It`s better if diplomats break spears than, God forbid, at least one shot will sound.
The co-chairs of the Geneva discussions arrived in South Ossetia on Tuesday to discuss the agenda for the upcoming round of Geneva discussions.
A meeting of the co-chairs with South Ossetian colleagues is underway in Tskhinval, where the parties discuss the agenda of the upcoming round of Geneva discussions, which will be held on October 8 and 9. There will also be a meeting with President of the Republic Anatoly Bibilov. Then the co-chairs intend to visit South Ossetian State University and communicate with students.
Murat Dzhioev, Presidential Envoy of South Ossetia for post-conflict settlement, has noted that the Geneva discussions will take place at a rather turbulent time, "when the Georgian side is escalating the situation in one of the sections of the state border."
"Therefore, the importance of the upcoming round is increasing at times, we hope that the current situation will find its logical and diplomatic solution. The situation that has developed today once again proves the need to develop a document on the non-use of force," the envoy said.
He has remined that on August 23, the Georgian side, without prior discussion of the issue under the IPRM, as previously practiced, put up an illegal post in South Ossetia, four kilometers from the nearest Georgian settlement and about 300 meters from the South Ossetian settlement Tsnelis, " which immediately created a tense situation at the border, as the residents of these villages felt in danger. "
The Plenipotentiary has noted that four technical meetings have already taken place within the framework of the IPRM, however, the statements of the South Ossetian party that the post is a source of tension and should be removed did not find understanding among the Georgian party, which states that for them “this is a political decision, the red line as they say, and they won’t remove the post. "
"The Georgian party has stated that the South Ossetian side should not even have its presence of border guards on the left bank of the river, which is completely unacceptable. Therefore, we had to take measures to ensure the safety of our population, based primarily on humane considerations so that residents of the villages felt safe. The current situation is a factor of tension not only for residents of Tsnelis and nearby villages, but for South Ossetia as a whole, because after 2008 it was the Georgian side created a situation that put the relative peace in our relations at risk, "said Dzhioev.
The Plenipotentiary addressed the co-chairs so that they, in turn, would make every effort using the authority of the organizations that they represented, so that the situation that keeps everyone in suspense would be resolved.
"We are ready to offer you our justification, our vision of crossing the state border, and none of you will deny that at each meeting, the South Ossetian side, starting in 2009, has invited the Georgian side to proceed with the issue of. designating the border," he said.
Dzhioev also commented on a recent statement by international observers regarding the village of Goodiantkari.
“I don’t know if your representatives were in the area of this village, but there it was only about designating the border with appropriate engineering structures, which are quite a lot along the border. South Ossetian border guards did nothing new, no one crossed the border line there Moreover, if you were there, you could see that in several places, based on the interests of the Georgian population on the other side of the border, our border guards went around the Georgian house there, which ended up in South Ossetia, leaving it in Georgian territory. However, this was not appreciated by international observers and the Georgian side, "he said.
The Plenipotentiary has noted that against the background of what is happening in the village of Tsnelis, he considers this to be just "a biased attitude to the situation on the part of international organizations."
"I always say, it`s better if diplomats break spears than, God forbid, at least one shot will sound. We have confirming material that this territory is part of South Ossetia. As South Ossetia was formed within the borders of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Region and legislatively, these borders were approved by the decree on the formation of the South Ossetian Autonomous Region of April 20, 1922. This is the basic document from which we depart. when designating our borders. and we don’t take one step that would be contrary to the law, "Dzhioev assured.
The EU co-chair Toivo Klaar noted the interest in a meaningful conversation with the South Ossetian party regarding the recent events.
"We agree that there has been a tense situation over the past few weeks. Meetings have been held under the IPRM (Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism). And we are ready to help resolving this issue," Toivo Klaar said.
In turn, the OSCE co-chair Rudolf Mikhalka thanked the parties for the constructive dialogue.
"It is important that the parties sit at the negotiating table within the framework of the IPRM, the positions may vary, but I see that the process is working," he said.
The meeting continued without media representatives.
The delegation also included the UN co-chair Cihan Sultanoglu, UN employee Hailu Mamo and others.
The Geneva discussions on security and stability in the Transcaucasia are held since 2008 and remain the only platform for Georgia’s dialogue with South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Representatives of Russia, the USA, the UN, EU and OSCE co-chairs also take part in the negotiations. The main goal of the discussions is to reach an agreement on the non-use of force between Tskhinval and Tbilisi, Sukhum and Tbilisi.
