Translated material
The gorge is closed due to riot
The Georgian authorities staged a small victorious war
Yesterday, Georgian authorities reported the completion of a special operation against the rebels of the Kodori Gorge, which began on Tuesday night. According to these reports, units of the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs took control of most of the region. The leader of the rebels, 45-year-old Emzar Kvitsiani, accompanied by at least 60 supporters, disappeared into the forest near the villages of Azhara and Omarishara and refused to lay down his arms. According to the Medianews agency, the former representative of the President of Georgia was wounded in the stomach.Secretary of the National Security Council of Georgia Konstantin Kemularia arrived at the Kodori Gorge and stated that he expects the “anti-criminal operation” to be completed by this morning. Meanwhile, the stadium in Kutaisi was preparing to receive the wounded, who were planned to be delivered by helicopters. Ambulance teams were mobilized even from Tbilisi. Doctors confirm that two special forces soldiers were wounded.
Georgian Interior Minister Ivane Merabishvili, according to Georgian media reports, personally contacted Emzar Kvitsiani and twice offered to surrender, as 60 to 80 of his associates had already done. Reports that Sukhumi is trying to organize a corridor for Kvitsiani, with whom the Abkhazians had a gentleman’s agreement on non-aggression, were denied by the Ministry of Defense of the unrecognized republic. “Before the special operation, Kvitsiani and I actually communicated by telephone, but after it began, no,” Deputy Defense Minister of Abkhazia Garry Kupalba told Vremya Novostey. “We did not offer him any military or other assistance.” We are only carefully monitoring the situation, strengthening the Kodori direction with artillerymen, reconnaissance officers and engineering units.”
Member of Parliament Gocha Pipiya, who visited Emzar Kvitsiani before the start of the special operation, believes that a guerrilla war could now begin in the gorge. According to him, residents of the gorge complained that the center had forgotten about them, which became the cause of mass discontent. The Kodor residents admitted to the deputy that in order to call a helicopter and transport the sick to the “mainland”, they had to shoot at the power line supports that connect Russia and Georgia through the gorge. “If the authorities, instead of trucks full of special forces, had sent trucks with food and medical equipment there, the problem would have been instantly resolved without bloodshed, and Kvitsiani would not have become a hindrance for the local population and the government,” Mr. Pipia is convinced. Yesterday in the Georgian capital there was a demonstration of the Svans, who said that “they cannot shout to the authorities and stop the bloodshed.”
Yesterday afternoon, the head of the Georgian Presidential Administration, Georgiy Arveladze, reported two wounded policemen. He promised that “the earth will burn under the feet of all bandits,” but did not provide information about losses among the rebels. According to Mr. Arveladze, compromises are impossible with those who “oppose the integrity and statehood of Georgia with arms in hand.” At 21:00, Georgy Arveladze announced the establishment of control over the villages of Sakeni, Omarishara, Gentsvisi, Chkhalta. The village of Upper Azhara has not yet surrendered. According to him, Kvitsiani is trying to escape, but the exits from the gorge are controlled by law enforcement agencies.
The press was not allowed into Kodori, and mobile communications with the gorge were turned off during the special operation. Georgian media reported that 18 were wounded (including Emzar Kvitsiani himself and his driver) and two Kvitsiani supporters died as a result of a mine explosion or a car falling into the abyss. And the Rustavi-2 television company reported about a “Russian helicopter” that delivered weapons and ammunition to the rebels in the gorge.
In the heat of hostilities, a “fifth column” was discovered in Tbilisi. The Ministry of Internal Affairs published a recording of friendly telephone conversations between Emzar Kvitsiani and the ex-head of the Georgian information and intelligence service Irakli Batiashvili. Yesterday, Mr. Batiashvili was summoned for questioning by the prosecutor's office. “The irritation of Georgia’s enemies has reached its peak, so they are resorting to any measures to use their agents in Georgia, trying to create destabilization within our country and present Georgia to the world as an unstable country,” said Georgian State Minister for European Integration Giorgi Baramidze.
The Kodori blitzkrieg threw Sukhumi and Tskhinvali into disarray. They suspected that the operation was a rehearsal for an attack on the unrecognized republics. In Abkhazia and South Ossetia they say that the “war party” in Georgia may be encouraged by the successes of this operation. Georgia insisted that the operation in Kodori was anti-criminal in nature, but according to the Moscow Agreement of 1994, troops could not be sent into this gorge. Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov provided information that military forces were used in the region. According to him, “the situation in the Kodori Gorge has really changed dramatically in a negative direction,” which causes Russia “great concern.”
Sergei Ivanov noted that the two posts of Russian peacekeepers in the gorge, which separate Georgians and Abkhazians, “are between a rock and a hard place.” “It is absolutely obvious that Georgia is violating the agreement that it once signed - that no armed formations should appear in the upper part of the Kodori Gorge,” said the head of the Russian defense department. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow “is closely monitoring the development of the situation, we have warned our Georgian colleagues that violation of agreements is unacceptable. I hope they will heed this call."