Parliament Calls for International Support in Standoff with Russia

The Georgian parliament called on the international community to provide tangible support in Tbilisi’s drive to internationalize peacekeeping efforts, otherwise, it said, Georgia would have to unilaterally take measures and demand the withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers.

The statement passed unanimously by Parliament on July 11 says that following recent provocative steps Russia can no longer play the role of peacekeeper in the region.

In the statement Parliament calls on the international community to “support Georgia’s peace initiatives, which envisage a change to the existing peacekeeping format and the immediate replacement of so-called [Russian] peacekeeping forces with an international police force.”

“Otherwise, the Georgian side will be forced to undertake appropriate legal measures in the nearest future for the de-legitimization and for the prompt withdrawal of the armed forces of the Russian Federation from the conflict zones.”

Georgian officials said last month they had been asked by their U.S. and European partners to delay demands for a withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers and to give them a chance to work on the matter with the Russian side.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in late June after talks with President Saakashvili in Berlin that Russian peacekeeping troops in Abkhazia should remain until an alternative was found.

Tbilisi is proposing an internationally managed joint Georgian-Abkhaz police force in Gali and Ochamchire districts of Abkhazia instead of the Russian peacekeepers.
 
Parliament also said in the statement that the violation of Georgian airspace over South Ossetia by Russian military aircraft and Moscow’s subsequent admission had further demonstrated Russia’s inability to perform its peacekeeping duties in the region.

“Through this unprecedented admission of an act of aggression, the Russian authorities are trying to show the international community that they allow themselves to carry out military actions openly in defiance of international norms,” the statement reads.

“The armed forces of the Russian Federation are openly assisting the illegal armed groups of the separatist regimes and by doing so they are actually supporting terrorism on the territory of Georgia.”