Ethnic cleansing continues

It is already acknowledged worldwide that in the territories which are occupied by Russian forces and there are established puppet separatist regimes ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population took place. The process continues today as well in different forms. Proof of this nasty approach towards Georgians was proved some time ago by the decision of the so called Russian Abkhaz commission working on property rights of the Russian citizens owning real estate and lands in Abkhazia. The major issue was that Russia wanted to give legal rights to its citizens to own property in Abkhazian territory, so that Russian citizens could purchase real estate and land in Abkhazia. But this created a certain inconvenience because many Georgians who fled to Abkhazia in the early 90s, later became Russian citizens. So that would give them ground to legally return and get hold of their own property which they abandoned and left during the hostilities.

So, as a result the above mentioned commission took a decision to discuss and consider each case separately in order to avoid the return of the properties to the Russian citizens of Georgian ethnicity. So, according to this commission decision there was a clear cut announcement that applications of ethnic Georgians of Russian citizenship concerning their claims on legalizing their original properties in the Abkhazian territory would not be considered at all.

This decision is plainly a reflection of ethnic discrimination and it does not require lengthy analysis to conclude that this is a combination of racism, Nazism and fascism. The above mentioned commission is under the direct control of a Moscow representative, the so called ambassador of Russia to Abkhazia, Semion Gregorev. It is supervised directly by the so called Abkhaz President Sergey Bagapsh.

Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze made a statement where he labeled the above mentioned commission as a bandit group consisting of two criminal clans who are sharing their trophy. The decision of this so called commission proved once again that Russia is not going to fulfill any of its commitments in front of the international community including the norms of the charter for human rights. Of course, the Abkhaz separatists encouraged by Russia understand that such a discriminative decision is embarrassing and therefore they tried to soften its decision by making certain claims against the Georgian side. In particular, separatists state and ask the Georgian side to compensate for the losses suffered in Abkhazia during the war, estimating it to be USD 13 bln. They also say that they are prepared to compensate Georgians with the price of their lost property, from this amount. However even under such conditions they state that there would be no discussion about returning properties back to Georgians, thereby depriving them of the right to return back to the original places of their dwelling.

The Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov also touched upon the issue. In the most demagogical manner he stated that the Russian side will satisfy all legal claims and that Russia does not distinguish its citizens according to ethnic or national identity, and that Russia protects the rights of all of them. Of course this is hypocrisy because the Russian representative and so called ambassador himself adopted a discriminatory document. In this case Abkhazians have to consider the applications of up to 4000 Russian citizens claiming property on Abkhazian territory.

The Russian side as well as Russian officials do not hide that they are very much interested in receiving multiple pieces of the cake. They claim that they did not sacrifice their soldiers for nothing. They need property in Abkhazia and it is likely to create many awkward situations in the region because locals overall are quite unhappy with the expansion of the Russian population into the region. They understand the very serious possible consequences - a hard demographic situation for the ethnic Abkhazians.

Georgian official position was aired by the chair of the parliament David Bakradze who thinks that it is premature to discuss the situation now when the Georgian territory is occupied and ethnic cleansing has taken place. The issue of property distribution cannot be raised before de occupation of territory and the decision of the above mentioned commission is yet another issue of illegality. However this is the de jure situation even if the de facto situation is different, when territory is owned by Abkhazians but the Russians will do what they want to do.