Schools in one of Georgia’s breakaway regions are refusing to teach Georgian history, causing Georgian authorities to relay the news to international mediators.
The co-chairs of Geneva International Discussions have been informed that Akhalgori schools in South Ossetia had stopped teaching Georgian history.
Georgia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Davit Zalkaliani said the Georgian side provided the Geneva Talks’ participants with information about the current situation in South Ossetia, one of Georgia’s two breakaway regions.
"At the next round of Geneva Talks, which will probably take place in September, this topic as well as the ethnical discrimination of Georgian’s in Abkhazia [Georgia’s other breakaway region] will be discussed,” Zalkaliani said.
Akhalgori is a town in South Ossetia currently backed by Russia. Recently, local media reported Georgian history was banned at Akhalgori schools and South Ossetian history was taught instead.
In addition to this, those who wanted to enter the region were asked to have Ossetian passports.
Official dialogue launched after the Russia-Georgia War in August 2008. The talks, commonly known as Geneva International Discussions, are co-chaired by representatives from the European Union, United Nations and the OSCE, and involved negotiators from Georgia, Russia and the United States, as well as from Georgia’s two breakaway regions.
The discussions were established to address the consequences of the war. One of the outcomes of the talks was the establishment of Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms (IPRMs).
The talks, which are held in Geneva, have been the main line of communication between Georgia and Russia since 2008.