Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia meets with high representatives of EU, OSCE, NATO
By Tsotne Pataraia
Thursday, November 21
Georgian Foreign Minister, Davit Zalkaliani, met with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, OSCE Chairman-in-Office Miroslav Lajcak, and UN Deputy Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo. The main topic of discussion was the illegal detention of Georgian doctor Vazha Gaprindashvili. The issue of Vazha Gaprindashvili's detention was one of the main issues of conversation during the meeting with NATO Deputy Secretary-General Mircea Geoana as well.
According to the Foreign Minister, all diplomatic formats have been made active put to make sure that Georgian citizen is immediately released:
“All available resources are active and the detention should stop immediately. It is unacceptable to put a political issue aside, it is unacceptable in the purely humanitarian sense. The doctor who entered the occupied territory to help the patient is an illegal hostage. He should be released immediately and we have all the appropriate plans for all scenarios to develop,” Zalkaliani said
Before Zalkaliani’s visit to Brussels, on November 19 Co-chairs of Geneva International Discussions (GIDs) from the European Union, United Nations and OSCE, Toivo Klaar, Cihan Sultanoglu, and Rudolf Michalka met with Georgian Foreign Minister in Tbilisi after traveling to Tskhinvali earlier today.
Representatives of the EU, OSCE and the UN also met with de facto authorities in Tskhinvali the same day, before going to MFA of Georgia. Following Georgian Foreign Ministry, the main topic of the meeting between Davit Zalkaliani and the co-chairs was the immediate release of Gaprindashvili and the aggravating situation on the occupation line. The Foreign Minister emphasized the unacceptability of the occupation regimes to manipulate human rights and the crisis created by the occupation line in the Tskhinvali region. Zalkaliani said the death of Margo Martiashvili in Akhalgori district and Tamar Gigauri's state of health clearly confirms the grave humanitarian consequences of restricting access to the occupation line and access to medical care.
The Foreign Minister urged the international co-chairs of the Geneva Discussions to use all available means to stop the provocations on the occupation line and to release Gaprindashvili immediately.
For their part, representatives of the EU, UN, and OSCE noted that they are making every effort and will continue to work actively to defuse the situation and resolve problems.
Toivo Klaar in an interview with Tskhinvali based correspondent of Radio Freedom said that the issue of Vazha Gaprindashvili's release was raised at their meetings in Tskhinvali:
"Of course, it would be good if the situation is resolved and Dr. Gaprindashvili is released as soon as possible because I do not think it is in anyone's interest to detain him for a long time," Toivo Klaar noted.
According to Radio Liberty, during a meeting with the co-chairs of the Geneva Discussion, de facto President of South Ossetia Anatoly Bibilov called the incident a provocation. Bibilov believes that Vazha Gaprindashvili deliberately violated the "border" and does not hide it:
“I think this is part of the overall policy Georgia is pursuing regarding South Ossetia. It is time for Georgia to recognize that South Ossetia is an independent state and to carry out its work with this in mind,” Bibilov said.
Murat Jioev, the de facto president's envoy for post-conflict issues, said that decisions would be taken against Vazha Gaprindashvili "in accordance with the law of South Ossetia."
Representatives of the Russian occupation forces detained Vazha Gaprindashvili, a Tbilisi-based traumatologist, on November 9 near the Akhalgori district and charged with the deliberate violation of the so-called border, which is considered a criminal offense under de facto legislation. The de facto court sentenced Gaprindashvili to two months in prison. Gaprindashvili does not admit the accusations made by the so-called Tskhinvali law enforcers and says that "he is in Georgia, on Georgian soil.
