Nikoloz Samkharadze, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Head of the Parliamentary Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (PA), addressed the annual session of the OSCE PA and criticized amendments related to Georgia in the PA resolution on “The Role of the OSCE in the Current Security Architecture: A Parliamentary Perspective.”

“Dear Colleagues, when I signed up for general debates 3 days ago, I planned to speak about the security situation in the Black Sea region, but yesterday’s developments in 1 and 3 committees changed my plans. Yesterday, Georgia was groundlessly attacked by adding several amendments to otherwise very balanced and good resolutions.

First, among two dozen elections that are held in the OSCE area this year and 8 elections that will be held in the coming autumn only the Georgian elections were singled out and its integrity speculatively put under question mark, thus deliberately discrediting the elections 4 months in advance. The amendment also implied that observation missions carried out by OSCE PA were also ineffective since they were not robust enough. Not a very good assessment of our work.

Secondly, another amendment singled out polarization in Georgia and criticized our government for it. Whereas political polarisation is even deeper in many other countries of the OSCE area, the resolution does not criticize polarization in any other member country, but Georgia. This I believe is also a targeted attack on my country, let alone allegations that a new law on transparency would restrict freedom of speech and assembly, which is just a blatant lie. France and Canada – members of this assembly also adopted similar laws last month but I have not seen any mention of them in the resolutions, what makes me think that here also Georgia was deliberately singled out. But all these amendments pale in comparison to the amendment regarding the Georgia-Russia conflict. If I had not witnessed the process myself I would have thought that the amendment and its wording came from members of Russian Duma, but then I realized that Russians are not here.

The wording that was added to the paragraph on Russian occupation of Georgian territories is exactly what Russia has been trying to achieve in Geneva negotiations for the last 16 years – to portray as if Russia is not a party to the conflict and I quote the text from the amendment Tbilisi-controlled Georgia, Abkhazia and Ossetia need to reconcile. Now the paragraph reads that there are three parties to the conflict – a strange construct Tbilisi controlled Georgia – Abkhazia and Ossetia.

Up until yesterday, I thought this organisation recognised only one Georgia within its internationally recognized borders and I thought I was representing it for the last 4 years. Apparently, this assembly now thinks that there is Tbilisi controlled Georgia, an absolutely unacceptable term on the one hand and Abkhazia and Ossetia on the other. Very heart-breaking to say the least. The amendment also implies that Russia is trying to solve the conflict through different channels, which is also disinformation and is a face-saver for Russian destructive behaviour in the frame of the Geneva format.

All of this is gravely concerning especially because OSCE is a co-chair of Geneva talks and the United States, whose reps authored the amendment is a member of the Geneva format and strategic partner of my country. The inclusion of this wording into the resolution goes against the principle of territorial integrity of Georgia and the stated policies of OSCE and the US. Georgian proposal to insert occupation of Georgian territories in another amendment talking about Russian malign activities was also surprisingly rejected.

Due to this horrendous undermining of Georgian state interests, we will vote against the final declaration. I am well aware that our vote is not decisive as we are a small country, we have a very small delegation and definitely we will be outnumbered, but we have to openly declare that these are biased amendments with statements based on hearsay and no supporting evidence. It is very frustrating to see this assembly playing into the hands of Russia in this particular case, but our determination remains unshaken and we will continue to fight to defend our country,” said Nikoloz Samkharadze.