PM: CoE resolution stated that conflict escalated into warfare following unannounced bombardment of Tskhinvali by UNM

“There is no such thing as a ‘Republic of South Ossetia’, nor is there a ‘Republic of Abkhazia’; such entities do not exist. Consequently, we have no interest whatsoever in whatever statements representatives of these de facto formations or occupied territories might make,” Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Kobakhidze told journalists in Shindisi.

According to the Head of Government, Council of Europe Resolution 1633 explicitly recorded that the conflict escalated into full-scale military action following the unwarned bombardment of Tskhinvali by the United National Movement (UNM).

“First and foremost, there is no such thing as a ‘Republic of South Ossetia’, nor is there a ‘Republic of Abkhazia’; such entities do not exist. Consequently, we have no interest whatsoever in whatever statements representatives of these de facto formations or occupied territories might make. Unlike you, we do not care in the slightest about their statements. As for my own statement, I merely reiterated what your party signed into the Council of Europe resolution. It was explicitly recorded there that the conflict escalated into full-scale military action following your party’s unwarned bombardment of Tskhinvali. That is in the Council of Europe resolution, and that is what I reiterated.

Your party signed up to all of this back in 2008, just days after the war ended. Therefore, you should hold your own party to account: first ask why they did this, and then why they gave confessorial testimony at the Council of Europe and signed a CoE resolution alongside the entire European community that explicitly stated the conflict escalated into full-scale warfare, into war, following your party’s unwarned bombardment of Tskhinvali, and why it was then recorded that this prompted a Russian response. The resolution speaks directly of Russia’s response, and your party signed it,” noted the Prime Minister.

According to Irakli Kobakhidze, both the occupation and the subsequent recognition stemmed directly from the actions of the United National Movement.

“If anyone handed them arguments, it was when your party signed the Council of Europe resolution, acknowledging that they escalated the conflict into war, into full-scale military hostilities. If anyone encouraged, we see this clearly through the facts. The facts are the occupation, and the facts are the recognition. Both the occupation and recognition followed directly from everything your political party did. It was not merely the initiation of hostilities back then; that was not all they did; it was preceded by a thousand provocative acts with which they prepared a pretext, not a justification, but, I emphasise, a pretext for the Russian Federation to take the steps it subsequently took against our national interests and commit the crimes it committed against Georgia’s national interests. This included holding alternative separatist elections in the Tskhinvali region, designating the Kodori Gorge as ‘Upper Abkhazia’, and numerous other provocative actions. They passed a law and issued a presidential decree creating an alternative de facto separatist administration. That was the start of the steps they subsequently capped off with what they wrote into the Council of Europe resolution.

Your party did this, and shamefully, you fail to distance yourselves from these actions of your own party, which resulted in the occupation of 20 per cent of Georgia and the recognition of these territories as so-called states,” declared the Prime Minister.