Abkhaz MPs Tells Bagapsh to Pull Out from UN-led Talks

The Parliament in breakaway Abkhazia called on the Abkhaz leader, Sergey Bagapsh, to suspend Sokhumi’s participation in the so called Geneva Process.

Series of meetings known as the Geneva Process, as the city has been the traditional venue for such meetings, brings together France, Germany, Great Britain, Russia and the U.S.  – the UN Secretary General’s Group of Friends of Georgia. Both the Georgian and Abkhaz sides attend the meeting. The latest meeting in the series took place on February 18-19.

“In the current circumstances the Parliament of the Republic of Abkhazia, which is guided by the interests and opinion of the Abkhaz population, calls you [Sergei Bagapsh] to refrain from participating in Georgian–Abkhaz negotiation process under the UN aegis with the participation of the Group of Friends, unless the international community gives the objective assessment to the aggressive actions of the Georgian side and unless Georgia follows its commitments under the [1994] Moscow agreement [on ceasefire and separation of forces],” the Abkhaz Parliament’s statement reads.

Sokhumi started to criticize the Group of Friends after its four western members – the U.S., Britain, France and Germany – issued a joint statement on April 23 calling on Russia “to revoke or not to implement its decision” on establishing official ties with Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia is also part of the Group of Friends.