Ruling party official: “peace, reconciliation and development” “only way” to restore territorial integrity

Mamuka Mdinaradze, the Executive Secretary of the ruling Georgian Dream party, on Tuesday said the Georgian Government’'s “clear and principled” message was that the “only way” to reintegrate the Russian-occupied regions of the country went through “peace, reconciliation and development”. 

Making the comments on the annual Abkhazia Day in celebration of the culture of the north-western occupied region, Mdinaradze said “any future perspective” of Georgia was being considered only with Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) regions as parts of it.

Georgia's clear and principled message to everyone - and first of all, to our Abkhazian and Ossetian fellow citizens - is that the only way to unify the country is through peace, reconciliation and development” Mdinaradze said.

“This, in turn, contradicts the practically stated goal of the global or regional war party to involve Georgia in the [ongoing] war [in Ukraine]”, Mdinaradze said in reference to a part of the domestic opposition.

That is why they are testing the idea about perspectives of Georgia without the occupied territories”, he added, before accusing the opposition of framing the Government’s policy of peaceful reintegration of the regions as a “Russian narrative”.