Tensions between Batumi and Tbilisi further increased after Chairman of the Central Election Commission was barred from entering a defiant Adjarian Autonomy on April 14. However, the Georgian central authorities refrain from drastic measures yet and seek for international pressure on restive region.
The tensions heightened, after Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania left Adjarian capital Batumi empty-handed on April 13, as the Autonomy’s leader Aslan Abashidze refused to disarm his paramilitary forces. Zurab Zhvania described situation in Adjara as “a serous conundrum for the central authorities.”
The Prime Minister instructed on April 14 Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili to set up a special group, which will cooperate with international organizations and brief them over recent developments in the Adjara Autonomous Republic.
“We should actively cooperate with the international community regarding Adjarian problem to ensure their participation in settlement of the problem,” Zurab Zhvania said at a government session on April 14.
“Abashidze’s regime and drug traffic in Adjara poses threat to entire region and we should focus our foreign friends’ attention on this particular issue,” Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zurabishvili told reporters after the cabinet session.
Meanwhile Chairman of the Central Elections Commission Zurab Tchiaberashvili was denied to enter the Adjarian Autonomy on April 14, as a group of Aslan Abashidze’s supporters blocked the road at Choloki checkpoint, which divides Adjara from the rest of Georgia.
The CEC Chairman intended to visit Adjara to oversee preparations for the repeat elections in the Autonomy’s two districts – Kobuleti and Khulo, scheduled for April 18. The Adjarian Authorities are against of holding repeat elections.
“Holding of the repeat elections in Adjara is doubtful. I request the General Prosecutor to bring criminal charges against those who hinder election process in the region,” Zurab Tchiaberashvili told reporters.
Surprisingly, President Saakashvili, who makes frequent television appearances to comment regarding ongoing developments in the country, made no comments on recent events in Adjara yet.
Political analysts say that the resorting to international efforts in the standoff with the Adjarian leadership is the central authorities’ last attempt to solve the problem peacefully. President Saakashvili suggested in late March that he might resort to force to bring Adjara back into the fold of the central government.
“The central authorities should use all the peaceful means to settle the problem. The dialogue with the foreign countries, especially with Russia is of vital importance in this regard,” Davit Darchiashvili of the Tbilisi-based think-tank Caucasian Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development told Civil Georgia.
Russia has a military base stationed in the Adjarian capital Batumi. “Although, Moscow has announced that it will not interfere in Georgia’s internal affairs, but there is no firm guarantees that the Russian military base would stand aside,” Davit Darchiashvili added.
Unlike the previous crisis in Adjara, which broke out last month, when President Saakashvili was barred from entering the Autonomous Republic, the central authorities refrain from imposing economic sanctions against Adjara this time. After four-day long economic blockade Aslan Abashidze agreed to negotiate with President Saakashvili in mid-March.
“Economic sanctions were effective, since it did not last for a long time and everything ended in several days. So, the country did not face serious economic problems. But now, if the blockade is imposed again, it is most likely that the sanctions will be a long-term and thus would have an extremely negative impact on the country’s economy,” Niko Orvelashvili of the Georgian Economic Development Institute told Civil Georgia.
