As one might expect, the statements of Bidzina Ivanishvili, the honorary chairman of Georgia's ruling party Georgian Dream, about the need to apologise to the Ossetian people for the armed aggression against the Republic of South Ossetia in August 2008 were followed by the country's Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who stated that no one in Georgia had any intention to do that.
At the same time, it should be noted that the attitude of Mr. Khobakhidze, believing his compatriots who fought against the peaceful population of South Ossetia to be heroes and the Ossetians who defended their homeland to be murderers, is quite consistent with the distorted understanding of the real state of affairs that has been planted in Georgia.
The topic of Georgian-Ossetian relations will be used, at some point or another, in the internal political pre-election struggle in the period preceding the parliamentary elections in Georgia. However, the prospect of establishing relations cannot depend on the political climate that has developed in Georgia at a certain moment.
Unfortunately, the history of the Ossetian people has too many bloody stains and non-healing wounds left by the policy of Georgia and Georgian politicians in the 1920s, 1989-2004 and 2008.
A certain tendency to comprehend the acts committed, so far broadcast today in the context of the logic of the pre-election campaign process, seems to imply practical measures in the future.
We expect that a legally binding documentary renunciation of the possibility of Georgia using force or any threat of force against the Republic of South Ossetia and the Republic of Abkhazia will soon become a real step that confirms the sincerity of the good intentions voiced by Mr. Ivanishvili.
The political course of South Ossetia's development is a historically conscious choice determined by the need to strengthen relations of alliance and integration with the Russian Federation, which is the guarantor of peace and security in the region and where the majority of the divided Ossetian people reside.
Tskhinval, September 17, 2024