Commander's steps

Abkhazia will be ruled from the Kodori Gorge

Yesterday, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced to the people the full control of the central authorities over the Kodori Gorge: “Today Georgia has taken a serious step forward and for the first time in the last 13 years has restored full control over the territory of the Kodori Gorge of Abkhazia.” Now the “legitimate government” of Abkhazia will be located in the Kodori Gorge. “In agreement with the Parliament of Georgia and the Prime Minister of the country, I decided to locate in the Kodori Gorge, for the first time since 1993, the legitimate government of Abkhazia, which will extend the jurisdiction of Georgia to this territory,” President Saakashvili said. He stressed that Georgia “is not going to aggravate the situation or enter into any confrontation.” “We are for a peaceful settlement of the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict,” said the Georgian leader.

What did the rebel plenipotentiary seek? From an interview with Emzar Kvitsiani published yesterday by the Georgian television company Rustavi-2, it follows that his goal was a full-scale armed conflict between Georgia and Abkhazia. The conversation took place just a few hours before the start of the special operation in the Kodori Gorge. Kvitsiani stated that he deliberately aggravated relations with Tbilisi in order to force the authorities to send police units into the gorge: “I will let them in without offering resistance, but I will block their way back, we will shoot from behind, and the Abkhaz are in front. Let them fight and let’s see how brave they are.” He added that if the Georgian security forces “show valor,” his supporters will join them: “I will be very happy if they go further and fight where we need to return territories.”

These words confirmed the validity of the fears of the authorities of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - in the unrecognized republics they are confident that the operation in the Kodori Gorge indicates the beginning of the implementation of Tbilisi’s plans to forcefully restore the territorial integrity of Georgia, lost in the early 1990s.

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Defense and National Security, Giorgi Targamadze, has already stated that the country “is returning a significant part of the lost territory for subsequent victories,” noting the strategic importance of the Kodori Gorge. From here it is a five-minute helicopter ride to Sukhumi, and there is direct access to Gagra.

The Georgian authorities carried out a force action in the gorge after former presidential envoy Emzar Kvitsiani announced disobedience to Tbilisi. True, the celebration turned out to be incomplete - Mr. Kvitsiani himself disappeared, and the authorities announced a reward of 100 thousand lari (about 55 thousand dollars) for information about his whereabouts. In Georgia, information appeared that the rebel was going to hide in Russia, and his detachment was allegedly moving towards Kabardino-Balkaria. Russian border guards are serving on this section of the border with Georgia in enhanced mode. “We are considering all options for the development of events. Everything is taken into account. And the head of the regional department has already given the corresponding orders,” said Sergei Livantsov, head of the press service of the regional border department of the FSB of Russia for the Southern Federal District.

According to official data, Emzar Kvitsiani and about fifty of his armed supporters were hiding in caves in the village of Zemo Azhara yesterday. The landing troops blocked the rebels, cutting off their ability to enter Abkhazia. As soon as the fog cleared over the gorge, the police began to seize weapons in villages already controlled by the Georgians, including in Kvitsiani’s hometown of Chkhalta. The sister of the rebel leader, Nora, got in touch with the Imedi television company and reported that before the searches, “the village was bombed, a civilian was killed.” The Georgian newspaper Georgian Times, citing eyewitnesses of the “merciless fighting” in the gorge, reported that seven supporters of Emzar Kvitsiani were killed and 23 were injured. Tbilisi did not officially confirm this information, but did not deny it either.

The Georgian opposition, while agreeing that Kvitsiani’s actions were anti-state in nature, continues to insist that the authorities could have resolved the crisis through negotiations. “We have seen once again that our state has not yet come to fruition,” Mamuka Georgadze, chairman of the People’s Party, told reporters. - The authorities do not care about the people, they switch to terror. This could ultimately affect the interests of any citizen.” Republican leader David Usupashvili saw a Russian trace in the events. According to him, “what is happening in the Kodori Gorge is only a component of a multilateral plan developed in Moscow. The Georgian authorities succumbed to the provocation. And they fell into a trap. The next series, I think, may be the appearance of other leading actors, for example, the former Minister of State Security Igor Georgadze.”

Mikhail VIGNANSKY, Tbilisi, Ivan SOLOVIEV