Tbilisi says illegal election in breakaway Abkhazia is attempt to legalise occupation
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So-called parliamentary elections are being held in the occupied Abkhazia region of Georgia today.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that this act is yet another attempt at legitimizing the consequences of several waves of ethnic cleansing, military invasion, occupation and lasting aggression by Russia against Georgian statehood.
The ministry added that according to international law, any so-called elections or referendums in the occupied territories of Georgia are illegal and cannot have any legal effect.
"The so-called elections take place in the context when the Russian Federation does not comply with its obligations under the 12 August 2008 Ceasefire Agreement and in parallel with intensified military build-up continues the factual annexation of Georgia’s occupied regions through their integration into Russia’s military, political, economic and social system”, the statement read.
"At the same time, people displaced from Georgia's occupied territories are deprived of the right to return to the places of their residence whereas the population remaining in these regions suffer ethnic discrimination and gross violations of basic rights and freedoms”.
The ministry noted that against this background, international security and human rights mechanisms, including representatives of the European Union Monitoring Mission are denied access to the occupied Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions of Georgia.
The ministry appealed to the international community to assess as illegal the so-called parliamentary elections and called upon the Russian Federation to respect the fundamental norms and principles of international law.
Georgia’s Russian-occupied region of Abkhazia is preparing to hold the "parliamentary elections” tomorrow – an event that Tbilisi and international community call non-constitutional and illegitimate.
The individual accused of murdering Giga Otkhozoria last year near the Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) separating Georgia and its breakaway region of Abkhazia has been given two additional years of detention, which now makes for 14-years of imprisonment in total.
The Organisation for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) Chairmanship expressed concern over the closure of two crossing-points between Georgia and occupied Abkhazia today.
The United States is concerned over the closure of crossing points along the occupation line with Georgia’s breakaway region of Abkhazia, the US Department of State said in a statement.
The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan has issued a statement condemning the so-called parliamentary elections that took place on Sunday in Georgia’s Russian-occupied region of Abkhazia.
"NATO does not recognise the election held on March 12 in the Georgian region of Abkhazia”, NATO Secretary General’s Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia James Appathurai said in a statement on the so-called elections in Abkhazia today.
The EU, Poland and Estonia do not recognise the so-called 'parliamentary elections' held on March 12 by Russia-backed de-facto leadership controlling Georgia's Abkhazia region.
The United States Embassy in Georgia announced today that "the US does not recognise the results of an election conducted illegitimately in Georgian territory without the consent of the Government of Georgia, and condemns the decision to integrate the military forces of the breakaway region of South Ossetia with those of the Russian Federation”.