Speaker: GD steered Georgia from path of destruction onto path of peace

“Of the four governments that have governed Georgia since the restoration of independence, it is the Georgian Dream government that has managed to maintain continuous peace. Without the right policies and the support of Georgian society, maintaining peace would have been impossible,” Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said.

According to Papuashvili, Georgia’s recent history unfortunately shows that conflicts and wars were the more natural state of affairs, while the Georgian Dream government moved the country from a “path of destruction” to a “path of peace.”

“The European Court of Human Rights, based on our application and through our efforts, established that Russia occupies Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region, and, moreover, that the occupation dates not only to 2008 but to the 1990s. According to the Strasbourg court’s ruling, Russia is a state exercising effective control, which means that this constitutes occupation,” Papuashvili said.

“As for the occupation, until recent years the European Union did not state in any of its documents or statements that Russia occupies Georgian territory. Instead, it referred to Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region using different terminology, describing them as territories separated from Georgia. As a result of our persistent calls, over the past two years some statements have partially been amended, with Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region referred to in combination as ‘occupied and separated territories,’ which is also unacceptable,” he said.

“The European Union must finally stop this kind of double standard and call occupation by its proper name,” Papuashvili said.

It has been 33 years since the fall of Sokhumi. The armed conflict in Abkhazia began on August 14, 1992, and lasted for 13 months and 13 days.