Abkhaz Officials Comment on Saakashvili, Okruashvili’s Statements

Foreign Minister of breakaway Abkhazia Sergey Shamba said in an interview with the Georgian news agency InterPressNews on September 12 that “an accord” between Georgians and Abkhazians will be “less possible” if Georgia refuses to recognize the mistakes it made that led to an armed conflict in the early 90s.

Abkhaz Foreign Minister Shamba also commented on a statement made by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who said on September 11 that Georgia will not apologize to Abkhazia and described those who advocate this stance as “capitulators.”

“These people often tell us that we should apologize to Abkhazians. Apologize for what? For expelling 250,000 people [Georgians] out of Abkhazia [in 1993]? Where is the truth? We are on the side of truth and not on the side of capitulators,” the Georgian President stated while addressing a forum of “young patriots” in Tbilisi on Sunday.

At the same forum Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Okruashvili said that he covertly spent several days in the unrecognized republic. But authorities in Abkhazia have strongly denied this.

“This [statement by Okruashvili] is mere populism,” Raul Khajimba, the Vice-President of breakaway Abkhazia, told Regnum news agency on September 12.

“This is a lie and a provocation,” Abkhaz Defense Minister Sultan Sosnaliev was quoted by Regnum as saying on September 12.

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