Georgia’s Reconciliation Minister Ketevan Tsikhelashvili made a statement concerning the importance of the peaceful resolution of conflicts and stressed Georgia faces not a banner erected by occupants, but serious forces behind the banners.
This is not a challenge for only Georgia’s security. This is a challenge for the region and for Europe,” Tsikhelashvili stated after today’s governmental meeting over Russia’s continued occupation of Georgian lands.
The Minister stressed that Russia’s actions on the territory of Georgia, which deprived locals of access to their own lands, families, cemeteries, sacred places and similar, was a "pain for all Georgians and not only for the people.”
Tsikhelashvili stated that Georgia’s policy for de-occupation is peaceful and "very principled”, which, first of all, envisages providing strong international support against Russia’s illegal actions.
Russia occupies twenty percent of Georgian land, in the Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) and Abkhazia regions and continues a policy of creeping occupation onto Georgian territory since the Russia-Georgia war in 2008.