Abkhazia seeking discussion on its de-isolation at Geneva talks - minister
SUKHUMI. May 15 (Interfax) - Abkhazia insists on putting the problem of its de-isolation on the agenda of the upcoming round of the Geneva discussions on security in the South Caucasus, Abkhaz Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Chirikba said.
"There has been a very intensive debate on a number of issues related to the outcomes of the 23rd round of the Geneva discussions and a new round scheduled for June 25-26," Chirikba said following a meeting with the Geneva discussions co-chairs, Philippe Lefort (the EU), Antti Turunen (the UN), and Andriy Deshchytsya (the OSCE) in Sukhumi on Tuesday.
Abkhazia has proposed that its de-isolation on the international arena be on the agenda of the Geneva discussions, Chirikba said. "This concerns the right to travel to various countries with Abkhaz and Russian foreign travel passports and the recognition of our secondary education certificates, so that our applicants could be admitted to European colleges. In addition, there are people who only have Abkhaz passports, and they cannot travel to any countries," he said.
It is also important that the participants in the last meeting drew up a document "containing a joint statement by the discussion participants on their commitment to non-use of force," Chirikba said. "Georgia rejected it at this stage for reasons we don't understand. We will be discussing this issue at the next round, and we hope that Georgia will finally understand that this is a good document that needs to be adopted. This will be a step forward, however small it is, toward achieving a comprehensive agreement on non-use of force," he said.
Chirikba complained that another biased UN General Assembly resolution on Georgian refugees is being drawn up. "We are asking for a chance to go to New York before the voting so as to be able to speak to the General Assembly members and air our position on the problem of refugees. If we are denied visas again, this will affect our participation in Working Group II of the Geneva discussions," he said.
Abkhazia is not planning to discuss the issue of refugees in Geneva, Chirikba said. "If we are denied the opportunity to speak at the UN General Assembly session, humanitarian issues that are discussed by Working Group II at the Geneva discussions will also be called into question," he said.
Lefort told journalists that the delegation of the co-chairs started consultations on the upcoming round with Abkhazia. The delegation is supposed to travel to Tbilisi from Sukhumi and then have a meeting in Tskhinvali. The agenda concerns stability and security, non-use of force, and humanitarian issues, and the co-chairs hope that significant progress will be made on these issues by the next round, he said.
The March 2013 round was successful, and the discussions in Working Groups I and II were substantial, Lefort said. As for a common meeting of all participants in the discussions, which was disrupted as the Georgian delegation leaders did not show up, Lefort objected to call it failed.
Meetings under the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) have not been held since April 24, 2012, as head of the EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia (EUMM) Andrzej Tyszkiewicz has been declared a persona non grata in Abkhazia.
