Breakaway Tskhinvali Closes So-called Border with Georgia
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Tuesday, May 8
Georgia’s eastern occupied Tskhinvali leadership has announced that the so called administrative boundary line with the rest of Georgia will be closed until May 11.
As they said closing the “line” is necessary for the 73th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, when the Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany in the 1941-1945 armed conflict.
The checkpoint was closed at 8 pm on May 7 and was scheduled to open at 8 pm on May 10.
Tskhinvali closes the so-called boundary line several times a year, which creates serious problems for local population, who are unable to move to other parts of the country.
The Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze stated that Georgia will use all its levers to end the illegality and remove the barriers which hinder the free movement of people.
“We will use all the peaceful levers, instruments and international formats to remove the barriers as soon as possible,” Janelidze said.
The Georgian Minister of Reconciliation and Civil Equality Ketevan Tsikhelashvili stated that Russians and the representatives of the occupied region are engaged with stirring provocations.
“One of such provocations took place on May 6 when occupants did not let local people pray in a church, in the village of Adzvi on Saint George’s Day,” Tsikhelashvili said.
Such an action opposes not only the law, but also human values,” she added.
The Tskhinvali de facto leadership is making counter-accusations, saying that arrival of the Georgian people on the territory of the church which is “under their control” was a provocation.
Tskhinvali was recognised as an independent region by Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Nauru in the wake of the Russia-Georgia 2008 war.
The rest of the international community agrees the regions are occupied by Russia.
