Bagapsh Speaks of War in Response to Saakashvili Statements

Visiting President-elect of breakaway Abkhazia Sergey Bagapsh told reporters in Moscow on January 27 that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili?s statements over Abkhazia made at the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) was ?actually a declaration of war.?

Responding to a question from the floor at the PACE, Mikheil Saakashvili ruled out the possibility of peace talks on Abkhazia. He said “the Abkhazian side has left the negotiating table” and pointed to the fact that hundreds of thousands of ethnic Georgians were driven out from Abkhazia during the war which occurred in the whole region in 1992-93 and during unrests in the Gali region in 1998.

?This [statement] mostly means a declaration of war. If Saakashvili wants to talk [with the Abkhaz side] this way, then we are ready for this,? Itar-Tass news agency reported, quoting Sergey Bagapsh.