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President speaks about Russia’s occupation of Georgia in front of 70 state leaders

By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, May 24
“We should unite in order to react to conflicts as well as avoid and eliminate them,” the Georgian President said, addressing the leaders of 70 countries at Istanbul humanitarian summit.

Margvelashvili thanked the UN Secretary General and the Turkish President for initiating the humanitarian summit and remarked that this is very important for the world to be called to global attention towards humanitarian issues.

In his speech, the President emphasized the fact of Russian occupation of Georgia and necessities of resolution of IDPs problems as well as international cooperation.

“The issue to be discussed is very important and familiar for Georgia. Unfortunately, our country knows the pain of occupation and ethnic cleansing very well. Half a million people have been displaced.

“We still face the problem of borders being moved and creeping occupation. Russia continuously installs barbed wire and fences along the occupation line in the Tskhinvali and Abkhazia regions in order to separate people and deprive them of their rights. Several days ago we witnessed a tragedy when Russian soldiers killed an innocent and peaceful Georgian citizen near the occupation line,’ the Georgian President said.

The man who killed 31-year old Georgian citizen with six gunshots on the territory controlled by Georgia has been identified by Georgia’s relevant bodies.

The tragedy took place near Abkhazia, and Abkhazian border guard committed the crime.