Crawling occupation of Georgia continues

The world community has accepted and admitted that the Russian Federation is occupying 20% of Georgian territory since the August War of 2008. However the territorial losses are not 20% only. Daily, a crawling occupation of Georgian territories takes place in different places– in particular, in the northern direction from the Russian side.

The Caucasian Center for Strategic Research undertook a study monitoring the situation on the Georgian borders. The results were aired just a couple of days ago. Since 2004, the situation has been as such: in the Khevsureti region in northern Georgia, a border moved into the depth of Georgian territory of more than 10 km, in Tusheti (same direction) Russia has moved forward its border by 3 km. Out of 44 passes in the mountainous region connecting Georgia with Russia, 24 are controlled by the Russian Federation. The border has been moved into Georgian territory by 800 meters in Dariali gorge. The border at Mamisoni pass in the Racha district bordering Russia was moved into Georgia about 20 km; in Larsi, Russia still occupies more than 1.5 km. The strategic center’s members are demanding from the authorities that they explain to the population what is going on.

Why are the Georgian borders not being controlled properly? Some analysts think that this is the continuation of Russian policy towards Georgia and the Georgian leadership is unable to respond adequately. Therefore, it keeps silent because it is unable to do anything. So on the one hand, official Tbilisi promote worldwide its active policy of reconstructing the country making it attractive to the tourists, but on the other hand, the country is losing some portions of its territory. The same policy is noticed in different directions as well. Georgia’s good neighbors– Azerbaijan and Armenia, are slowly doing the same to the Georgian border. The results of the monitoring have named various places where the border has been moved and now these territories are lost for Georgia. As an example, just recently, the Georgian public was very much agitated concerning Azeri border guards blocking access to David Gareji Monastery. Official Tbilisi has so far not been prepared to give any explanations to those facts and keeps silent. So far, the border is regulated only with Turkey. However, Turkey is directing its policy towards Georgia in different ways by entering the country economically and ideologically.