Translated material
Collective farm separatist
Georgia showed Europe the administrator of South Ossetia
Yesterday, two significant events occurred at once related to frozen conflicts in the post-Soviet space. The leaders of the parliaments of unrecognized Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria met in Sukhumi. And in Brussels in front of European parliamentarians for 15 minutes. The head of the provisional administration of the Tskhinvali region, Dmitry Sanakoev, loyal to Tbilisi, spoke in Ossetian. For the first time, an international organization of such a high level provided a platform to a representative of the South Ossetian separatists - even a former one, repentant and despised in Tskhinvali for “betrayal of his own people.”Mr. Sanakoev was invited to a meeting of the parliamentary cooperation committee between Georgia and the European Union. This surprised Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis as to why the guest went to Brussels and not Strasbourg. “South Ossetia is part of Georgia, the Georgian government has the right to appoint an administration in South Ossetia,” he said at a press conference. - Why is the report presented in Brussels? Georgia is a member of the Council of Europe, not a member of the European Union...”
The attention of the European Parliament to the figure of Sanakoev aroused jealousy among the Council of the Interparliamentary Assembly of Unrecognized States, which a year ago united into the community “For Democracy and the Rights of Peoples.” The South Ossetian Foreign Ministry told Vremya Novostey that the international community should also listen to representatives of Tskhinvali, since Tbilisi’s appeal to the “puppets” from the Sanakovo administration is a “textbook example of a propaganda operation”: “Some states and international structures are thoughtlessly supporting Georgia, because either do not have reliable information, or do not want to take our arguments into account.” Prime Minister of South Ossetia Yuri Morozov told VN: “No one authorized Sanakoev to speak on behalf of all Ossetians, since in fact his government is the Kurta collective farm (Sanakoev’s administration is located in the village of Kurta, 8 km from Tskhinvali . - Ed. ). Nobody really supports him in South Ossetia.”
“Are people in Tskhinvali nervous about Sanakoev’s speech in Brussels? Are they jealous? It’s okay, let them be nervous,” Konstantin Gabashvili, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Georgian Parliament, told VN. - Sanakoev is for peace, and Eduard Kokoity (president of the unrecognized republic - Ed. ) is for secession from Georgia and is provoking an armed confrontation. Sanakoev's invitation to the European Parliament stimulates sensible Russian politicians to cooperate with the interim administration. Sooner or later this has to happen."
Sanakoev explained to the Europeans that the Tskhinvali region should have the type of autonomy that, for example, the Italian South Tyrol has. According to him, European experts could get involved in the work that has already begun to create a model of broad autonomy for South Ossetia within the framework of a single Georgian state. However, this model is unlikely to suit the authorities of the unrecognized South Ossetia. “If international organizations do not take into account the interests of Tskhinvali, as well as Sukhumi and Tiraspol, then this is a road to nowhere that could provoke a resumption of armed conflicts,” Abkhaz political scientist Astamur Tania told VN. “The unrecognized republics have consulted previously and will continue to search for joint approaches.” The presidents of Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Transnistria will meet no later than autumn.