Georgian student injured while trying to cross occupation line to sit entrance exams
The student hurt his hand on the barbed-wire-fence illegally erected by occupying forces. Photo: Netgazeti.
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A Georgian student has severely cut his hand while trying to cross the occupation line between Georgia and its western occupied Abkhazia region yesterday, as the de facto authorities closed the only checkpoint with the rest of Georgia on June 27.
Students living in the Russia-controlled region, had to use alternative, dangerous routes to sit university exams on Tbilisi-administered Zugdidi region.
A photo of the student went viral, with several stitches on his hand, after he received treatment at a local hospital in Zugdidi.
Reconciliation Minister Ketevan Tsikhelashvili says that many of the students from occupied regions have already been allowed to the Tbilisi-controlled territory. Photo: Reconciliation Ministry press office.
The Georgian Ministry of Reconciliation and Civil Equality says that the Georgian government has used all levers to help the students safety come to the exam centers.
172 of 185 students registered for the exams from the occupied regions are already on Tbilisi-controlled territory and are taking part in the exams,” the ministry reports.
Georgian Reconciliation Minister Ketevan Tsikhelashvili says that none of the students from the occupied regions will be left without high education.
A special education programme has been created for the students living in the occupied territories. Free training centres have been opened for them in Tbilisi and Zugdidi. After completing the training they will be enrolled in universities without taking the exams. The government also covers their accommodation expenses and gives them the scholarship of 150 GEL,” Tsikhelashvili stated.
The de facto leadership of Abkhazia cited Tbilisi protests and security threats as the reason for the closure of the Enguri Bridge checkpoint.
Tbilisi condemned the step, saying the closure hurts the local population.
Amnesty International says that the attempts to physically demarcate a boundary between Georgia’s occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and the rest of Georgia by Russia and the regions’ de facto authorities have led to severe human rights violations.
University applicants living in Georgia’s occupied Abkhazia will be able to cross over onto Tbilisi-administered territory to sit exams, Georgian Minister for Reconciliation and Civil Equality Ketevan Tsikhelashvili says.
A number of university entrants from Georgia’s Russian occupied region of Abkhazia were unable to sit today’s Unified National Examinations in Georgian language and literature as the de facto leadership of Abkhazia closed the Enguri Bridge crossing-point connecting the region with the rest of Georgia.
Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani said the issue of closing the occupation line between the Russian occupied region of Abkhazia and the rest of the country will be raised at the next round of the Geneva International Discussions on July 2-3.
The European Union Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Maja Kocijancic said in today’s statement that EU considers the Russian decision to ban flights to Georgia as of 8 July “unjustified and disproportionate”. Kocijancic said the latest developments in relations between Russia and Georgia “risk having a negative impact on the citizens of both countries”.
The Georgian government and the Ministry of Education have made a decision to enroll all the students from Georgia’s western occupied Abkhazia region after they faced serious obstacles to sit university exams in early July due to the closure of the so-called border by occupying forces just prior to the exam season.
Forty-three students from Georgia’s currently Russian-occupied Gali district have crossed the currently closed Enguri ‘checkpoint’ to participate in a summer school on Tbilisi-administered territory.
Students of all grades in Georgia’s Russian-occupied, mostly ethnic-Georgian-inhabited Gali district will have to receive secondary education in Russian, the de facto Abkhaz Education Ministry has decided.
The Georgian State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality is concerned by replacement of the Georgian curriculum in schools with Russian in Georgia’s Russia-occupied Gali district.
All first to eighth graders in eight schools of Georgia’s Russian-occupied Akhalgori district, which is mostly inhabited by ethnic Georgians, will now be forced to study in a Russian-language curriculum, the NGO Democracy Research Institute (DRI) says.