De facto Abkhazia plans to revoke ‘residency permits’ of local students receiving higher education on Tbilisi-controlled territory

The Russian-controlled de facto government of Georgia's occupied Abkhazia region has plans to revoke 'residency permits' of the local students who receive higher education on the Tbilisi-controlled territory, de facto head of Gali district administration Temur Nadaraia told Nuzhnaya Gazeta.

The de facto government also plans to ban the Georgian language at Abkhaz schools and instead introduce the Megrelian language [one of the languages in Georgia used by the people living in Samegrelo and Abkhazia regions of Georgia].

Nadaraia says that Tbilisi offers various benefits to the people living in the occupied region, students among them.

• All students from occupied Abkhazia enrolled after facing obstacles to sit university exams

That is why 160 students mostly from Tkvarcheli and Gali districts went to Georgia to receive higher education there. Only 30 students from the districts are receiving higher education at the Abkhazian State University. We are forced to take measures in the situation,” Nadaraia says.

De facto official in occupied Abkhazia Temur Nadaraia says that "Tbilisi is trying to get involved in internal affairs of Abkhazia." Photo: Nuzhnaya Gazeta.

He said that those individuals, including  students, who will leave the “Abkhaz territory” for more than six months will have their “residency permits,” revoked and will have to re-enter the region as“residents of a foreign state” [through a complicated procedure].

Nadaraia also says that the local population will be provided antennas to receive information in the Russian and Abkhaz languages, as “currently they receive information mostly via Georgian media outlets.”

Two Georgian regions of Abkhazia Tskhinvali were declared as independent states by Russia after the Russia-Georgia 2008 war.

Only Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru and Syria have recognised the regions as independent countries since the war. The rest of the international community says that the regions are occupied by Russia.