Saakashvili: UN Abkhaz Resolution ‘Historic’

President Saakashvili hailed the resolution passed by the UN General Assembly on Abkhazia on May 15 as “historic.”

“Yesterday the UN General Assembly passed a historical declaration on ethnic cleansing in Abkhazia and on the rights of refugees to return to their homes and receive back their property,” Saakashvili said.

Saakashvili was speaking at a ceremony of launching new oil terminal owned by the Azeri state oil company, SOCAR, in Kulevi on Georgia’s Black Sea coast on May 16.

The Georgian President reiterated once again Tbilisi’s proposal to the Abkhaz side to set up a joint free economic zone in breakaway region’s Ochamchire district as part of the Georgian side’s peaceful initiatives.

“I want to say that Georgia has the third sea gateway – Batumi, Poti and now Kulevi,” Saakashvili said. “But much bigger terminal should be built in Ochamchire and the Sokhumi port should be put into operation. We offer those people, who have stayed in Abkhazia, a free economic zone, which will work simultaneously with the free economic zones located [in Poti], on this side of the Enguri River. But this will be one big economic zone, where there will be no corruption, no violence, no discrimination on ethnic grounds, where the rights of ethnic Abkhazians and their identity will be protected as never before.”

He said that current residents of Abkhazia were “deprived of their property by charlatans, who arrived from abroad.” Saakashvili also said that the Abkhaz land did not belong to those “charlatans.” “It belongs to 500,000 people, who were expelled from there [Abkhazia],” he added.

The ceremony of launching the new oil terminal in Kulevi was also attended by Azerbaijani Prime Minister Artur Rasizade. President Saakashvili thanked Azerbaijan for voting in favor of the Georgian-sponsored resolution at the UN General Assembly on May 15.

“I want to express my gratitude to the Azerbaijani government, which supported this resolution,” he said. “This is a real sign of brotherhood and friendship. Votes of this kind demonstrate who is a real friend; who, regardless of pressure and blackmail, will stand with us in the most difficult situations.”

The resolution was adopted with small margin of 14 votes in favour to 11 against; 105 abstained.

Apart of Georgia, Albania, Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, Ukraine and United States voted in favor of the resolution.

Armenia, Belarus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Iran, Myanmar, Russia, Serbia, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela were against.