforms about the sudden peacefulness and fraternity towards the Ossetian people.