IDPs Protest Rehousing Plan in Batumi

A group of Georgian internally displaced persons (IDPs) announced on June 28 that they will denounce Georgian citizenship and go to the unrecognized Abkhaz Republic as a protest against rehousing plan proposed by the Georgian authorities and Kazakh investors, who bought resort hotels on the Adjara?s Black Sea coast.

Internally displaced persons living in the Meskheli hotel in Batumi for more than a decade already received USD 7 000 from the Kazakh TuranAlem Bank. Part of them has vacated the rooms in the hotel, while another part was unhappy with the compensation demanding a better proposal.

Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze said on June 29 while commenting on IDPs protest that ?nobody has the right to put even the fairest demands above the country?s interests and state integrity.?
 
?I can, by no means, justify any internally displaced person, who says that he will go to Abkhazia and receive Abkhaz citizenship. I am very cautious while making statements. I do not want to call these people betrayers, by really it is so,? Burjanadze told reporters.