22.12.2011 | Civil.ge | Link zur Quelle | Bilder | Video |
In einer Resolution werden die signifikante Fortschritte Georgiens seit dem letzten Beobachterbericht 2008 begrüßt und das Engagement in den letzten zwölf Jahren seit Beitritt anerkannt.
Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) adopted on April 13 resolution on honoring commitments by Georgia, undertaken when the country jointed Council of Europe twelve years ago.
While welcoming “significant efforts” by the Georgian government in honouring its commitment and “considerable progress” achieved since the last monitoring report in 2008 despite the consequences of the August war, the resolution also outlines shortcomings in various areas.
The adoption of the resolution was preceded by debates on a report prepared by two co-rapporteurs on Georgia – Michael Jensen, a lawmaker from Denmark and Kastriot Islami, a lawmaker from Albania.
During the debates most of the speakers said that the report was “balanced” and, as one speaker said, the co-rapporteurs “managed to strike a middle ground” without underestimating progress or shortcomings.
The most of the criticism came from the Russian delegation, who said that the report was not fully reflecting the problems in Georgia, including one of “political prisoners”.
Sergei Markov, lawmaker from Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, said that the report “leaves mixed impression”; he said the report was not about “real Georgia, where the opposition is suffering and is afraid, where the TV channels are under the government’s control.”
MP Konstantin Kosachev, who leads the Russian delegation at PACE, said that Russia would be sincerely pleased with the Georgian people’s successes, because Russia considers Georgian people “as friends.” Kosachev said that while now everyone were expressing concern about developments in Libya, “we have to bear in mind that President Saakashvili tried to act very much the same against his own people” in August, 2008.
“While comparing to Gaddafi maybe you can recall Chechnya,” Akaki Minashvili, a senior Georgian lawmaker responded during the debates. “While [speaking about] political prisoners maybe you can recall Khadarkovsky; while speaking about friendship – we know what your friendship is; your friendship is expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Georgians from Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”
The resolution, which in overall was welcomed by the Georgian delegation, praises the Georgian authorities for taking initiatives “to overcome the polarisation and confrontational atmosphere that has regrettably dominated the political landscape”, as well as efforts “to strengthen the position and role of the opposition.”
The resolution says that the 2012 parliamentary and 2013 presidential elections “will be the litmus test” and calls on the political parties to agree on “election system that can muster the full trust of all electoral stakeholders.”
While welcoming the major constitutional changes, which will go into force in late 2013, the resolution also calls on the Georgian authorities to take into consideration recommendations by Council of Europe’s advisory body, Venice Commission. In particular the resolution calls for revising procedures for non-confidence vote to the government so that to strengthen the powers of the Parliament in this process; it also calls for increasing the Parliament’s role in budgetary matters.
The resolution expresses concern over “the problems of the administration of justice that could endanger the principles of equal application of the law.”
“The Assembly calls upon the Georgian authorities to address these problems which, if left unaddressed, could undermine the considerable progress made by the authorities in the field of judicial reform and the strengthening of the independence of the judiciary,” the resolution reads.
The resolution also notes “the persistent allegations that high-level corruption has not been fully eradicated”. It says that complaints over excessive use of force by the police during the protests “do not seem to be effectively and systematically investigated.”
The resolution welcomes “political will” of the Georgian government to address the problem of overcrowding and inadequate living conditions in prisons. It says that growth of the prison population “is largely the result of the very strict, even sometimes disproportionate, mandatory sentencing guidelines, even for minor crimes” and because of consecutive sentencing rules.
While welcoming entry into force of the law on the prosecution service, the resolution also says that considerable powers given to the Minister of Justice to conduct personally the prosecution of high ranking officials, such as president and members of the government, should be abolished.
The resolution expresses “regret” that Georgia has not yet honored its commitment to sign the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages and calls on Georgia to sign and ratify this Charter “without further delay.”
The resolution also expresses concern about “the manner in which IDPs were recently evicted from their residences in Tbilisi.” When during the debates this issue was raised by one of the speakers, a senior Georgian lawmaker Petre Tsiskarishvili responded: “I do not want you my dear colleagues to misinterpret the facts and call the resettlement process [of IDPs] ‘eviction’ or ‘throwing people out in the streets’.”
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Krieg-2008, Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
US-Investor Donald Trump unterzeichnet Vertrag zur Entwicklung von zwei Bürotürmen im Wert von 300 Mio. USD
11.03.2011 | Civil.ge | Link zur Quelle | Bilder | Video |
U.S. real estate tycoon, Donald Trump, signed a deal at a ceremony in New York in presence of President Saakashvili, to develop two towers in Georgia with an estimated worth of up to USD 300 million.
Trump will license his name in Georgia and his company will manage the two properties, but so far he has no plans to put his own investment into the deal, The New York Times reported.
“We’ll decide whether or not we want to invest,” Trump said.
The Trump Organization, company in charge of Trump’s property development, will work in Georgia with the Silk Road Group, Georgian conglomerate with business interests in transportation, telecommunications, banking and real estate, to line up financing for the project and market the towers.
The planned projects involve the Trump Tower Tbilisi on Rose Revolution Square, a formerly Republic Square; another is the Trump Riviera in Batumi. Construction, which will be overseen by the Silk Road Group, is scheduled to start in 2013, The New York Times reported.
After the signing of the deal Donald Trump appeared at a joint news conference with President Saakashvili at the Trump Tower in Manhattan on a background of a large banner reading: “Trump Invests in Georgia”.
Trump praised Georgia and its leadership saying: “This is a country with amazing leadership.” Trump, who said was thinking about running for the U.S. President in 2012 more seriously now than ever, criticized the Obama administration and said he would decide whether to run or not by June.
Stichworte: Georgien, Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
U.S. real estate tycoon, Donald Trump, signed a deal at a ceremony in New York in presence of President Saakashvili, to develop two towers in Georgia with an estimated worth of up to USD 300 million.
Trump will license his name in Georgia and his company will manage the two properties, but so far he has no plans to put his own investment into the deal, The New York Times reported.
“We’ll decide whether or not we want to invest,” Trump said.
The Trump Organization, company in charge of Trump’s property development, will work in Georgia with the Silk Road Group, Georgian conglomerate with business interests in transportation, telecommunications, banking and real estate, to line up financing for the project and market the towers.
The planned projects involve the Trump Tower Tbilisi on Rose Revolution Square, a formerly Republic Square; another is the Trump Riviera in Batumi. Construction, which will be overseen by the Silk Road Group, is scheduled to start in 2013, The New York Times reported.
After the signing of the deal Donald Trump appeared at a joint news conference with President Saakashvili at the Trump Tower in Manhattan on a background of a large banner reading: “Trump Invests in Georgia”.
Trump praised Georgia and its leadership saying: “This is a country with amazing leadership.” Trump, who said was thinking about running for the U.S. President in 2012 more seriously now than ever, criticized the Obama administration and said he would decide whether to run or not by June.
Stichworte: Georgien, Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
US-Vizepräsident Biden in Moskau: Russland und USA sind über Georgien anderer Meinung
11.03.2011 | Civil.ge | Link zur Quelle | Bilder | Video |
"Es ist noch viel Arbeit zu erledigen, um unsere Sicherheitszusammenarbeut und Nähe zu verbessern." "Wir meinen, dass ein größeres Prinzip auf dem Spiel steht. Wie in bereits München 2009 gesagt, ... 'unsere Sichtweise wird bleiben, dass souveräne Staaten das Recht haben, ihre eigenen Entscheidungen zu treffen und ihre eigenen Allianzen zu wählen.' Und weiterhin: 'Wir werden anerkennen, dass irgendein Staat eine Einflusszone habe.' Und nahezu ohne Rücksicht auf die Schwierigkeit - wir unterstützen keinen Staat, welcher mit Gewalt veranlassen will, die Führschaft einer gewählten - demokratisch gewählten Einzelperson zu ändern."
“Genuine disagreement” remains between Russia and the United States over Georgia, U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden, said while speaking at the State University in Moscow on March 10.
In his speech he spoke about the benefits Russia and the United States received in various areas two years after pressing “reset button”; he, however, also said that there “is still much work to be done to enhance our security cooperation and closeness”.
“We have a genuine disagreement not only with your [Russian] leadership but with the vast majority of the Russian people over Georgia,” Biden told the audience at the Moscow State University. “But there’s a larger principle at stake here in our view – and I want to be straightforward because if friends cannot be straightforward with friends, it really isn’t friendship based on mutual trust.”
“We think there’s a larger principle at stake here. As I said when I announced the reset at Munich [Security Conference in February, 2009] I said, ‘It will remain our view that sovereign states have the right to make their own decisions and choose their own alliances.’ And further: ‘We will not recognize any state having a sphere of influence.’ And almost regardless of the difficulty, we don't support any state deciding through force changing the leadership of an elected – democratically elected individual,” Biden said.
He said the U.S. had been working closely with Russia and Georgia “to reduce the threat of further conflict.”
“As a result, Georgia recently restated its commitment non-use of force, and commercial flights have resumed between Moscow and Tbilisi. But we must do more to assist those displaced by the 2008 conflict and enable normal travel and commerce to occur,” the U.S. Vice President added.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Krieg-2008, Sprache: deutsch, englisch, Archiv: #
"Es ist noch viel Arbeit zu erledigen, um unsere Sicherheitszusammenarbeut und Nähe zu verbessern." "Wir meinen, dass ein größeres Prinzip auf dem Spiel steht. Wie in bereits München 2009 gesagt, ... 'unsere Sichtweise wird bleiben, dass souveräne Staaten das Recht haben, ihre eigenen Entscheidungen zu treffen und ihre eigenen Allianzen zu wählen.' Und weiterhin: 'Wir werden anerkennen, dass irgendein Staat eine Einflusszone habe.' Und nahezu ohne Rücksicht auf die Schwierigkeit - wir unterstützen keinen Staat, welcher mit Gewalt veranlassen will, die Führschaft einer gewählten - demokratisch gewählten Einzelperson zu ändern."
“Genuine disagreement” remains between Russia and the United States over Georgia, U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden, said while speaking at the State University in Moscow on March 10.
In his speech he spoke about the benefits Russia and the United States received in various areas two years after pressing “reset button”; he, however, also said that there “is still much work to be done to enhance our security cooperation and closeness”.
“We have a genuine disagreement not only with your [Russian] leadership but with the vast majority of the Russian people over Georgia,” Biden told the audience at the Moscow State University. “But there’s a larger principle at stake here in our view – and I want to be straightforward because if friends cannot be straightforward with friends, it really isn’t friendship based on mutual trust.”
“We think there’s a larger principle at stake here. As I said when I announced the reset at Munich [Security Conference in February, 2009] I said, ‘It will remain our view that sovereign states have the right to make their own decisions and choose their own alliances.’ And further: ‘We will not recognize any state having a sphere of influence.’ And almost regardless of the difficulty, we don't support any state deciding through force changing the leadership of an elected – democratically elected individual,” Biden said.
He said the U.S. had been working closely with Russia and Georgia “to reduce the threat of further conflict.”
“As a result, Georgia recently restated its commitment non-use of force, and commercial flights have resumed between Moscow and Tbilisi. But we must do more to assist those displaced by the 2008 conflict and enable normal travel and commerce to occur,” the U.S. Vice President added.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Krieg-2008, Sprache: deutsch, englisch, Archiv: #
Ausscheidender EU-Gesandter Peter Semneby äußert sich zu Georgien
21.02.2011 | Civil.ge | Link zur Quelle | Bilder | Video |
"Die nächsten Wahlen 2012/13 seien für die Reife der Demokratie in Georgien äußerst wichtig"
# 'Next elections crucial';
# 'Georgia is a better place now';
# 'Ruling party’s overwhelming dominance';
# Georgia’s regional role;
# Needs for 'qualitative change' in Russo-Georgian ties;
# On term 'occupied' – 'labeling not the most important'
Next elections, including parliamentary in 2012 and presidential in 2013, would be “crucial for the maturity of the Georgian democracy,” Peter Semneby, an outgoing EU’s Special Representative for South Caucasus, said on February 22 in Tbilisi.
“It is very important that the electoral legislature is agreed well beforehand [so] that it does not become part of the electoral campaign itself. Georgia needs to establish clear and stable rules of the game for the political competition between the parties,” Semneby said.
It was the Swedish diplomat’s last visit to Georgia in his capacity of the EU’s Special Representative, as his mandate on the post, which he held since 2006, expires on February 28.
The fate of the post is unclear yet as the discussions about the mandate of Special Representatives were still underway within EU, he said. “There certainly [will] be a gap before this discussion is concluded,” Semneby said.
Semneby, whose tenure coincided with Georgia’s several domestic political crises and the August war, said that it had been “a very challenging period” for Georgia.
“But I think Georgia is a better place now for many reasons, than it was in the beginning of my term in this job and not least thanks to the new stage that we have entered in relations between Georgia and the European Union with the start of negotiations on Association Agreement,” he said.
“I very strongly hope Georgia will take these negotiations [on Association Agreement] seriously and Georgia will approach these negotiations with diligence that they deserve, because it is in a close relations with EU that Georgia can find the best guarantees that are available for its sovereignty and security,” Semneby said.
Semneby, who acted for number of times as a facilitator between the Georgian authorities and the opposition during the internal political tensions, involving series of mass street protests in 2007-2009, said that those events “had ultimately healthy influence on the political discourse in general in Georgia.”
“They demonstrated by balancing on the brink, on many occasions, what limits are on the use of force as means in politics and I think Georgia is much healthier place after these events were successfully dealt with,” he said.
'Overwhelming Dominance of Ruling Party'
Semneby said that overwhelming dominance of the ruling National Movement Party in government branches was putting on the authorities a large degree of responsibility.
“The current governing party also needs to consider how it uses the overwhelming domination that it has at the moment – with the constitutional majority in the Parliament and control of all municipal councils in the country – in a responsible way in order to provide the oxygen for alternative political voices to be heard,” he said.
Asked to elaborate further on the issue, Semneby said that he was only making an observation that there was “quite an extraordinary situation” in Georgia with one political force being “in a very, very, exceptionally strong position” and “it puts a large degree of responsibility on the political force that has this kind of dominance.”
Georgia’s Regional Role and Russia
Semneby said that Georgia in many ways achieved progress that “goes beyond what has been achieved by other countries in the region.”
“It’s important to consider that for its international partners Georgia is important in regional context, not just by itself and Georgia therefore needs to make its own contribution to stability in this region,” he said.
“This also includes relations with Russia where we need to find way - Georgia’s partners are willing and I think able to help here – to do more in terms of improving those relations without compromising on existential positions, but nevertheless there needs to be a qualitative change in these relationships.”
“Realistically speaking it will take time to address all the conflict-related issues and in the meantime it will be necessary and important to improve and develop relations between Georgia and Russia even with such fundamental differences remaining,” Semneby said.
He said that apart of human aspect and restoring contacts between Russia and Georgia on “personal level”, there were “lots of practical issues” that needed to be dealt, including the one related to trade.
“If there is development of Georgian-Russian relations in a broader sense it may – I say ‘may’, it’s not absolutely certain that it would be the case – also improve conditions for resolving very difficult political issues that still remain between the two countries,” he said.
Abkhazia, S.Ossetia
Semneby, who has been involved in developing EU’s “engagement without recognition” approach towards Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, said that EU had “much more extensive and much more intensive” interaction with Sokhumi, than with Tskhinvali.
He said he had extensive discussions both in Tbilisi and Sokhumi about where the greatest opportunities for engagement were and “I would say that the area of healthcare would provide important opportunities for further engagement.”
Semneby said that many of the aspects of Tbilisi’s approach were mirroring those of the EU.
“We have welcomed many of the initiatives taken by the Georgian government and in particular the Action Plan” for Engagement, Semneby said referring to a document which was approved by the Georgian government in July, 2010 and which lays out steps for implementing goals outlined in Tbilisi’s Strategy on Occupied Territories.
“We believe it [the Action Plan for Engagement] contains very many interesting intentions that clearly mirror priorities and views of the European Union… We are obviously ready to make a contribution to supporting those parts of Georgian plan that are in line with our own policies and convictions,” Semneby said.
He said that Georgia needed international partners in order to facilitate reconciliation. “Georgia also needs to trust its international partners in this endeavor,” Semneby added.
Asked about his shunning away from using term “occupied territories” in reference to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Semneby said: “Labeling here is not the most important issue.”
“The fact is that we have conflict situation that needs to be dealt with in such a way that we ensure that certain objectives are fulfilled. We should focus on tasks here to rebuild contacts across the confrontation lines, we should address the humanitarian issues, security-related issues including fulfillment of the agreements that entered in August and September 2008,” he said.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
"Die nächsten Wahlen 2012/13 seien für die Reife der Demokratie in Georgien äußerst wichtig"
# 'Next elections crucial';
# 'Georgia is a better place now';
# 'Ruling party’s overwhelming dominance';
# Georgia’s regional role;
# Needs for 'qualitative change' in Russo-Georgian ties;
# On term 'occupied' – 'labeling not the most important'
Next elections, including parliamentary in 2012 and presidential in 2013, would be “crucial for the maturity of the Georgian democracy,” Peter Semneby, an outgoing EU’s Special Representative for South Caucasus, said on February 22 in Tbilisi.
“It is very important that the electoral legislature is agreed well beforehand [so] that it does not become part of the electoral campaign itself. Georgia needs to establish clear and stable rules of the game for the political competition between the parties,” Semneby said.
It was the Swedish diplomat’s last visit to Georgia in his capacity of the EU’s Special Representative, as his mandate on the post, which he held since 2006, expires on February 28.
The fate of the post is unclear yet as the discussions about the mandate of Special Representatives were still underway within EU, he said. “There certainly [will] be a gap before this discussion is concluded,” Semneby said.
Semneby, whose tenure coincided with Georgia’s several domestic political crises and the August war, said that it had been “a very challenging period” for Georgia.
“But I think Georgia is a better place now for many reasons, than it was in the beginning of my term in this job and not least thanks to the new stage that we have entered in relations between Georgia and the European Union with the start of negotiations on Association Agreement,” he said.
“I very strongly hope Georgia will take these negotiations [on Association Agreement] seriously and Georgia will approach these negotiations with diligence that they deserve, because it is in a close relations with EU that Georgia can find the best guarantees that are available for its sovereignty and security,” Semneby said.
Semneby, who acted for number of times as a facilitator between the Georgian authorities and the opposition during the internal political tensions, involving series of mass street protests in 2007-2009, said that those events “had ultimately healthy influence on the political discourse in general in Georgia.”
“They demonstrated by balancing on the brink, on many occasions, what limits are on the use of force as means in politics and I think Georgia is much healthier place after these events were successfully dealt with,” he said.
'Overwhelming Dominance of Ruling Party'
Semneby said that overwhelming dominance of the ruling National Movement Party in government branches was putting on the authorities a large degree of responsibility.
“The current governing party also needs to consider how it uses the overwhelming domination that it has at the moment – with the constitutional majority in the Parliament and control of all municipal councils in the country – in a responsible way in order to provide the oxygen for alternative political voices to be heard,” he said.
Asked to elaborate further on the issue, Semneby said that he was only making an observation that there was “quite an extraordinary situation” in Georgia with one political force being “in a very, very, exceptionally strong position” and “it puts a large degree of responsibility on the political force that has this kind of dominance.”
Georgia’s Regional Role and Russia
Semneby said that Georgia in many ways achieved progress that “goes beyond what has been achieved by other countries in the region.”
“It’s important to consider that for its international partners Georgia is important in regional context, not just by itself and Georgia therefore needs to make its own contribution to stability in this region,” he said.
“This also includes relations with Russia where we need to find way - Georgia’s partners are willing and I think able to help here – to do more in terms of improving those relations without compromising on existential positions, but nevertheless there needs to be a qualitative change in these relationships.”
“Realistically speaking it will take time to address all the conflict-related issues and in the meantime it will be necessary and important to improve and develop relations between Georgia and Russia even with such fundamental differences remaining,” Semneby said.
He said that apart of human aspect and restoring contacts between Russia and Georgia on “personal level”, there were “lots of practical issues” that needed to be dealt, including the one related to trade.
“If there is development of Georgian-Russian relations in a broader sense it may – I say ‘may’, it’s not absolutely certain that it would be the case – also improve conditions for resolving very difficult political issues that still remain between the two countries,” he said.
Abkhazia, S.Ossetia
Semneby, who has been involved in developing EU’s “engagement without recognition” approach towards Georgia’s breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, said that EU had “much more extensive and much more intensive” interaction with Sokhumi, than with Tskhinvali.
He said he had extensive discussions both in Tbilisi and Sokhumi about where the greatest opportunities for engagement were and “I would say that the area of healthcare would provide important opportunities for further engagement.”
Semneby said that many of the aspects of Tbilisi’s approach were mirroring those of the EU.
“We have welcomed many of the initiatives taken by the Georgian government and in particular the Action Plan” for Engagement, Semneby said referring to a document which was approved by the Georgian government in July, 2010 and which lays out steps for implementing goals outlined in Tbilisi’s Strategy on Occupied Territories.
“We believe it [the Action Plan for Engagement] contains very many interesting intentions that clearly mirror priorities and views of the European Union… We are obviously ready to make a contribution to supporting those parts of Georgian plan that are in line with our own policies and convictions,” Semneby said.
He said that Georgia needed international partners in order to facilitate reconciliation. “Georgia also needs to trust its international partners in this endeavor,” Semneby added.
Asked about his shunning away from using term “occupied territories” in reference to Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Semneby said: “Labeling here is not the most important issue.”
“The fact is that we have conflict situation that needs to be dealt with in such a way that we ensure that certain objectives are fulfilled. We should focus on tasks here to rebuild contacts across the confrontation lines, we should address the humanitarian issues, security-related issues including fulfillment of the agreements that entered in August and September 2008,” he said.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
In der Regierungserklärung bestimmt Präsident Saakashvili 2015 als neues Ziel zur Vollendung verschiedener Aufgaben
12.02.2011 | Civil.ge | Link zur Quelle | Bilder | Video |
President Saakashvili has set 2015 as a new target date for accomplishment of various tasks, which he laid out in his annual state of the nation address in the Parliament on February 11.
Among the targets listed by Saakashvili in his speech, which, he said, should be achieved by 2015 were: doubling agriculture production; doubling export; doubling state budget; halving current level of unemployment; 50% increase of average salaries; population growth to 5 million; increase of annual number of foreign visitors to 5 million; building of 17 new hydro power plants.
“You have probably noticed that while speaking about various issues I have numerously mentioned the year 2015,” said Saakashvili, who previously was often mentioning 2013 as a target date for accomplishment of his major tasks.
Saakashvili, whose second and final presidential term expires in 2013, said that 2015 was defined based on “long-term plan of Georgia’s development” and it had nothing to do “either with the election dates or political careers of separate individuals or the term in office of the sitting Parliament”, which expires in 2012.
“Instead it [the target date - 2015] matches with what is important for the country. People should know where we are going; our course will definitely continue,” Saakashvili said. He said for number of times in the past that he wanted “a team of reformers” to stay in power after his presidential term expires.
“Everything what we are talking about will be started in 2012-2013... Everything will be accomplished in 2015.”
“Therefore, 2015 will be the year of summarizing the first results of this plan. Our plan is based on the capabilities of Georgia, as well as on the existing dynamics of the course of reforms, real human and material resources and ongoing projects. The plan of Georgia’s development covers all the major sectors of economy and all major spheres of state activities,” Saakashvili said.
‘Modernization’
Saakashvili described his 70-minute long address as “a report about modernization.”
“Modernization will be one of the major results and tasks of the government’s and personally of my entire career,” Saakashvili said.
“For some people modernization may be a mere word, but for us it means transforming Georgia from a post-Soviet country into European democratic state, which will be the fastest growing country in Europe.”
“Modernization means to ensure that our citizen is more educated, more competitive, has modern knowledge and feels himself as a Georgian patriot, but simultaneously as a citizen of the world, a free person, for whom all opportunities are open, who do not suffer from an inferiority complex; low self-esteem and inferiority – these are what enabled the empire to try to subdue Georgia. As soon as we finally get rid of this inferiority complex, nobody will ever be able to enslave us again. And this is very important.”
“Modernization means reforms which have been implemented and will be implemented by the state and which will lead us to more civilized and democratic state. It means changes and innovations, which will pave the way towards more open and modern society – the society, which will not retire into its own shell, which does not have any phobias, which is multi-ethnic and multi-confessional, wherein each community is an integral part of the Georgian nation; the society, which aspires to the future instead of weeping for the past, which consists of free people with free thinking and free rule of life.”
Modernization means Georgia of such mentality, where politicians and society will be united like a fist to defend the interests of the country even if there are great ideological and political differences among them. Georgia, where criminal mentality will never return, where ethnic and regional divisions will never return, where corruption will never gain its foothold means Georgia, where the liberty of an individual is the cornerstone of the country and which will gain a worthy place in the international system as a sovereign, united and very successful state and not a single empire will ever be able to question its existence.”
“We will spare no efforts in the struggle for Georgia’s modernization… We will overcome all the obstacles and all the difficulties because we will be moving only forward, we will bring our struggle to the end and we will definitely win,” Saakashvili said.
Foreign Policy
On foreign policy issues Saakashvili said that Georgia achieved “significant diplomatic success last year”, because the term “occupation” in reference of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was establishing on the international arena.
“Today there is no longer a question mark about on whose side the international community is,” he said. “The entire world sees who is aggressor and who is in favor of the peace.”
On Russia he said that Georgia “wants a dialogue” with Moscow, “but we will never tolerate disintegration and occupation of Georgia.”
“The Russian leadership’s course has no future,” he said. “The idea of empire is still alive, but it has no future.”
He also said that “imperialistic thinking is waning” and added: “We are nearing the period when the imperialistic thinking will be faded away.”
“But I want to say, that we should be careful, so that to escape being a victim of the empire’s agony,” Saakashvili said.
He also said that Georgia’s course towards EU and NATO integration remained “unwavering” and attempts by Russia to isolate Georgia had “failed”. “We will never give up the choice of the Georgian people in favor of the Euro-Atlantic integration,” Saakashvili said.
For some other key points from Saakashvili's address see:
GEL 150 mln Extra Funding Planned for Agriculture
Gov’t Plans 'GEL 30 Food Coupons'
Saakashvili Aims Free Trade Treaty with EU by 2015
Debates
After the address Saakashvili listened to rebuttal speeches by parliamentary minority lawmakers and remarks by the ruling party MPs. Before start of his address, Saakashvili asked the foreign diplomats accredited in Tbilisi, and present in the Parliament chamber, to stay and attend the debates as well.
After the debates, which lasted for about four hours, Saakashvili thanked diplomats, remaining in the chamber for “patience” saying that the debates “demonstrated how far the Georgian democracy has gone”.
MP Giorgi Targamadze, leader of Christian-Democratic Movement and of parliamentary minority group, said in his rebuttal speech told the President to foster improvement of the electoral environment otherwise warned that Saakashvili would face, as he put it, “Mubarakization”. MP Targamadze was referring to Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, who resigned on February 11 after 18 days of mass protest.
MP Targamadze slammed the President for creating “genetically modified media” and “semi-manufactured judiciary”. He also said that President was at top of “corruption pyramid” and added that removing a section of presidential orders from his official website was part of the authorities’ attempts to hide information about where public money was spent.
For couple of times President Saakashvili intervened in opposition lawmakers’ speeches; in one such case he interrupted MP Levan Vepkhvadze of the Christian-Democratic Movement when the latter was criticizing the government for entering in “unprofitable” five-year gas deal with Azerbaijan in 2008, claiming that Georgia had a chance to buy gas for a better price from Azerbaijan under the Shah-Deniz gas pipeline deal. When saying this, Saakashvili pressed MP Vepkhvadze to name any European country which was buying gas for lower price than Georgia. When the MP responded that European countries were receiving expensive gas because they were buying it from Russia, Saakashvili smiled sarcastically.
A lawmaker from the ruling party, Giorgi Gabashvili, said in his remarks that there were two types of opposition in Georgia – “insane and incompetent.” “You are among incompetents,” MP Gabashvili told lawmakers from the Christian-Democratic Movement.
‘Elite Corruption’
When MP Guram Chakhvadze of National-Democratic Party, part of the parliamentary minority group, criticized the government for “elite corruption”, Saakashvili asked him that “the political elite is now here… name who is corrupt”. PM Nika Gilauri and several ministers were also present in the chamber apart of lawmakers. MP Chakhvadze responded that he did not mean the President or ministers when speaking about elite corruption. He said that the Freedom House was also using this term – elite corruption in reference to Georgia and added that he was meaning those mid-level officials who had been arrested on corruption charges in Georgia.
“Someone, somewhere is bullshitting – it does not matter; we live in this country and everyone knows everything about everyone… The Georgian political elite is very clean… This is the major achievement of our state,” Saakashvili said.
MP Chakhvadze then backed off and said: “Let’s put it this way – a mid-level elite corruption.”
According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2009 human rights report, although levels of petty corruption fell in Georgia, concerns remained about high-level and "elite corruption."
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
President Saakashvili has set 2015 as a new target date for accomplishment of various tasks, which he laid out in his annual state of the nation address in the Parliament on February 11.
Among the targets listed by Saakashvili in his speech, which, he said, should be achieved by 2015 were: doubling agriculture production; doubling export; doubling state budget; halving current level of unemployment; 50% increase of average salaries; population growth to 5 million; increase of annual number of foreign visitors to 5 million; building of 17 new hydro power plants.
“You have probably noticed that while speaking about various issues I have numerously mentioned the year 2015,” said Saakashvili, who previously was often mentioning 2013 as a target date for accomplishment of his major tasks.
Saakashvili, whose second and final presidential term expires in 2013, said that 2015 was defined based on “long-term plan of Georgia’s development” and it had nothing to do “either with the election dates or political careers of separate individuals or the term in office of the sitting Parliament”, which expires in 2012.
“Instead it [the target date - 2015] matches with what is important for the country. People should know where we are going; our course will definitely continue,” Saakashvili said. He said for number of times in the past that he wanted “a team of reformers” to stay in power after his presidential term expires.
“Everything what we are talking about will be started in 2012-2013... Everything will be accomplished in 2015.”
“Therefore, 2015 will be the year of summarizing the first results of this plan. Our plan is based on the capabilities of Georgia, as well as on the existing dynamics of the course of reforms, real human and material resources and ongoing projects. The plan of Georgia’s development covers all the major sectors of economy and all major spheres of state activities,” Saakashvili said.
‘Modernization’
Saakashvili described his 70-minute long address as “a report about modernization.”
“Modernization will be one of the major results and tasks of the government’s and personally of my entire career,” Saakashvili said.
“For some people modernization may be a mere word, but for us it means transforming Georgia from a post-Soviet country into European democratic state, which will be the fastest growing country in Europe.”
“Modernization means to ensure that our citizen is more educated, more competitive, has modern knowledge and feels himself as a Georgian patriot, but simultaneously as a citizen of the world, a free person, for whom all opportunities are open, who do not suffer from an inferiority complex; low self-esteem and inferiority – these are what enabled the empire to try to subdue Georgia. As soon as we finally get rid of this inferiority complex, nobody will ever be able to enslave us again. And this is very important.”
“Modernization means reforms which have been implemented and will be implemented by the state and which will lead us to more civilized and democratic state. It means changes and innovations, which will pave the way towards more open and modern society – the society, which will not retire into its own shell, which does not have any phobias, which is multi-ethnic and multi-confessional, wherein each community is an integral part of the Georgian nation; the society, which aspires to the future instead of weeping for the past, which consists of free people with free thinking and free rule of life.”
Modernization means Georgia of such mentality, where politicians and society will be united like a fist to defend the interests of the country even if there are great ideological and political differences among them. Georgia, where criminal mentality will never return, where ethnic and regional divisions will never return, where corruption will never gain its foothold means Georgia, where the liberty of an individual is the cornerstone of the country and which will gain a worthy place in the international system as a sovereign, united and very successful state and not a single empire will ever be able to question its existence.”
“We will spare no efforts in the struggle for Georgia’s modernization… We will overcome all the obstacles and all the difficulties because we will be moving only forward, we will bring our struggle to the end and we will definitely win,” Saakashvili said.
Foreign Policy
On foreign policy issues Saakashvili said that Georgia achieved “significant diplomatic success last year”, because the term “occupation” in reference of Abkhazia and South Ossetia was establishing on the international arena.
“Today there is no longer a question mark about on whose side the international community is,” he said. “The entire world sees who is aggressor and who is in favor of the peace.”
On Russia he said that Georgia “wants a dialogue” with Moscow, “but we will never tolerate disintegration and occupation of Georgia.”
“The Russian leadership’s course has no future,” he said. “The idea of empire is still alive, but it has no future.”
He also said that “imperialistic thinking is waning” and added: “We are nearing the period when the imperialistic thinking will be faded away.”
“But I want to say, that we should be careful, so that to escape being a victim of the empire’s agony,” Saakashvili said.
He also said that Georgia’s course towards EU and NATO integration remained “unwavering” and attempts by Russia to isolate Georgia had “failed”. “We will never give up the choice of the Georgian people in favor of the Euro-Atlantic integration,” Saakashvili said.
For some other key points from Saakashvili's address see:
GEL 150 mln Extra Funding Planned for Agriculture
Gov’t Plans 'GEL 30 Food Coupons'
Saakashvili Aims Free Trade Treaty with EU by 2015
Debates
After the address Saakashvili listened to rebuttal speeches by parliamentary minority lawmakers and remarks by the ruling party MPs. Before start of his address, Saakashvili asked the foreign diplomats accredited in Tbilisi, and present in the Parliament chamber, to stay and attend the debates as well.
After the debates, which lasted for about four hours, Saakashvili thanked diplomats, remaining in the chamber for “patience” saying that the debates “demonstrated how far the Georgian democracy has gone”.
MP Giorgi Targamadze, leader of Christian-Democratic Movement and of parliamentary minority group, said in his rebuttal speech told the President to foster improvement of the electoral environment otherwise warned that Saakashvili would face, as he put it, “Mubarakization”. MP Targamadze was referring to Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, who resigned on February 11 after 18 days of mass protest.
MP Targamadze slammed the President for creating “genetically modified media” and “semi-manufactured judiciary”. He also said that President was at top of “corruption pyramid” and added that removing a section of presidential orders from his official website was part of the authorities’ attempts to hide information about where public money was spent.
For couple of times President Saakashvili intervened in opposition lawmakers’ speeches; in one such case he interrupted MP Levan Vepkhvadze of the Christian-Democratic Movement when the latter was criticizing the government for entering in “unprofitable” five-year gas deal with Azerbaijan in 2008, claiming that Georgia had a chance to buy gas for a better price from Azerbaijan under the Shah-Deniz gas pipeline deal. When saying this, Saakashvili pressed MP Vepkhvadze to name any European country which was buying gas for lower price than Georgia. When the MP responded that European countries were receiving expensive gas because they were buying it from Russia, Saakashvili smiled sarcastically.
A lawmaker from the ruling party, Giorgi Gabashvili, said in his remarks that there were two types of opposition in Georgia – “insane and incompetent.” “You are among incompetents,” MP Gabashvili told lawmakers from the Christian-Democratic Movement.
‘Elite Corruption’
When MP Guram Chakhvadze of National-Democratic Party, part of the parliamentary minority group, criticized the government for “elite corruption”, Saakashvili asked him that “the political elite is now here… name who is corrupt”. PM Nika Gilauri and several ministers were also present in the chamber apart of lawmakers. MP Chakhvadze responded that he did not mean the President or ministers when speaking about elite corruption. He said that the Freedom House was also using this term – elite corruption in reference to Georgia and added that he was meaning those mid-level officials who had been arrested on corruption charges in Georgia.
“Someone, somewhere is bullshitting – it does not matter; we live in this country and everyone knows everything about everyone… The Georgian political elite is very clean… This is the major achievement of our state,” Saakashvili said.
MP Chakhvadze then backed off and said: “Let’s put it this way – a mid-level elite corruption.”
According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2009 human rights report, although levels of petty corruption fell in Georgia, concerns remained about high-level and "elite corruption."
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
Civil Georgia im Gespräch mit den drei Beisitzern der Genfer Gespräche: 'Neuer Kontext' für Genfer Gespräche
22.12.2010 | Civil.ge | Link zur Quelle | Bilder | Video |
- 'Non-Use of force pledge in package with int'l security guarantees';
- 'We can cautiously be optimistic';
- 'Flexible informal framework';
- 'Optimistic about OSCE mission’s return in the long run';
Georgia's unilateral declaration on non-use of force creates "new context", which can serve to further progress in Geneva Discussions, co-chairs of the talks, launched two months after the August war, say.
The three co-chairs of the Geneva discussions, Pierre Morel of EU, Antti Turunen of UN and Bolat Nurgaliyev, the special envoy of outgoing Kazakh OSCE chairmanship, spoke on December 7 with Civil.ge about the implications non-use of force pledge may have on the Geneva discussions, as well as about the prospects of restoration of OSCE mission in Georgia.
The diplomats were in Tbilisi after talks in Moscow and also visited Tskhinvali and Sokhumi in run up to fourteenth round of Geneva talks planned for December 16.
The following is a transcript of the interview:
Q.: President Saakashvili made unilateral pledge on non-use of force on November 23, later reiterated at the OSCE Astana summit. It was then followed by response from Tskhinvali, Sokhumi and Moscow. This has long been one of the key issues in Geneva Discussions with the participants failing to achieve an agreement. What practical meaning this declaration may have on talks in Geneva and do you think it may be the sign of any breakthrough?
Pierre Morel: We have taken note and we are not making statement speaking of a breakthrough. But what is clear is that it is the main subject on which we've been working for this year. We had plenty of other subjects, but this question of non-use of force and international security arrangements has been the matter we have tried to work very methodically - reviewing different options, getting proposals, comparing proposals, seeing the pros and cons of different formulas. So, we think that this work in Geneva, however modest, has helped to clarify ideas and has led participants [of the Geneva Discussions] to take the initiative, and indeed the statement by President Saakashvili is an important initiative. It is interesting to see that it led the other participants [of the Geneva Discussions] to react positively and we have now an expanded base for our work. Of course, all this is taking place just few days before the Geneva session, and this will be very much in the center of the next session.
Q.: If there is an agreement between the participants on this issue, it seems that one of the major controversies in the Geneva discussions will be removed.
Pierre Morel: Yes, but we've learnt to be careful. It is very clear that there are different types, modalities of statement and declaration. Therefore, you have different approaches to the statement on non-use of force. We have to be precise and to see where there is convergence and where there is divergence. This is part of our work and we must progress on this important subject in full clarity.
All the elements of the text of the statement of President Saakashvili are not exactly the way they might have been expected from other participants. But we have clear points of legal nature in this pledge. This is very important: I mean this is connected to international law, and now, in a written form. The modalities of the statement of President Saakashvili will be a matter of discussion, no doubt.
One year ago, this kind of approach was considered by some as just impossible; now we have moved. I also need to recall that, for some participants, the initial line was to say that there is a need for an agreement and that a statement was not enough; but it was also recognized by them that a statement would be a good start. That's where we have to do our further work. Frankly, we have been confronted with a lot of skepticism on this subject; some would say one year ago that we were embarking into some kind of philosophical consideration; no, we have tried to pin down what were the possibilities, the limitations, the opportunities, and we have been working with all the options. This is the approach of the Geneva Discussions.
‘We Can Cautiously Be Optimistic’
Antti Turunen: With his [President Saakashvili's] statement and inputs from Sukhumi and Tskhinvali we now have the material and we can say that the process is [moving] in right direction with this material we have and we can cautiously be optimistic. There is a feeling, that all the participants agree now that the Geneva Discussions are the right format and it's the only format where these issues are discussed. In that sense we have achieved a lot and secondly we have also achieved the full functioning of the IPRM [Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism] - both of these mechanisms, not only the Gali mechanism [referring to regular meetings held in Gali, breakaway Abkhazia], but also the Ergneti mechanism [referring to regular meetings in frames of IPRM held in a village on the administrative border of breakaway South Ossetia] - are positive steps forward.
I think we have all chances and also challenges to take the next step forward and try to formulate something, which is common, not only individual statements.
Q.: Mr. Morel said, while speaking about President Saakashvili's declaration, that it might not be what others expected; it seems there are still disagreements about the form of this non-use of force declaration. One of the recent proposals put forth by Russia was, that if the parties fail to agree on signing a legally binding agreements on non-use of force, then let them separately make unilateral, individual declarations on non-use of force. Georgia's unilateral declaration is very much similar to what Russia has been proposing...
Pierre Morel: Yes, indeed. We have said that we have had different proposals; this was the base of the work of the co-chairs. Indeed, it can be the first step, and some also would argue that it should lead to an agreement - but an agreement between whom and whom and a statement from which participant of the discussions? So we have clearly taken a new step; we must assess where we are and, once again, [assess] what is now possible.
Last year, the participants in Geneva [Discussions] were discussing ideas, launching proposals and counter-proposals... One year later, after this useful work, we have statements, including the formal one made by Georgian head of state in a prestigious place [European Parliament], confirming to major international interlocutors his position; we have Foreign Ministry reaction in Russia; we have inputs from Sukhumi and from Tskhinvali; so we have now a new context. This deserves further analysis.
Q.: Judging from the Russian leadership's statements, Moscow is not going to make any such declaration on non-use of force as it considers itself a mediator and not a party into the conflict. Is this one of the reasons of your cautious stance?
Pierre Morel: This is a matter of discussion already [since] the last year. We continue to look after this dimension. We were discussing that in a context of drafts put on table between the participants; now we have new developments, which have taken place on the international level with the legal dimension. So let's reconsider this point further.
Antti Turunen: Both the substance and the format - everything is to be discussed; the format [is] also including possible guarantees of international security arrangements - all this is part of the package. We are just approaching this with cautious steps, and let's see how it functions.
'Non-Use of Force Pledge and Int'l Security Guarantees Should Go Hand in Hand'
Q.: You mentioned international security guarantees. The document, which the co-chairs have developed known as "basic elements of a framework for an agreement on the non-use of force and international security arrangements", is this something in which you tried to combine the key positions of the participants - on the one hand calls for non-use of force and on the other - Tbilisi's insistence on creating international security guarantees in the breakaway regions?
Pierre Morel: This is how you start; when you have different points of view and you have people seating around the table, looking for means to improve security - let's identify all the options; so, you first have to do a checklist in order to review all the dimensions. In this deepening of the discussion, we have stressed, again and again, with all the participants, that if you want to work on non-use of force, you have also to work on the international security arrangements, which are connected with non-use of force.
Non-use of force is not the kind of concept which is floating in the air. This is something related to concrete situations, which implies rules of behavior and guarantees and consequences on the ground. Otherwise, why should one enter into this complex exercise? This is meant to improve real security; therefore, as soon as you begin to work on this legal and commitment dimensions, you must look at the guarantees and modalities.
So we have always spoken of "non-use of force and international security arrangements". If partners, interlocutors are ready to commit themselves, they also look into the modalities in which this can be secured and can be prevented from non-compliance or failure.
Q.: So these two – non-use of force and international security guarantees - go hand in hand.
Pierre Morel: Yes, exactly.
‘Flexible Informal Framework’
Q.: Who are the mediators in the Geneva discussions?
Pierre Morel: Well, let's not be trapped by the words, this would be my first reaction.
As you know, the Geneva discussions started on October 15, 2008 - two months after the war. That was part of August 12 agreement and complementary arrangements of September 8. We started from scratch in the sense that Georgia has withdrawn from the former Moscow and Sochi agreements; therefore, we had no real precedents. We started in a new context and we had therefore to elaborate our framework. Thus, we shaped this formula of co-chairs, which is linking the three organizations [UN, OSCE, EU]. Since the start, we have been working the same way, shaping further our system.
As a part of this mission, we have paid regular visits to all participants, and you can call this a mediation role. But, usually, when you look at international norms, it is done within certain rules or under the aegis of one organization or with a formal agreement between the different parties to the conflict. We have not gone through too many procedural steps. We've had guidelines, and our mandate is based on the August 12 agreement. With the consent of all the participants in this rather flexible informal framework of the Geneva Discussions, we have tried to push as far as possible the work. There are about 60 people meeting every two months. Work is going on between the sessions, we do not stop [between them], this is our rule as co-chairs; our respective teams are constantly involved and this is what we have elaborated.
We will not put ourselves into some kind of specific category, because we keep this informal character; it's called Geneva Discussions, it's not negotiations. So in that respect, I understand your need to qualify things more precisely...
Q.: I'm asking this because Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said just recently "Russia, US, EU, OSCE and UN act there as mediators"...
Pierre Morel: We would not enter into this kind of characterization. We start from what we have - the mission we have received - and we try to push it as far as possible.
Antti Turunen: This process itself hopefully will really create some kind of peace reconciliation, that's of course our dream and aim. But at the moment we try to do step-by-step, facilitating the discussions that we have in Geneva and it's the only forum for all the participants and it is important achievement in itself and now we are taking cautiously steps forward and hopefully we can keep making progress.
Pierre Morel: In other words, we do not have full-fledged, structured system from the beginning. It was rather specific base from which we try to extract the maximum. We have had some results already and some positive impacts on the ground, together with EUMM [EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia] and with the work we have been doing between the sessions; this represents certain dynamism, we are there to further the process, as far as we can.
‘Optimistic about OSCE mission’s return in the long run’
Q.: OSCE Summit in Astana adopted a Commemorative Declaration, but failed to adopt a comprehensive action plan with unresolved conflicts representing key stumbling block. Can you identify briefly what was the controversy particularly in respect of Georgia?
Bolat Nurgaliyev: The major controversies were around the status issue of the two entities - South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Insistence that the fragment on protected conflicts should be titled 'Conflict in Georgia' was not receiving consensus among the participating states; that prevented us from putting [that fragment] in the text; otherwise, other aspects [were] agreed including to proceed [with the work] within the framework of the Geneva International Discussions.
But I have to remind that the concluding part of the Declaration contains instruction to the incoming chairmanship of the OSCE to proceed working on the Action Plan taking into consideration what has already been discussed during preparation of the summit, plus the proposals and specific ideas, which were put forward during the summit and in the speeches of heads of government and heads of state.
Q.: There have been calls by number of western leaders at the Astana summit for re-establishment of the OSCE mission in Georgia. The previous, OSCE Greek chairmanship in 2009, was putting forth proposal in this respect. What were the Kazakh chairmanship’s efforts in this regard, what kind of proposals, if any, have been discussed and do you foresee any progress in this regard?
Bolat Nurgaliyev: Of course we were very keen to ensure the continuity of the preceding efforts and we picked from where our Greek colleagues left that particular set of issues - it's not just one issue, it's also the essence of what the mission of the OSCE should be doing in the region.
We were trying to adjust ideas put forward by different participants. For example: something is not acceptable to all the sides, then what about this, what about that - and this took quite a long time, because [during] each occasion we had the request for timeout for consideration of fresh proposals.
But I think, more or less, the formula on which we will be proceeding to concentrate our efforts - Kazakhstan being the member of "OSCE Troika", will also be providing its own input, but now the leading role will be passed to the Lithuanian chairmanship - this way or other way, I am pretty optimistic that we will have an OSCE presence. But, of course, that will need further tries and in the long run I am sure that we will restore a meaningful and useful presence of the OSCE, which will continue to play its role in the Geneva International Discussions, as well as its engagement in implementation of specific projects, which were discussed yesterday here in Tbilisi and today in Tskhinvali.
Q.: You said you are optimistic about restoration of OSCE presence in Georgia; what is this optimism based on?
Bolat Nurgaliyev: I've never heard that there is no need for that [mission in Georgia] and the acceptance of the projects that we are discussing, which have a direct bearing on everyday life of population of the region is the proof that we will be definitely having a field mission. But how it is going to be, on what footing - that is subject of further deliberation; the matter in principle is accepted; the devil is in details, but these details, I am sure, will be worked out.
Q.: There have been talks on launch of EU-funded and OSCE-implemented rehabilitation project in breakaway South Ossetia [if launched it will be the first of this kind since the August, 2008 war], involving repair works on Zonkari dam. Are there any tangible signs that this project will be launched?
Bolat Nurgaliyev: Yes, we strongly hope that it's going to be this way, because there were some technical issues, which we had to clear; we seem to have come to understanding. Money is there, the technical feasibility has been studied. Now it's a matter of signing the contract and starting actual work. We were insisting that it should start as soon as possible given the winter’s coming and if it is snowing, maybe, there will be a delay, but that will be a delay caused by force majeure.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Krieg-2008, Genfer Gespräche - Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
Resolution zu Georgien im US-Senat
11.12.2010 | Civil.ge | Link zur Quelle | Bilder | Video |
'Resolution zur Okkupation' im US-Senat initiiert
Die demokratische Senatorin Jeanne Shaheen hat eine Resolution verfaßt, die Georgiens territoriale Integrität und die Anerkennung von Abchasien und Südossetien als von Russland besetzte Regionen unterstützt. Russland auch aufgerufen, das Waffenstillstandsabkommen von 2008 vollständig zu erfüllen.
Entwurf einer Resolution zu Georgien im US-Senat initiiert:
Draft of Resolution on Georgia Initiated in U.S. Senate
Draft - S.RES.698
A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate with respect to the territorial integrity of Georgia and the situation within Georgia's internationally recognized borders
Whereas, since 1993, the territorial integrity of Georgia has been reaffirmed by the international community and 36 United Nations Security Council resolutions;
Whereas the Helsinki Final Act resulting from the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975 states that parties ‘‘shall regard as inviolable all one another’s frontiers’’ and that ‘‘participating States will likewise refrain from making each other’s territory the object of military occupation’’;
Whereas the United States-Georgia Strategic Charter, signed on January 9, 2009, underscores that ‘‘support for each other’s sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders constitutes the foundation of our bilateral relations’’;
Whereas, in October 2010, at the meeting of the United States-Georgia Charter on Strategic Partnership, Secretary of State Clinton stated, ‘‘The United States will not waiver in its support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’’;
Whereas the White House released a fact sheet on July 24, 2010, calling for ‘‘Russia to end its occupation of the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia’’ and for ‘‘a return of international observers to the two occupied regions of Georgia’’;
Whereas Vice President Joseph Biden stated in Tbilisi in July 2009 that the United States ‘‘will not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states’’ and went on to ‘‘urge the world not to recognize [Abkhazia and South Ossetia] as independent states’’;
Whereas the August 2008 conflict between the Governments of Russia and Georgia resulted in civilian and military causalities, the violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia, and large numbers of internally-displaced persons;
Whereas the August 12, 2008, ceasefire agreement, agreed to by the Governments of Russia and Georgia, provides that all Russian troops shall be withdrawn to pre-conflict positions;
Whereas the August 12, 2008, ceasefire agreement provides that free access shall be granted to organizations providing humanitarian assistance in regions affected by violence in August 2008;
Whereas the International Crisis Group concluded in its June 7, 2010, report on South Ossetia that ‘‘Moscow has not kept important ceasefire commitments and some 20,000 ethnic Georgians from the region remain forcibly displaced’’;
Whereas Human Rights Watch concluded in its World Report 2010 that ‘‘Russia continued to exercise effective control over South Ossetia and. . . Abkhazia, preventing international observers’ access and vetoing international missions working there’’;
Whereas, in October 2010, Russian troops withdrew from the small Georgian village of Perevi;
Whereas the withdrawal of Russian troops from Perevi is a positive step, but it does not constitute compliance with the terms of the August 2008 Russia-Georgia ceasefire agreement;
Whereas, on November 23, 2010, before the European Parliament, Georgian President Saakashvili committed Georgia to not use force to restore control over the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia;
Whereas Secretary of State Clinton stated in Tbilisi on July 5, 2010, ‘‘We continue to call for Russia to abide by the August 2008 cease-fire commitment. . . including ending the occupation and withdrawing Russian troops from South Ossetia and Abkhazia to their pre-conflict positions.’’;
Whereas the Russian Federation vetoed the extension of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Georgia and the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia, forcing the missions to withdraw from the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia;
Whereas Russian troops stationed in the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia continue to be present without a mandate from the United Nations or other multilateral organizations;
Whereas the Senate supports United States efforts to develop a productive relationship with the Russian Federation in areas of mutual interest, including non-proliferation and arms control, cooperation concerning the failure of the Government of Iran to meet its international obligations with regard to its nuclear programs, counter-terrorism, Afghanistan, anti-piracy, economics and trade, and others; and
Whereas the Senate agrees that these efforts must not compromise longstanding United States policy, principles of the Helsinki Final Act, and United States support for United States allies and partners worldwide: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate
(1) affirms that it is the policy of the United States to support the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Georgia and the inviolability of its borders and to recognize the areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as regions of Georgia occupied by the Russian Federation;
(2) calls upon the Government of Russia to take steps to fulfill all the terms and conditions of the 2008 ceasefire agreements, including returning military forces to pre-war positions and ensuring access to international humanitarian aid to all those affected by the conflict;
(3) urges the Government of Russia and the de facto authorities in the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to allow for the full and dignified return of internally-displaced persons and international observer missions to the territories of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia;
(4) supports constructive engagement and confidence-building measures between the Government of Georgia and the de facto authorities in the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia; and
(5) affirms that the path to lasting stability in this region is through peaceful means and long-term diplomatic and political dialogue.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Krieg-2008, Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
'Resolution zur Okkupation' im US-Senat initiiert
Die demokratische Senatorin Jeanne Shaheen hat eine Resolution verfaßt, die Georgiens territoriale Integrität und die Anerkennung von Abchasien und Südossetien als von Russland besetzte Regionen unterstützt. Russland auch aufgerufen, das Waffenstillstandsabkommen von 2008 vollständig zu erfüllen.
Entwurf einer Resolution zu Georgien im US-Senat initiiert:
Draft of Resolution on Georgia Initiated in U.S. Senate
Draft - S.RES.698
A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate with respect to the territorial integrity of Georgia and the situation within Georgia's internationally recognized borders
Whereas, since 1993, the territorial integrity of Georgia has been reaffirmed by the international community and 36 United Nations Security Council resolutions;
Whereas the Helsinki Final Act resulting from the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975 states that parties ‘‘shall regard as inviolable all one another’s frontiers’’ and that ‘‘participating States will likewise refrain from making each other’s territory the object of military occupation’’;
Whereas the United States-Georgia Strategic Charter, signed on January 9, 2009, underscores that ‘‘support for each other’s sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and inviolability of borders constitutes the foundation of our bilateral relations’’;
Whereas, in October 2010, at the meeting of the United States-Georgia Charter on Strategic Partnership, Secretary of State Clinton stated, ‘‘The United States will not waiver in its support for Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’’;
Whereas the White House released a fact sheet on July 24, 2010, calling for ‘‘Russia to end its occupation of the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia’’ and for ‘‘a return of international observers to the two occupied regions of Georgia’’;
Whereas Vice President Joseph Biden stated in Tbilisi in July 2009 that the United States ‘‘will not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states’’ and went on to ‘‘urge the world not to recognize [Abkhazia and South Ossetia] as independent states’’;
Whereas the August 2008 conflict between the Governments of Russia and Georgia resulted in civilian and military causalities, the violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia, and large numbers of internally-displaced persons;
Whereas the August 12, 2008, ceasefire agreement, agreed to by the Governments of Russia and Georgia, provides that all Russian troops shall be withdrawn to pre-conflict positions;
Whereas the August 12, 2008, ceasefire agreement provides that free access shall be granted to organizations providing humanitarian assistance in regions affected by violence in August 2008;
Whereas the International Crisis Group concluded in its June 7, 2010, report on South Ossetia that ‘‘Moscow has not kept important ceasefire commitments and some 20,000 ethnic Georgians from the region remain forcibly displaced’’;
Whereas Human Rights Watch concluded in its World Report 2010 that ‘‘Russia continued to exercise effective control over South Ossetia and. . . Abkhazia, preventing international observers’ access and vetoing international missions working there’’;
Whereas, in October 2010, Russian troops withdrew from the small Georgian village of Perevi;
Whereas the withdrawal of Russian troops from Perevi is a positive step, but it does not constitute compliance with the terms of the August 2008 Russia-Georgia ceasefire agreement;
Whereas, on November 23, 2010, before the European Parliament, Georgian President Saakashvili committed Georgia to not use force to restore control over the Georgian territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia;
Whereas Secretary of State Clinton stated in Tbilisi on July 5, 2010, ‘‘We continue to call for Russia to abide by the August 2008 cease-fire commitment. . . including ending the occupation and withdrawing Russian troops from South Ossetia and Abkhazia to their pre-conflict positions.’’;
Whereas the Russian Federation vetoed the extension of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Mission to Georgia and the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia, forcing the missions to withdraw from the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia;
Whereas Russian troops stationed in the regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia continue to be present without a mandate from the United Nations or other multilateral organizations;
Whereas the Senate supports United States efforts to develop a productive relationship with the Russian Federation in areas of mutual interest, including non-proliferation and arms control, cooperation concerning the failure of the Government of Iran to meet its international obligations with regard to its nuclear programs, counter-terrorism, Afghanistan, anti-piracy, economics and trade, and others; and
Whereas the Senate agrees that these efforts must not compromise longstanding United States policy, principles of the Helsinki Final Act, and United States support for United States allies and partners worldwide: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate
(1) affirms that it is the policy of the United States to support the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Georgia and the inviolability of its borders and to recognize the areas of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as regions of Georgia occupied by the Russian Federation;
(2) calls upon the Government of Russia to take steps to fulfill all the terms and conditions of the 2008 ceasefire agreements, including returning military forces to pre-war positions and ensuring access to international humanitarian aid to all those affected by the conflict;
(3) urges the Government of Russia and the de facto authorities in the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to allow for the full and dignified return of internally-displaced persons and international observer missions to the territories of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia;
(4) supports constructive engagement and confidence-building measures between the Government of Georgia and the de facto authorities in the regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia; and
(5) affirms that the path to lasting stability in this region is through peaceful means and long-term diplomatic and political dialogue.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Krieg-2008, Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
Präsident Saakashvili spricht über Abchasien in der UN-Klimakonferenz in Cancun
08.12.2010 | Civil.ge | Link zur Quelle | Bilder | Video |
Präsident Saakashvili spricht über Abchasien in der UN-Klimakonferenz in Cancun
President Saakashvili told the climate conference in Cancun, Mexico that in “occupied region of Abkhazia the Black Sea coast has been experiencing abrasion due to the devastating practices of the occupying power and its proxy regime.”
“Their mining of inert materials from the Gumista River construction projects related to the Sochi Olympics has resulted in landslides and degradation of the microclimate,” he said while addressing the conference.
“Their illegal search for oil in the Black Sea, in the territorial waters of Georgia, is done in a total blackout, without any legitimate authority being able to check the impact on the environment,” Saakashvili continued. “This is extremely alarming. What is most unfortunate is that we are unable to halt these disturbing practices due to the ongoing occupation and the violation of all cease-fire agreements.”
He also told the conference, that the global warming was “a challenge for humankind”.
“Our overarching goal in Georgia is to show that lowering our consumption of fossil fuels can help us increase growth-and can do so in a sustainable way,” Saakashvili said.
Remarks of H.E. President Mikheil Saakashvili:
16th Conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
Cancun, Mexico
8 December 2010
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,
Allow me to deliver my speech in Spanish, in honor of our Mexican hosts.
It is a great honor for me to be here at the Sixteenth Conference of the Parties of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
I will try to share with you Georgia's vision on how a little country like ours can be a laboratory for how to confront climate change and work on sustainable development.
But first, allow me to thank our Mexican hosts and all of you for the progress made during the conference.
There were fears that Cancun, after the disappointment of Copenhagen, would be a summit marked by little hope and low aspirations.
We must congratulate the Mexican Government, and in particular the President of the Conference, Ms. Patricia Espinosa, for their extraordinary work in rejuvenating these global climate talks. I also am very pleased by the appointment of Ms. Christiana Figueres as the Executive Secretary.
The conference, of course, is not over, but Cancun has the potential to mark a new beginning in our common pursuit of a low-carbon era.
We are near agreements on the REDD framework for compensating developing nations for preserving forests, as a well as on a "Green Fund" that will channel billions to poor nations to help them adapt to climate impacts, adopt low-carbon technology from developed countries, and convert to cleaner energy sources.
In a more ideal world, of course, the Copenhagen Accord would have been achieved last December and we would be gathering here in the aftermath of success.
As you know, Georgia is and remains a strong supporter of the Copenhagen Accord.
We believe that the time has past for a debate on whether the world needs to address climate change; the only question we now face is how to do so.
We also believe strongly that a low-carbon world not only benefits the environment, but also help decrease regional tensions.
After all, our country lies at a crossroads of global energy supplies, a region where oil and gas have helped fuel conflicts for more than a century. Building up local, renewable sources can help ensure that energy is not used as a political tool. Doing so in close cooperation with neighboring countries, as Georgia does, creates greater regional stability.
Immediately after Copenhagen, Georgia formally affiliated with the Copenhagen Accord and we fully support the implementation of its provisions. We also believe in the absolute necessity of continuing the UNFCCC process, and we're confident in a balanced outcome that reflects the guiding principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
in addition to the question of CO2 emmisions it is time to start working and finding solutions for other environmental and sustainibility issues.
Although Georgia is a small country, we believe we can have a large impact, especially in our region-one that has suffered from environmental degradation, as well as oppression and instability.
Ecological concerns and policies are not reserved to big and wealthy members of the Northern World: transitional democracies, emerging countries, small republics can do their part. In fact, they should see the green ambition as the key for their development and their stability.
In the global fight against climate change, these countries have a critical role to play as laboratories for innovation-testing new ideas, setting ambitious targets, and serving as a model for others.
Our overarching goal in Georgia is to show that lowering our consumption of fossil fuels can help us increase growth-and can do so in a sustainable way.
We are bringing the same resolve to this initiative as we have brought to the reform of our economy, our institutions and our political sphere.
Georgia already has taken concrete steps in combating climate change. Tbilisi, our capital, has joined the "Covenant of Mayors Initiative of the European Union" to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It is the first capital of the region to join the initiative.
Perhaps most important, Georgia is making great strides in developing its renewable energy program. We have established a friendly investment environment that has led to billions being poured into renewable energy sources, especially hydropower.
As a result of our rapid progress, already more than 80 percent of the electricity production in Georgia comes from renewable sources. In fact, we are exporting renewable energy to our neighbors, and we will eventually transmit it through Turkey to the European Union. This will enable us to achieve our goal of establishing Georgia as the first large-scale renewable energy exporter to Europe.
Our renewable energy initiatives can be complemented by large-scale initiatives to grow our forests and advance carbon sequestration activities, both of which will need the support of the international community.
These programs could allow natural forests to constitute as much as 10 percent of Georgia's territory, offering significant economic and environment benefits. Efforts such as these also will lead to the rehabilitation of degraded soils and vegetation cover, the protection of watersheds, and greater local employment.
In addition to these evolutions, we are launching a program that will lead to a cleaner transport industry. And public institutions will play the role of example. Georgia's government will, starting from this year, replace official traditional cars by electric ones.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I cannot end my speech without noting that there are man-made challenges to our climate that would be easy to stop and that we must not ignore. I have to point there to the tragic situation of Georgia's currently occupied region of Abkhazia, where the Black Sea coast has been experiencing abrasion due to the devastating practices of the occupying power and its proxy regime.
Their mining of inert materials from the Gumista River construction projects related to the Sochi Olympics has resulted in landslides and degradation of the microclimate.
Their illegal search for oil in the Blacksea, in the territorial waters of Georgia, is done in a total blackout, without any legitimate authority being able to check the impact on the environment.
This is extremely alarming. What is most unfortunate is that we are unable to halt these disturbing practices due to the ongoing occupation and the violation of all cease-fire agreements.
Ladies and gentlemen-
Global warming is a challenge for humankind as a whole and requires a response from a united humankind.
We must act with resolve and determination, setting aside our short-term interests, our actual rivalries or tensions, and taking concrete actions for our long-term good, for the good of the generations to come.
Thank you.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Sprache: deutsch, englisch, Archiv: #
Präsident Saakashvili spricht über Abchasien in der UN-Klimakonferenz in Cancun
President Saakashvili told the climate conference in Cancun, Mexico that in “occupied region of Abkhazia the Black Sea coast has been experiencing abrasion due to the devastating practices of the occupying power and its proxy regime.”
“Their mining of inert materials from the Gumista River construction projects related to the Sochi Olympics has resulted in landslides and degradation of the microclimate,” he said while addressing the conference.
“Their illegal search for oil in the Black Sea, in the territorial waters of Georgia, is done in a total blackout, without any legitimate authority being able to check the impact on the environment,” Saakashvili continued. “This is extremely alarming. What is most unfortunate is that we are unable to halt these disturbing practices due to the ongoing occupation and the violation of all cease-fire agreements.”
He also told the conference, that the global warming was “a challenge for humankind”.
“Our overarching goal in Georgia is to show that lowering our consumption of fossil fuels can help us increase growth-and can do so in a sustainable way,” Saakashvili said.
Remarks of H.E. President Mikheil Saakashvili:
16th Conference of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
Cancun, Mexico
8 December 2010
Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen,
Allow me to deliver my speech in Spanish, in honor of our Mexican hosts.
It is a great honor for me to be here at the Sixteenth Conference of the Parties of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
I will try to share with you Georgia's vision on how a little country like ours can be a laboratory for how to confront climate change and work on sustainable development.
But first, allow me to thank our Mexican hosts and all of you for the progress made during the conference.
There were fears that Cancun, after the disappointment of Copenhagen, would be a summit marked by little hope and low aspirations.
We must congratulate the Mexican Government, and in particular the President of the Conference, Ms. Patricia Espinosa, for their extraordinary work in rejuvenating these global climate talks. I also am very pleased by the appointment of Ms. Christiana Figueres as the Executive Secretary.
The conference, of course, is not over, but Cancun has the potential to mark a new beginning in our common pursuit of a low-carbon era.
We are near agreements on the REDD framework for compensating developing nations for preserving forests, as a well as on a "Green Fund" that will channel billions to poor nations to help them adapt to climate impacts, adopt low-carbon technology from developed countries, and convert to cleaner energy sources.
In a more ideal world, of course, the Copenhagen Accord would have been achieved last December and we would be gathering here in the aftermath of success.
As you know, Georgia is and remains a strong supporter of the Copenhagen Accord.
We believe that the time has past for a debate on whether the world needs to address climate change; the only question we now face is how to do so.
We also believe strongly that a low-carbon world not only benefits the environment, but also help decrease regional tensions.
After all, our country lies at a crossroads of global energy supplies, a region where oil and gas have helped fuel conflicts for more than a century. Building up local, renewable sources can help ensure that energy is not used as a political tool. Doing so in close cooperation with neighboring countries, as Georgia does, creates greater regional stability.
Immediately after Copenhagen, Georgia formally affiliated with the Copenhagen Accord and we fully support the implementation of its provisions. We also believe in the absolute necessity of continuing the UNFCCC process, and we're confident in a balanced outcome that reflects the guiding principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
in addition to the question of CO2 emmisions it is time to start working and finding solutions for other environmental and sustainibility issues.
Although Georgia is a small country, we believe we can have a large impact, especially in our region-one that has suffered from environmental degradation, as well as oppression and instability.
Ecological concerns and policies are not reserved to big and wealthy members of the Northern World: transitional democracies, emerging countries, small republics can do their part. In fact, they should see the green ambition as the key for their development and their stability.
In the global fight against climate change, these countries have a critical role to play as laboratories for innovation-testing new ideas, setting ambitious targets, and serving as a model for others.
Our overarching goal in Georgia is to show that lowering our consumption of fossil fuels can help us increase growth-and can do so in a sustainable way.
We are bringing the same resolve to this initiative as we have brought to the reform of our economy, our institutions and our political sphere.
Georgia already has taken concrete steps in combating climate change. Tbilisi, our capital, has joined the "Covenant of Mayors Initiative of the European Union" to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. It is the first capital of the region to join the initiative.
Perhaps most important, Georgia is making great strides in developing its renewable energy program. We have established a friendly investment environment that has led to billions being poured into renewable energy sources, especially hydropower.
As a result of our rapid progress, already more than 80 percent of the electricity production in Georgia comes from renewable sources. In fact, we are exporting renewable energy to our neighbors, and we will eventually transmit it through Turkey to the European Union. This will enable us to achieve our goal of establishing Georgia as the first large-scale renewable energy exporter to Europe.
Our renewable energy initiatives can be complemented by large-scale initiatives to grow our forests and advance carbon sequestration activities, both of which will need the support of the international community.
These programs could allow natural forests to constitute as much as 10 percent of Georgia's territory, offering significant economic and environment benefits. Efforts such as these also will lead to the rehabilitation of degraded soils and vegetation cover, the protection of watersheds, and greater local employment.
In addition to these evolutions, we are launching a program that will lead to a cleaner transport industry. And public institutions will play the role of example. Georgia's government will, starting from this year, replace official traditional cars by electric ones.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I cannot end my speech without noting that there are man-made challenges to our climate that would be easy to stop and that we must not ignore. I have to point there to the tragic situation of Georgia's currently occupied region of Abkhazia, where the Black Sea coast has been experiencing abrasion due to the devastating practices of the occupying power and its proxy regime.
Their mining of inert materials from the Gumista River construction projects related to the Sochi Olympics has resulted in landslides and degradation of the microclimate.
Their illegal search for oil in the Blacksea, in the territorial waters of Georgia, is done in a total blackout, without any legitimate authority being able to check the impact on the environment.
This is extremely alarming. What is most unfortunate is that we are unable to halt these disturbing practices due to the ongoing occupation and the violation of all cease-fire agreements.
Ladies and gentlemen-
Global warming is a challenge for humankind as a whole and requires a response from a united humankind.
We must act with resolve and determination, setting aside our short-term interests, our actual rivalries or tensions, and taking concrete actions for our long-term good, for the good of the generations to come.
Thank you.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Sprache: deutsch, englisch, Archiv: #
Präsident Saakashvili's Rede beim OSCE-Gipfel in Astana
01.12.2010 | Civil.ge | Link zur Quelle | Bilder | Video |
President Saakashvili's Speech at the OSCE Summit in Astana
December 1, Astana
Thank you Mr. Chairman, distinguished heads of states and governments, ladies and gentlemen, allow me first of all to thank our Kazakh hosts, and you know, I have been in the city of Astana for the first time six years ago.
This very city is a great evidence of what leadership of personalities, what historic differences it can make. And I think it is very much attribute also to the great man Nursultan Nazarbayev with very rare vision about this city, about this country, about this region.
And I think it is a great example to follow for all the others also in this region. Our common mission at the summit is to agree on a set of concrete steps to make the OSCE a true security community one free of dividing lines, conflicts, spheres of influence, a community in which human rights are respected and people live in dignity.
We need a common vision for how to enforce the principles that define the OSCE, or how to foster a cooperation to quarrel rivalries and the strategy to help us overcome the danger of tensions and the so-called frozen conflicts that undermine the stability of our common area.
I am confident that we can make a substantial progress, but we cannot do it so if we ignore the difficulties we faced to overlook the progress or the result.
35 years ago the Helsinki Final Act marked a fundamental shift in the history of international relations by affirming a set of principles to bind the behaviors of states, this included the inviolability of borders, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the territorial integrity of states and respect for international law on human rights.
Unfortunately over three decades later these principles are still being violated within the OSCE area. 11 years ago at the last OSCE summit in Istanbul we witnessed the adoption of another set of fundamental principles, embodied in the Istanbul summit declaration and a charter for the European security. What a different time it has been, I remember President Yeltsin together with President Clinton sealing up of what was the end of Cold War in the OSCE area, on withdrawal troops, on arms control, the commitments that had to be complied with. If those commitments had been upheld, my country would have been liberated from the presence of foreign troops on her soil.
Unfortunately, the time has changed, the mood has changed and Russia [inaudible] on the obligations it undertook in Istanbul both with respect to Georgia and to other states. In fact contrary to the spirit of Istanbul, Russia has dramatically increased the size of its forces illegally stationed within our internationally recognized borders.
Today more than 12 000 heavily armed troops enforced the Russian occupation of 20 percent of Georgian territory, with tanks, with missiles, with heavy artillery, this is a blatant violation of the Helsinki principles, the Istanbul declaration, international law and August 12, 2008 ceasefire agreement brokered by the European Union. If we treat these principles as dead letter, our community is destined to die as well.
By contrast, if we commit to implementing than we can make progress towards being a real security community, one in which there is mutual sympathy, trust, and sense of common interests. These commitments have to be respected in all three dimensions, not only in political, military area.
We all agree today that the human dimension is a pre-requisite for comprehensive and indivisible security. But in our case the human dimension commitment have been violated as well. In 1994- 1996 the OSCE summits in Budapest and Lisbon condemned the ethnic cleansing in Georgia and called for the safe and dignified return of IDPs and refugees.
Yet the number of IDPs and refugees in a country of less than 5 million people continue to increase, climbing up to 500 000 after the ethnic cleansing campaign of 2008. Half a million souls are thus deprived of their most basic human rights because of their origins, their nationalities, ethnicities, their faith, their political views. Human rights continue to be violated on a daily basis in the occupied regions; the OSCE has reported on this many times throughout the last two years as you all know very well.
These facts, ladies and gentlemen, must not be ignored or overlooked, and previous OSCE agreements must be fulfilled. I came here with a message of hope and a profound commitment to helping lead positive change in our security community.
We came here to tell you that these tragic facts can be reversed, that they will be reversed and that our conflict with the Russian Federation can be resolved. The way forward is through a comprehensive dialogue, not permanent confrontation.
We rely on the power of words, not of bombs. On November 23rd, one week ago I made the solemn pledge in front of the European Parliament, that Georgia would never use force to restore its territorial integrity and sovereignty; that it will only resort to peaceful means in its quest for the de-occupation and the reunification of its territory. Even if the Russian Federation refuses to withdraw the occupational forces, even if less than 20% of original population remain in the occupied areas and 80% are held back to go back to their houses, even if its proxy militias multiply their human rights violations, Georgia will only retain the right to self-defense in case of new attacks and invasion of the Georgian territory that remains under control of the Georgian government.
We have made this pledge, because we believe that peace is the only way to achieve our legitimate and legal goals.
I have just sent letters formulizing Georgia's pledge to the Secretary-General of the OSCE, UN and NATO, as well as the Presidents of the European Commission, the European Council and the United States.
I came here animated by the same spirit, reiterating my call to the Russian leadership to engage in serious negotiations, to engage in dialogue rather than in polemics. Unfortunately, despite our numerous calls Russia has not agreed to any dialogue either bilaterally or within the framework of the OSCE.
Dialogue between Moscow and Tbilisi remains one of the stumbling blocks of the Astana declaration. Yet this organization is built upon dialogue and consensus.
Last summit 11 years ago we encountered serious difference and overcame the true dialogue. We must master the same resolve today because without dialogue we will never bridge our differences. I am committed without any reservations to engage in dialogue as soon as possible as to seek peaceful solutions of our conflicts.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we all want to forge a new common space free of dividing lines, spheres of influence and intentions we have inherited from the history. We all want to have a true, security community.
We need stronger, better and more resolute OSCE, one that does not shy away from tackling the real problems and serves as forum for dialogue between partners, between all the leaders at every level. There has been a lot of arguments around the OSCE, there has been an attack on ODIHR for instance in terms of election monitoring.
It is ups and downs, we also had our arguments with them but I always believe that OSCE presence on monitoring for democratic process, election process, the whole democratic dialogue is very helpful to any country, especially for those who are coming out from cold to another kind of policy and to another sphere. Indeed, our region has been changing.
No country of the OSCE but one as well as basically no other serious country in the world recognized occupation of our regions. The region has been changing itself; the country has become more independent, more self-reliant, speaking out with their voice.
Today I was speaking with Roza Otunbayeva, who is herself a symbol of changing Kyrgyzstan, but also lots of changes in this region. I think, this is the whole change of its democratization, better security and OSCE is a very important instrument.
It was like this in the seventies, when it was in much more difficult situation of the cold war and it remains the same in today's world if we use it properly.
We must not allow the past to undermine our future, the tools we have at our disposal are dialogue and consensus.
Georgia is committed to this path and I am confident that strengthened OSCE peace and cooperation will prevail in our region.
Thank you.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Krieg-2008, Sprache: deutsch, englisch, Archiv: #
President Saakashvili's Speech at the OSCE Summit in Astana
December 1, Astana
Thank you Mr. Chairman, distinguished heads of states and governments, ladies and gentlemen, allow me first of all to thank our Kazakh hosts, and you know, I have been in the city of Astana for the first time six years ago.
This very city is a great evidence of what leadership of personalities, what historic differences it can make. And I think it is very much attribute also to the great man Nursultan Nazarbayev with very rare vision about this city, about this country, about this region.
And I think it is a great example to follow for all the others also in this region. Our common mission at the summit is to agree on a set of concrete steps to make the OSCE a true security community one free of dividing lines, conflicts, spheres of influence, a community in which human rights are respected and people live in dignity.
We need a common vision for how to enforce the principles that define the OSCE, or how to foster a cooperation to quarrel rivalries and the strategy to help us overcome the danger of tensions and the so-called frozen conflicts that undermine the stability of our common area.
I am confident that we can make a substantial progress, but we cannot do it so if we ignore the difficulties we faced to overlook the progress or the result.
35 years ago the Helsinki Final Act marked a fundamental shift in the history of international relations by affirming a set of principles to bind the behaviors of states, this included the inviolability of borders, the peaceful settlement of disputes, the territorial integrity of states and respect for international law on human rights.
Unfortunately over three decades later these principles are still being violated within the OSCE area. 11 years ago at the last OSCE summit in Istanbul we witnessed the adoption of another set of fundamental principles, embodied in the Istanbul summit declaration and a charter for the European security. What a different time it has been, I remember President Yeltsin together with President Clinton sealing up of what was the end of Cold War in the OSCE area, on withdrawal troops, on arms control, the commitments that had to be complied with. If those commitments had been upheld, my country would have been liberated from the presence of foreign troops on her soil.
Unfortunately, the time has changed, the mood has changed and Russia [inaudible] on the obligations it undertook in Istanbul both with respect to Georgia and to other states. In fact contrary to the spirit of Istanbul, Russia has dramatically increased the size of its forces illegally stationed within our internationally recognized borders.
Today more than 12 000 heavily armed troops enforced the Russian occupation of 20 percent of Georgian territory, with tanks, with missiles, with heavy artillery, this is a blatant violation of the Helsinki principles, the Istanbul declaration, international law and August 12, 2008 ceasefire agreement brokered by the European Union. If we treat these principles as dead letter, our community is destined to die as well.
By contrast, if we commit to implementing than we can make progress towards being a real security community, one in which there is mutual sympathy, trust, and sense of common interests. These commitments have to be respected in all three dimensions, not only in political, military area.
We all agree today that the human dimension is a pre-requisite for comprehensive and indivisible security. But in our case the human dimension commitment have been violated as well. In 1994- 1996 the OSCE summits in Budapest and Lisbon condemned the ethnic cleansing in Georgia and called for the safe and dignified return of IDPs and refugees.
Yet the number of IDPs and refugees in a country of less than 5 million people continue to increase, climbing up to 500 000 after the ethnic cleansing campaign of 2008. Half a million souls are thus deprived of their most basic human rights because of their origins, their nationalities, ethnicities, their faith, their political views. Human rights continue to be violated on a daily basis in the occupied regions; the OSCE has reported on this many times throughout the last two years as you all know very well.
These facts, ladies and gentlemen, must not be ignored or overlooked, and previous OSCE agreements must be fulfilled. I came here with a message of hope and a profound commitment to helping lead positive change in our security community.
We came here to tell you that these tragic facts can be reversed, that they will be reversed and that our conflict with the Russian Federation can be resolved. The way forward is through a comprehensive dialogue, not permanent confrontation.
We rely on the power of words, not of bombs. On November 23rd, one week ago I made the solemn pledge in front of the European Parliament, that Georgia would never use force to restore its territorial integrity and sovereignty; that it will only resort to peaceful means in its quest for the de-occupation and the reunification of its territory. Even if the Russian Federation refuses to withdraw the occupational forces, even if less than 20% of original population remain in the occupied areas and 80% are held back to go back to their houses, even if its proxy militias multiply their human rights violations, Georgia will only retain the right to self-defense in case of new attacks and invasion of the Georgian territory that remains under control of the Georgian government.
We have made this pledge, because we believe that peace is the only way to achieve our legitimate and legal goals.
I have just sent letters formulizing Georgia's pledge to the Secretary-General of the OSCE, UN and NATO, as well as the Presidents of the European Commission, the European Council and the United States.
I came here animated by the same spirit, reiterating my call to the Russian leadership to engage in serious negotiations, to engage in dialogue rather than in polemics. Unfortunately, despite our numerous calls Russia has not agreed to any dialogue either bilaterally or within the framework of the OSCE.
Dialogue between Moscow and Tbilisi remains one of the stumbling blocks of the Astana declaration. Yet this organization is built upon dialogue and consensus.
Last summit 11 years ago we encountered serious difference and overcame the true dialogue. We must master the same resolve today because without dialogue we will never bridge our differences. I am committed without any reservations to engage in dialogue as soon as possible as to seek peaceful solutions of our conflicts.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we all want to forge a new common space free of dividing lines, spheres of influence and intentions we have inherited from the history. We all want to have a true, security community.
We need stronger, better and more resolute OSCE, one that does not shy away from tackling the real problems and serves as forum for dialogue between partners, between all the leaders at every level. There has been a lot of arguments around the OSCE, there has been an attack on ODIHR for instance in terms of election monitoring.
It is ups and downs, we also had our arguments with them but I always believe that OSCE presence on monitoring for democratic process, election process, the whole democratic dialogue is very helpful to any country, especially for those who are coming out from cold to another kind of policy and to another sphere. Indeed, our region has been changing.
No country of the OSCE but one as well as basically no other serious country in the world recognized occupation of our regions. The region has been changing itself; the country has become more independent, more self-reliant, speaking out with their voice.
Today I was speaking with Roza Otunbayeva, who is herself a symbol of changing Kyrgyzstan, but also lots of changes in this region. I think, this is the whole change of its democratization, better security and OSCE is a very important instrument.
It was like this in the seventies, when it was in much more difficult situation of the cold war and it remains the same in today's world if we use it properly.
We must not allow the past to undermine our future, the tools we have at our disposal are dialogue and consensus.
Georgia is committed to this path and I am confident that strengthened OSCE peace and cooperation will prevail in our region.
Thank you.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Krieg-2008, Sprache: deutsch, englisch, Archiv: #
Präsident Saakashvili's Rede vor dem Europaparlament in Straßburg
23.11.2010 | Civil.ge | Link zur Quelle | Bilder | Video |
Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the European Parliament,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am humbled by the immense honor that your invitation signifies for my country and I would like to thank the Presidency of the Parliament and all the political groups for this opportunity.
I came here to deliver a message of hope and to make a solemn pledge.
I came here to affirm that peace-a just and lasting peace-is possible in my region, and that we need Europe to contribute to it.
For centuries, the Caucasian mountains have been a geopolitical mystery, a beguiling paradox-a region where individuals and souls were free, but where citizens were oppressed; where cultures were tolerant, but where governments created artificial divisions; where people never ceased to feel deeply Europeans, but where walls erected by Empires turned Europe into a faraway mirage, where men and women were striving for peace, but where wars seemed unavoidable.
I came here to tell you that we must put an end to these times, that cooperation must replace rivalry, that negotiation must prevail over the rhetoric of war.
Ladies and gentlemen, in all the troubled corners of our world, the European Parliament is a symbol of hope-the striking proof that even the cruelest of conflicts can be overcome and that peace is worth any political risk.
This very place would not exist if-in the middle of ruins, surrounded by death and legitimate claims for revenge-brave leaders did not choose to end centuries of wars by launching the most ambitious and fascinating political experiment of our time: European unification.
This Parliament-divided not by nationality, but into political groups-fulfils the vision so eloquently expressed by Victor Hugo at the 1849 International Congress of Peace in Paris.
Allow me to quote this visionary poet in his own language:
"Un jour viendra où vous toutes, nations du continent, sans perdre vos qualités distinctes et votre glorieuse individualité, vous vous fondrez étroitement dans une unité supérieure, et vous constituerez la fraternité européenne. Un jour viendra où il n'y aura plus d'autres champs de bataille que les marchés s'ouvrant au commerce et les esprits s'ouvrant aux idées. Un jour viendra où les boulets et les bombes seront remplacés par les votes, par le suffrage universel des peuples, par le vénérable arbitrage d'un grand Sénat Souverain qui sera à l'Europe ce que le Parlement est à l'Angleterre, ce que la Diète est à l'Allemagne, ce que l'Assemblée législative est à la France!"
Most of Hugo's contemporaries thought he was an infantile dreamer when he pronounced this speech and it took more than 100 years and 2 world wars for History to hear his voice.
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is high time for Hugo's voice to be echoed and heard in my region as well.
It is high time for this voice of brotherhood to overcome the sounds of canons and the calls for hatred.
It is high time for the European peace to be extended to the Caucasus.
And it is our responsibility, as political leaders, to conceive bold initiatives in order to make this happen.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Exactly 7 years ago, the Rose Revolution initiated the new journey towards the European family of an old European nation, my beloved Georgia.
On November 23rd 2003, hundreds of thousands of citizens-of all regional, religious, and social backgrounds-peacefully took over the streets and the Parliament.
They did more than overthrow a corrupt, backward-looking regime: they triggered what The Economist of London called some weeks ago a "mental revolution."
As some of you know it well in this Assembly, there has been two ways of getting out from communist regimes after the liberating collapse of USSR: the European one and the nationalistic one, the rule of law and the rule of fear. To sum up: Vaclav Havel or Slobodan Milosevic.
Once the tyranny of the Party was over, the divisions, the corruption, the verticality, the bureaucracy, the cynicism and the authoritarianism that were the pillars of the Soviet society remained.
7 years ago, Ladies and gentlemen, Georgia was formally an independent State but Georgia was still part of this world of fears and hatreds.
The borders of the soviet mentality were not abolished yet and Soviet Union was still existing in the minds and the souls.
Only a "mental revolution" could lead to a European transformation of our societies.
This is the message that we, Georgians, brought to this region. This is the message that unleashed so much anger towards us among the nostalgics of the Empire.
But this is the message that turned Georgia into a laboratory of reforms for our region.
When we led the Rose Revolution, we were members of student organizations, opposition parties, civil society groups-all united by a single dream: to turn a dysfunctional post-Soviet country crippled by corruption and crime into a European democracy.
Ladies and gentlemen, Soviet Union was based on one principle: divide to rule.
People were artificially opposed to each others, at every level of the society, in every field.
In every Republic, the different religious, social, ethnic groups were put in constant rivalry and politics was understood as an art of manipulation of fears and hatreds.
This explains why former communists leaders turned so easily into nationalists, in the Balkans as well as in the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe as well as in Russia.
7 years ago, Georgia was still divided into isolated communities fearing each other and some extremists were using the weakness of the State to reject minorities.
Our first task was therefore to embrace multiculturalism and differences.
We have developed an affirmative action program - in all spheres, from higher education to law enforcement bodies.
Soviet Union had another caracteristic: an absolute centralization.
7 years ago, Georgia was still all about its capital and we initiated a vast decentralization program, heavily invested in regional infrastructures and spectacularly empowered local authorities.
As a result, regions that were once abandoned became the most striking examples of our development.
Until the Rose Revolution, all key regional principles were appointed by the President. So - while others were restoring the famous "vertical of power", canceling the autonomy of all regions - we systematically transferred powers to regional elected bodies.
This policy recently lead to the first direct election of the mayor of Tbilisi last May and in the decision to move the Constitutional Court to the city of Batumi and the Parliament to the city of Kutaisi.
Soviet Union was all about control and corruption, an overweight and inefficient State.
Our first step was therefore to dissolve the KGB, fire the entire police forces, as well as customs officers and tax agents, but also to open up our economy and our educational system.
The vision that guided all these steps was captured by a single symbol: besides every Georgian flag, in every official building, we installed a European flag.
We did this to show where we were aiming to take Georgia with our reforms.
Of course, our peaceful revolution has had its share of failures and shortcomings.
Of course, we have made mistakes.
But, as the great inventor of "European cosmopolitism" and one of my favorite philosophers- Emmanuel Kant-wrote about the French revolution: "You cannot be ready to be free until you are free."
What Emmanuel Kant meant, Ladies and gentlemen, is that no book can teach you in advance how to govern or even behave in freedom. You can only learn this from your own successes and failures.
We have had failures and we have learnt from them, but we have also had surprising successes.
Georgia has just been singled out by the World Bank as the number 1 economic reformer in the world over the last 5 years, and now ranks 12th place in the world for the ease of doing business, number one in Eastern and Central Europe.
Once the epicenter of the post-Soviet mafia, Georgia has made more progress against corruption than any other country in the world from 2004 to 2009, according to Transparency International.
I value these rankings only because they reflect and reveal the social and moral transformation that happened in my country, the "mental revolution" to which I referred earlier.
Georgian citizens have stopped thinking of their country as a post-Soviet state. They see it, judge it, and often criticize it as a European democracy.
Such change goes far beyond the leaders and parties that led the Rose Revolution. It is something that nobody owns and nobody can suppress, neither us nor anybody else. Such revolution leads to this amazing fact in our part of the world, the fact that Institutions are systematically more popular than any political figure.
There is a great deal more to do, obviously, and we are more committed than ever to pursuing our path of reforms.
We are aware than democracy is always a work in progress.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our alternative democratic model was not welcome by everyone, of course.
It met fierce opposition among those revisionist forces who still perceive the fall of the USSR as the "worst catastrophe of the 20th century."
They imposed a full-scale embargo on my nation in 2006, deported our citizens, repeatedly bombed our territory, and finally invaded in 2008.
As I speak, these forces still occupy 20% of Georgian territory, in blatant violation of international law and of the August 12th cease-fire agreement brokered thanks to the efforts of my good friend, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was acting then as President of the European Union.
As I speak, Georgia still counts up to 500,000 IDP's and refugees who cannot return home because some people animated by an old imperialist mentality decided to welcome the 21st century by organizing ethnic cleansing campaigns and building a new Berlin Wall in my country.
How did we respond to these aggressions?
We fully implemented the ceasefire agreement and went beyond our obligations, without even once using as a pretext Russia's refusal to comply.
Last August, the head of the European Union Monitoring Mission, Hansjörg Haber, publicly praised Georgian restraint and our engagement strategy as "constructive unilateralism".
When tanks and missiles are standing at 50 kilometers of a capital, governments usually play the card of the besieged nation, proclaim that freedom is a luxury they cannot afford and start to crackdown their opposition and close their society.
We did exactly the contrary.
We are, Ladies and gentlemen, building a democracy at a gunpoint.
In front of the Iron Curtain than the occupation forces have built around the region of Abkhazia, in the small seaside town of Anaklia, a new tourism resort is being built as we speak, with beautiful hotels and sand beaches.
Some suggest that we should stop and wait until the situation is resolved and only then start building when the ground is less shaky.
Our philosophy is the complete opposite - we are constructing buildings not because they are on a strong ground but because building them will eventually make the ground stronger.
In Anaklia, a new phase of development started in 2005 after the place had been destroyed by the conflict already twice, in 1993 and 1998.
In 2008, it once again witnessed total destruction.
And few weeks after, the constructions started again.
A great poet and a famous Russian dissident, Alexander Galich, one of these 8 heroes that demonstrated on the Red Square in 68 against the invasion of Prague, wrote about Georgia:
"Прекрасная и гордая страна! / Ты отвечаешь шуткой на злословье."
Translation: "Splendid and proud country / You respond to mud-slinging by a smile"
Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the European Parliament,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am humbled by the immense honor that your invitation signifies for my country and I would like to thank the Presidency of the Parliament and all the political groups for this opportunity.
I came here to deliver a message of hope and to make a solemn pledge.
I came here to affirm that peace-a just and lasting peace-is possible in my region, and that we need Europe to contribute to it.
For centuries, the Caucasian mountains have been a geopolitical mystery, a beguiling paradox-a region where individuals and souls were free, but where citizens were oppressed; where cultures were tolerant, but where governments created artificial divisions; where people never ceased to feel deeply Europeans, but where walls erected by Empires turned Europe into a faraway mirage, where men and women were striving for peace, but where wars seemed unavoidable.
I came here to tell you that we must put an end to these times, that cooperation must replace rivalry, that negotiation must prevail over the rhetoric of war.
Ladies and gentlemen, in all the troubled corners of our world, the European Parliament is a symbol of hope-the striking proof that even the cruelest of conflicts can be overcome and that peace is worth any political risk.
This very place would not exist if-in the middle of ruins, surrounded by death and legitimate claims for revenge-brave leaders did not choose to end centuries of wars by launching the most ambitious and fascinating political experiment of our time: European unification.
This Parliament-divided not by nationality, but into political groups-fulfils the vision so eloquently expressed by Victor Hugo at the 1849 International Congress of Peace in Paris.
Allow me to quote this visionary poet in his own language:
"Un jour viendra où vous toutes, nations du continent, sans perdre vos qualités distinctes et votre glorieuse individualité, vous vous fondrez étroitement dans une unité supérieure, et vous constituerez la fraternité européenne. Un jour viendra où il n'y aura plus d'autres champs de bataille que les marchés s'ouvrant au commerce et les esprits s'ouvrant aux idées. Un jour viendra où les boulets et les bombes seront remplacés par les votes, par le suffrage universel des peuples, par le vénérable arbitrage d'un grand Sénat Souverain qui sera à l'Europe ce que le Parlement est à l'Angleterre, ce que la Diète est à l'Allemagne, ce que l'Assemblée législative est à la France!"
Most of Hugo's contemporaries thought he was an infantile dreamer when he pronounced this speech and it took more than 100 years and 2 world wars for History to hear his voice.
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is high time for Hugo's voice to be echoed and heard in my region as well.
It is high time for this voice of brotherhood to overcome the sounds of canons and the calls for hatred.
It is high time for the European peace to be extended to the Caucasus.
And it is our responsibility, as political leaders, to conceive bold initiatives in order to make this happen.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Exactly 7 years ago, the Rose Revolution initiated the new journey towards the European family of an old European nation, my beloved Georgia.
On November 23rd 2003, hundreds of thousands of citizens-of all regional, religious, and social backgrounds-peacefully took over the streets and the Parliament.
They did more than overthrow a corrupt, backward-looking regime: they triggered what The Economist of London called some weeks ago a "mental revolution."
As some of you know it well in this Assembly, there has been two ways of getting out from communist regimes after the liberating collapse of USSR: the European one and the nationalistic one, the rule of law and the rule of fear. To sum up: Vaclav Havel or Slobodan Milosevic.
Once the tyranny of the Party was over, the divisions, the corruption, the verticality, the bureaucracy, the cynicism and the authoritarianism that were the pillars of the Soviet society remained.
7 years ago, Ladies and gentlemen, Georgia was formally an independent State but Georgia was still part of this world of fears and hatreds.
The borders of the soviet mentality were not abolished yet and Soviet Union was still existing in the minds and the souls.
Only a "mental revolution" could lead to a European transformation of our societies.
This is the message that we, Georgians, brought to this region. This is the message that unleashed so much anger towards us among the nostalgics of the Empire.
But this is the message that turned Georgia into a laboratory of reforms for our region.
When we led the Rose Revolution, we were members of student organizations, opposition parties, civil society groups-all united by a single dream: to turn a dysfunctional post-Soviet country crippled by corruption and crime into a European democracy.
Ladies and gentlemen, Soviet Union was based on one principle: divide to rule.
People were artificially opposed to each others, at every level of the society, in every field.
In every Republic, the different religious, social, ethnic groups were put in constant rivalry and politics was understood as an art of manipulation of fears and hatreds.
This explains why former communists leaders turned so easily into nationalists, in the Balkans as well as in the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe as well as in Russia.
7 years ago, Georgia was still divided into isolated communities fearing each other and some extremists were using the weakness of the State to reject minorities.
Our first task was therefore to embrace multiculturalism and differences.
We have developed an affirmative action program - in all spheres, from higher education to law enforcement bodies.
Soviet Union had another caracteristic: an absolute centralization.
7 years ago, Georgia was still all about its capital and we initiated a vast decentralization program, heavily invested in regional infrastructures and spectacularly empowered local authorities.
As a result, regions that were once abandoned became the most striking examples of our development.
Until the Rose Revolution, all key regional principles were appointed by the President. So - while others were restoring the famous "vertical of power", canceling the autonomy of all regions - we systematically transferred powers to regional elected bodies.
This policy recently lead to the first direct election of the mayor of Tbilisi last May and in the decision to move the Constitutional Court to the city of Batumi and the Parliament to the city of Kutaisi.
Soviet Union was all about control and corruption, an overweight and inefficient State.
Our first step was therefore to dissolve the KGB, fire the entire police forces, as well as customs officers and tax agents, but also to open up our economy and our educational system.
The vision that guided all these steps was captured by a single symbol: besides every Georgian flag, in every official building, we installed a European flag.
We did this to show where we were aiming to take Georgia with our reforms.
Of course, our peaceful revolution has had its share of failures and shortcomings.
Of course, we have made mistakes.
But, as the great inventor of "European cosmopolitism" and one of my favorite philosophers- Emmanuel Kant-wrote about the French revolution: "You cannot be ready to be free until you are free."
What Emmanuel Kant meant, Ladies and gentlemen, is that no book can teach you in advance how to govern or even behave in freedom. You can only learn this from your own successes and failures.
We have had failures and we have learnt from them, but we have also had surprising successes.
Georgia has just been singled out by the World Bank as the number 1 economic reformer in the world over the last 5 years, and now ranks 12th place in the world for the ease of doing business, number one in Eastern and Central Europe.
Once the epicenter of the post-Soviet mafia, Georgia has made more progress against corruption than any other country in the world from 2004 to 2009, according to Transparency International.
I value these rankings only because they reflect and reveal the social and moral transformation that happened in my country, the "mental revolution" to which I referred earlier.
Georgian citizens have stopped thinking of their country as a post-Soviet state. They see it, judge it, and often criticize it as a European democracy.
Such change goes far beyond the leaders and parties that led the Rose Revolution. It is something that nobody owns and nobody can suppress, neither us nor anybody else. Such revolution leads to this amazing fact in our part of the world, the fact that Institutions are systematically more popular than any political figure.
There is a great deal more to do, obviously, and we are more committed than ever to pursuing our path of reforms.
We are aware than democracy is always a work in progress.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our alternative democratic model was not welcome by everyone, of course.
It met fierce opposition among those revisionist forces who still perceive the fall of the USSR as the "worst catastrophe of the 20th century."
They imposed a full-scale embargo on my nation in 2006, deported our citizens, repeatedly bombed our territory, and finally invaded in 2008.
As I speak, these forces still occupy 20% of Georgian territory, in blatant violation of international law and of the August 12th cease-fire agreement brokered thanks to the efforts of my good friend, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was acting then as President of the European Union.
As I speak, Georgia still counts up to 500,000 IDP's and refugees who cannot return home because some people animated by an old imperialist mentality decided to welcome the 21st century by organizing ethnic cleansing campaigns and building a new Berlin Wall in my country.
How did we respond to these aggressions?
We fully implemented the ceasefire agreement and went beyond our obligations, without even once using as a pretext Russia's refusal to comply.
Last August, the head of the European Union Monitoring Mission, Hansjörg Haber, publicly praised Georgian restraint and our engagement strategy as "constructive unilateralism".
When tanks and missiles are standing at 50 kilometers of a capital, governments usually play the card of the besieged nation, proclaim that freedom is a luxury they cannot afford and start to crackdown their opposition and close their society.
We did exactly the contrary.
We are, Ladies and gentlemen, building a democracy at a gunpoint.
In front of the Iron Curtain than the occupation forces have built around the region of Abkhazia, in the small seaside town of Anaklia, a new tourism resort is being built as we speak, with beautiful hotels and sand beaches.
Some suggest that we should stop and wait until the situation is resolved and only then start building when the ground is less shaky.
Our philosophy is the complete opposite - we are constructing buildings not because they are on a strong ground but because building them will eventually make the ground stronger.
In Anaklia, a new phase of development started in 2005 after the place had been destroyed by the conflict already twice, in 1993 and 1998.
In 2008, it once again witnessed total destruction.
And few weeks after, the constructions started again.
A great poet and a famous Russian dissident, Alexander Galich, one of these 8 heroes that demonstrated on the Red Square in 68 against the invasion of Prague, wrote about Georgia:
"Прекрасная и гордая страна! / Ты отвечаешь шуткой на злословье."
Translation: "Splendid and proud country / You respond to mud-slinging by a smile"
Last time I visited Anaklia I saw a row of discotheques as lively as you can see anywhere in Europe, where young people danced just like they would do in Ibiza or Saint-Tropez.
The only difference was that after the last disco on the beech there is a wall that the occupying army has erected.
Let me ask you: what is more absurd than a New Berlin Wall on a sandy beech?
Ladies and gentlemen,
In short, we understand that peace is in our supreme interest and we are convinced there is no alternative to peace.
By jeopardizing peace, we would place at risk everything we have achieved and everything we want to achieve in the coming years.
And so I came here to announce a new step in our policy of constructive unilateralism.
I am here to take an initiative that, I hope and with your help, will defuse the tensions and allow serious negotiations to start.
Before coming, I reflected a lot and also consulted with our European and American allies.
The Georgian government already considers itself bound by the August 12th ceasefire agreement and has always understood that this ceasefire clearly prohibits the use of force.
But-in order to prove that Georgia is definitively committed to a peaceful resolution of its conflict with the Russian Federation-we take today the unilateral initiative to declare that Georgia will never use force to restore its territorial integrity and sovereignty, that it will only resort to peaceful means in its quest for de-occupation and reunification.
Even if the Russian Federation refuses to withdraw its occupation forces, even if its proxy militias multiply their human rights violations, Georgia will only retain the right to self-defense in the case of new attacks and invasion of the 80% of the Georgian territory that remains under control of the Georgian government.
I will address the relevant letters to the Secretary General of the United Nations, the Secretary General of the OSCE, and the leadership of the European Union, stating clearly that we commit ourselves not to use force in order to reunite our illegally divided country, neither against the occupation forces, nor against their proxies, even though the UN Charter could allow us to do so.
My pledge here, in front of you, constitutes a unilateral declaration of a state under international law.
This initiative, Ladies and gentlemen, is far from an easy one for a country that is partially occupied and that counts 500 000 IDPs and refugees.
It continues and expands our policy of "constructive unilateralism."
I am, ladies and gentlemen, ready for a deep and comprehensive dialogue with my Russian counterpart.
We will of course continue to participate in the Geneva talks, hoping that our pledge today will persuade the Russian Federation to stop blocking these discussions.
But we need the political dialogue to start as well.
And for this to occur, the international community must make clear to the Russian leaders that the situation today is totally irregular and unsustainable.
In order to push them to discuss a compromise, its is essential to clearly state the reality of the situation on the ground.
This is why we are asking that the Russian military buildup within the international borders of Georgia be qualified as an illegal occupation of a sovereign territory. Many European nations, as well as the United States, already have done so.
Equally, the brutal campaigns that have expelled hundreds of thousands of Georgian citizens from the occupied territories should be qualified as illegal acts of ethnic cleansing.
If we fail to denounce this ethnic cleansing, why would the occupiers ever even consider allowing them to return to their homes and villages?
Ladies and gentlemen, if the first victim of war is always the truth, the truth is always the most solid foundation of peace.
Our constructive unilateralism and the pledge I have just made will not have the expected impact if our European friends do not speak out the truth-if you do not speak out the truth."
I came here today, humbly, to tell you that we depend on you.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our region has known too many wars in recent History. It is time, to paraphrase Hugo once again, to replace canons with roundtables.
Our region has had its own Warsaw, its own Coventry, its own Oradour-Sur-Glane, and it is time to build on our common rejection of war and destruction.
It is time to say that we must never have another Grozny- a regional capital of 400 000 inhabitants that has been totally wiped out from the surface of the globe.
It is time to say that we must never see again people expelled from their homes or deported on the basis of their nationality, their faith or their origins, as it happened in my own country as well as in other countries of the region.
I am ready to work with the Russian leadership so that this does not happen ever again, so that the consequences of war are reversed and the conditions for peace are established.
Walls like the one dividing Georgia will not be brought down by bombs, but by the commitment of citizens to build a free, united country-and by the commitment of the world community to enforce international law.
It is noticeable that, despite enormous pressure and multiple threats from Moscow, not a single former Soviet republic has recognized the dismemberment of Georgia.
It shows-to the great surprise and fury of some people-that the old times are definitely over.
It shows that the former captive nations of Soviet times have become strong, independent states that determine their own policies.
No one, in short, is going back to the USSR.
Ladies and gentlemen, our region has made its choice.
A war has been launched to stop this movement, but tanks cannot reverse the sense of History and it is time for the long and dolorous hangover of imperialism to end, peacefully.
I call, therefore, on the Russian leaders to make the choice of the future.
They could play such a major positive role in the ongoing transformation of our common region, accepting other countries as partners and not vassals.
We all want-I personally want-Russia as a partner and not as an enemy.
Nobody has a greater stake than us in seeing Russia turn into a country that truly operates within the concert of nations, respects international law, and-this is often connected-upholds basic human rights.
This is why I wholeheartedly support the efforts of European and American leaders to strengthen their relationship with Russia.
Our conflict has done nothing to harden feelings between our two peoples: I want to tell the Russian people that they will always be welcome in Georgia, as partners, as tourists, as students, as businessmen, as journalists or simply as friends. Not as occupation forces.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to end this speech with a quote from the President of the first Georgian Republic, Noe Zhordania.
As you might know, Georgia was the first European social-democratic republic ever proclaimed in 1918.
A few days before the Red Army invaded his Georgia, Zhordania explained our European choice:
"What do we take from the cultural bow of European nations? Only 2000 years old national culture, democratic system and natural wealth."
Today, another Georgian President addresses you, with the same message of love for the European ideas and values.
It is rare that a nation is given twice in History the same opportunity.
I came here today to tell you that we will seize this opportunity and do whatever we can to achieve our European destiny.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Krieg-2008, Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the European Parliament,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am humbled by the immense honor that your invitation signifies for my country and I would like to thank the Presidency of the Parliament and all the political groups for this opportunity.
I came here to deliver a message of hope and to make a solemn pledge.
I came here to affirm that peace-a just and lasting peace-is possible in my region, and that we need Europe to contribute to it.
For centuries, the Caucasian mountains have been a geopolitical mystery, a beguiling paradox-a region where individuals and souls were free, but where citizens were oppressed; where cultures were tolerant, but where governments created artificial divisions; where people never ceased to feel deeply Europeans, but where walls erected by Empires turned Europe into a faraway mirage, where men and women were striving for peace, but where wars seemed unavoidable.
I came here to tell you that we must put an end to these times, that cooperation must replace rivalry, that negotiation must prevail over the rhetoric of war.
Ladies and gentlemen, in all the troubled corners of our world, the European Parliament is a symbol of hope-the striking proof that even the cruelest of conflicts can be overcome and that peace is worth any political risk.
This very place would not exist if-in the middle of ruins, surrounded by death and legitimate claims for revenge-brave leaders did not choose to end centuries of wars by launching the most ambitious and fascinating political experiment of our time: European unification.
This Parliament-divided not by nationality, but into political groups-fulfils the vision so eloquently expressed by Victor Hugo at the 1849 International Congress of Peace in Paris.
Allow me to quote this visionary poet in his own language:
"Un jour viendra où vous toutes, nations du continent, sans perdre vos qualités distinctes et votre glorieuse individualité, vous vous fondrez étroitement dans une unité supérieure, et vous constituerez la fraternité européenne. Un jour viendra où il n'y aura plus d'autres champs de bataille que les marchés s'ouvrant au commerce et les esprits s'ouvrant aux idées. Un jour viendra où les boulets et les bombes seront remplacés par les votes, par le suffrage universel des peuples, par le vénérable arbitrage d'un grand Sénat Souverain qui sera à l'Europe ce que le Parlement est à l'Angleterre, ce que la Diète est à l'Allemagne, ce que l'Assemblée législative est à la France!"
Most of Hugo's contemporaries thought he was an infantile dreamer when he pronounced this speech and it took more than 100 years and 2 world wars for History to hear his voice.
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is high time for Hugo's voice to be echoed and heard in my region as well.
It is high time for this voice of brotherhood to overcome the sounds of canons and the calls for hatred.
It is high time for the European peace to be extended to the Caucasus.
And it is our responsibility, as political leaders, to conceive bold initiatives in order to make this happen.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Exactly 7 years ago, the Rose Revolution initiated the new journey towards the European family of an old European nation, my beloved Georgia.
On November 23rd 2003, hundreds of thousands of citizens-of all regional, religious, and social backgrounds-peacefully took over the streets and the Parliament.
They did more than overthrow a corrupt, backward-looking regime: they triggered what The Economist of London called some weeks ago a "mental revolution."
As some of you know it well in this Assembly, there has been two ways of getting out from communist regimes after the liberating collapse of USSR: the European one and the nationalistic one, the rule of law and the rule of fear. To sum up: Vaclav Havel or Slobodan Milosevic.
Once the tyranny of the Party was over, the divisions, the corruption, the verticality, the bureaucracy, the cynicism and the authoritarianism that were the pillars of the Soviet society remained.
7 years ago, Ladies and gentlemen, Georgia was formally an independent State but Georgia was still part of this world of fears and hatreds.
The borders of the soviet mentality were not abolished yet and Soviet Union was still existing in the minds and the souls.
Only a "mental revolution" could lead to a European transformation of our societies.
This is the message that we, Georgians, brought to this region. This is the message that unleashed so much anger towards us among the nostalgics of the Empire.
But this is the message that turned Georgia into a laboratory of reforms for our region.
When we led the Rose Revolution, we were members of student organizations, opposition parties, civil society groups-all united by a single dream: to turn a dysfunctional post-Soviet country crippled by corruption and crime into a European democracy.
Ladies and gentlemen, Soviet Union was based on one principle: divide to rule.
People were artificially opposed to each others, at every level of the society, in every field.
In every Republic, the different religious, social, ethnic groups were put in constant rivalry and politics was understood as an art of manipulation of fears and hatreds.
This explains why former communists leaders turned so easily into nationalists, in the Balkans as well as in the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe as well as in Russia.
7 years ago, Georgia was still divided into isolated communities fearing each other and some extremists were using the weakness of the State to reject minorities.
Our first task was therefore to embrace multiculturalism and differences.
We have developed an affirmative action program - in all spheres, from higher education to law enforcement bodies.
Soviet Union had another caracteristic: an absolute centralization.
7 years ago, Georgia was still all about its capital and we initiated a vast decentralization program, heavily invested in regional infrastructures and spectacularly empowered local authorities.
As a result, regions that were once abandoned became the most striking examples of our development.
Until the Rose Revolution, all key regional principles were appointed by the President. So - while others were restoring the famous "vertical of power", canceling the autonomy of all regions - we systematically transferred powers to regional elected bodies.
This policy recently lead to the first direct election of the mayor of Tbilisi last May and in the decision to move the Constitutional Court to the city of Batumi and the Parliament to the city of Kutaisi.
Soviet Union was all about control and corruption, an overweight and inefficient State.
Our first step was therefore to dissolve the KGB, fire the entire police forces, as well as customs officers and tax agents, but also to open up our economy and our educational system.
The vision that guided all these steps was captured by a single symbol: besides every Georgian flag, in every official building, we installed a European flag.
We did this to show where we were aiming to take Georgia with our reforms.
Of course, our peaceful revolution has had its share of failures and shortcomings.
Of course, we have made mistakes.
But, as the great inventor of "European cosmopolitism" and one of my favorite philosophers- Emmanuel Kant-wrote about the French revolution: "You cannot be ready to be free until you are free."
What Emmanuel Kant meant, Ladies and gentlemen, is that no book can teach you in advance how to govern or even behave in freedom. You can only learn this from your own successes and failures.
We have had failures and we have learnt from them, but we have also had surprising successes.
Georgia has just been singled out by the World Bank as the number 1 economic reformer in the world over the last 5 years, and now ranks 12th place in the world for the ease of doing business, number one in Eastern and Central Europe.
Once the epicenter of the post-Soviet mafia, Georgia has made more progress against corruption than any other country in the world from 2004 to 2009, according to Transparency International.
I value these rankings only because they reflect and reveal the social and moral transformation that happened in my country, the "mental revolution" to which I referred earlier.
Georgian citizens have stopped thinking of their country as a post-Soviet state. They see it, judge it, and often criticize it as a European democracy.
Such change goes far beyond the leaders and parties that led the Rose Revolution. It is something that nobody owns and nobody can suppress, neither us nor anybody else. Such revolution leads to this amazing fact in our part of the world, the fact that Institutions are systematically more popular than any political figure.
There is a great deal more to do, obviously, and we are more committed than ever to pursuing our path of reforms.
We are aware than democracy is always a work in progress.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our alternative democratic model was not welcome by everyone, of course.
It met fierce opposition among those revisionist forces who still perceive the fall of the USSR as the "worst catastrophe of the 20th century."
They imposed a full-scale embargo on my nation in 2006, deported our citizens, repeatedly bombed our territory, and finally invaded in 2008.
As I speak, these forces still occupy 20% of Georgian territory, in blatant violation of international law and of the August 12th cease-fire agreement brokered thanks to the efforts of my good friend, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was acting then as President of the European Union.
As I speak, Georgia still counts up to 500,000 IDP's and refugees who cannot return home because some people animated by an old imperialist mentality decided to welcome the 21st century by organizing ethnic cleansing campaigns and building a new Berlin Wall in my country.
How did we respond to these aggressions?
We fully implemented the ceasefire agreement and went beyond our obligations, without even once using as a pretext Russia's refusal to comply.
Last August, the head of the European Union Monitoring Mission, Hansjörg Haber, publicly praised Georgian restraint and our engagement strategy as "constructive unilateralism".
When tanks and missiles are standing at 50 kilometers of a capital, governments usually play the card of the besieged nation, proclaim that freedom is a luxury they cannot afford and start to crackdown their opposition and close their society.
We did exactly the contrary.
We are, Ladies and gentlemen, building a democracy at a gunpoint.
In front of the Iron Curtain than the occupation forces have built around the region of Abkhazia, in the small seaside town of Anaklia, a new tourism resort is being built as we speak, with beautiful hotels and sand beaches.
Some suggest that we should stop and wait until the situation is resolved and only then start building when the ground is less shaky.
Our philosophy is the complete opposite - we are constructing buildings not because they are on a strong ground but because building them will eventually make the ground stronger.
In Anaklia, a new phase of development started in 2005 after the place had been destroyed by the conflict already twice, in 1993 and 1998.
In 2008, it once again witnessed total destruction.
And few weeks after, the constructions started again.
A great poet and a famous Russian dissident, Alexander Galich, one of these 8 heroes that demonstrated on the Red Square in 68 against the invasion of Prague, wrote about Georgia:
"Прекрасная и гордая страна! / Ты отвечаешь шуткой на злословье."
Translation: "Splendid and proud country / You respond to mud-slinging by a smile"
Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the European Parliament,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am humbled by the immense honor that your invitation signifies for my country and I would like to thank the Presidency of the Parliament and all the political groups for this opportunity.
I came here to deliver a message of hope and to make a solemn pledge.
I came here to affirm that peace-a just and lasting peace-is possible in my region, and that we need Europe to contribute to it.
For centuries, the Caucasian mountains have been a geopolitical mystery, a beguiling paradox-a region where individuals and souls were free, but where citizens were oppressed; where cultures were tolerant, but where governments created artificial divisions; where people never ceased to feel deeply Europeans, but where walls erected by Empires turned Europe into a faraway mirage, where men and women were striving for peace, but where wars seemed unavoidable.
I came here to tell you that we must put an end to these times, that cooperation must replace rivalry, that negotiation must prevail over the rhetoric of war.
Ladies and gentlemen, in all the troubled corners of our world, the European Parliament is a symbol of hope-the striking proof that even the cruelest of conflicts can be overcome and that peace is worth any political risk.
This very place would not exist if-in the middle of ruins, surrounded by death and legitimate claims for revenge-brave leaders did not choose to end centuries of wars by launching the most ambitious and fascinating political experiment of our time: European unification.
This Parliament-divided not by nationality, but into political groups-fulfils the vision so eloquently expressed by Victor Hugo at the 1849 International Congress of Peace in Paris.
Allow me to quote this visionary poet in his own language:
"Un jour viendra où vous toutes, nations du continent, sans perdre vos qualités distinctes et votre glorieuse individualité, vous vous fondrez étroitement dans une unité supérieure, et vous constituerez la fraternité européenne. Un jour viendra où il n'y aura plus d'autres champs de bataille que les marchés s'ouvrant au commerce et les esprits s'ouvrant aux idées. Un jour viendra où les boulets et les bombes seront remplacés par les votes, par le suffrage universel des peuples, par le vénérable arbitrage d'un grand Sénat Souverain qui sera à l'Europe ce que le Parlement est à l'Angleterre, ce que la Diète est à l'Allemagne, ce que l'Assemblée législative est à la France!"
Most of Hugo's contemporaries thought he was an infantile dreamer when he pronounced this speech and it took more than 100 years and 2 world wars for History to hear his voice.
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is high time for Hugo's voice to be echoed and heard in my region as well.
It is high time for this voice of brotherhood to overcome the sounds of canons and the calls for hatred.
It is high time for the European peace to be extended to the Caucasus.
And it is our responsibility, as political leaders, to conceive bold initiatives in order to make this happen.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Exactly 7 years ago, the Rose Revolution initiated the new journey towards the European family of an old European nation, my beloved Georgia.
On November 23rd 2003, hundreds of thousands of citizens-of all regional, religious, and social backgrounds-peacefully took over the streets and the Parliament.
They did more than overthrow a corrupt, backward-looking regime: they triggered what The Economist of London called some weeks ago a "mental revolution."
As some of you know it well in this Assembly, there has been two ways of getting out from communist regimes after the liberating collapse of USSR: the European one and the nationalistic one, the rule of law and the rule of fear. To sum up: Vaclav Havel or Slobodan Milosevic.
Once the tyranny of the Party was over, the divisions, the corruption, the verticality, the bureaucracy, the cynicism and the authoritarianism that were the pillars of the Soviet society remained.
7 years ago, Ladies and gentlemen, Georgia was formally an independent State but Georgia was still part of this world of fears and hatreds.
The borders of the soviet mentality were not abolished yet and Soviet Union was still existing in the minds and the souls.
Only a "mental revolution" could lead to a European transformation of our societies.
This is the message that we, Georgians, brought to this region. This is the message that unleashed so much anger towards us among the nostalgics of the Empire.
But this is the message that turned Georgia into a laboratory of reforms for our region.
When we led the Rose Revolution, we were members of student organizations, opposition parties, civil society groups-all united by a single dream: to turn a dysfunctional post-Soviet country crippled by corruption and crime into a European democracy.
Ladies and gentlemen, Soviet Union was based on one principle: divide to rule.
People were artificially opposed to each others, at every level of the society, in every field.
In every Republic, the different religious, social, ethnic groups were put in constant rivalry and politics was understood as an art of manipulation of fears and hatreds.
This explains why former communists leaders turned so easily into nationalists, in the Balkans as well as in the Caucasus, in Eastern Europe as well as in Russia.
7 years ago, Georgia was still divided into isolated communities fearing each other and some extremists were using the weakness of the State to reject minorities.
Our first task was therefore to embrace multiculturalism and differences.
We have developed an affirmative action program - in all spheres, from higher education to law enforcement bodies.
Soviet Union had another caracteristic: an absolute centralization.
7 years ago, Georgia was still all about its capital and we initiated a vast decentralization program, heavily invested in regional infrastructures and spectacularly empowered local authorities.
As a result, regions that were once abandoned became the most striking examples of our development.
Until the Rose Revolution, all key regional principles were appointed by the President. So - while others were restoring the famous "vertical of power", canceling the autonomy of all regions - we systematically transferred powers to regional elected bodies.
This policy recently lead to the first direct election of the mayor of Tbilisi last May and in the decision to move the Constitutional Court to the city of Batumi and the Parliament to the city of Kutaisi.
Soviet Union was all about control and corruption, an overweight and inefficient State.
Our first step was therefore to dissolve the KGB, fire the entire police forces, as well as customs officers and tax agents, but also to open up our economy and our educational system.
The vision that guided all these steps was captured by a single symbol: besides every Georgian flag, in every official building, we installed a European flag.
We did this to show where we were aiming to take Georgia with our reforms.
Of course, our peaceful revolution has had its share of failures and shortcomings.
Of course, we have made mistakes.
But, as the great inventor of "European cosmopolitism" and one of my favorite philosophers- Emmanuel Kant-wrote about the French revolution: "You cannot be ready to be free until you are free."
What Emmanuel Kant meant, Ladies and gentlemen, is that no book can teach you in advance how to govern or even behave in freedom. You can only learn this from your own successes and failures.
We have had failures and we have learnt from them, but we have also had surprising successes.
Georgia has just been singled out by the World Bank as the number 1 economic reformer in the world over the last 5 years, and now ranks 12th place in the world for the ease of doing business, number one in Eastern and Central Europe.
Once the epicenter of the post-Soviet mafia, Georgia has made more progress against corruption than any other country in the world from 2004 to 2009, according to Transparency International.
I value these rankings only because they reflect and reveal the social and moral transformation that happened in my country, the "mental revolution" to which I referred earlier.
Georgian citizens have stopped thinking of their country as a post-Soviet state. They see it, judge it, and often criticize it as a European democracy.
Such change goes far beyond the leaders and parties that led the Rose Revolution. It is something that nobody owns and nobody can suppress, neither us nor anybody else. Such revolution leads to this amazing fact in our part of the world, the fact that Institutions are systematically more popular than any political figure.
There is a great deal more to do, obviously, and we are more committed than ever to pursuing our path of reforms.
We are aware than democracy is always a work in progress.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our alternative democratic model was not welcome by everyone, of course.
It met fierce opposition among those revisionist forces who still perceive the fall of the USSR as the "worst catastrophe of the 20th century."
They imposed a full-scale embargo on my nation in 2006, deported our citizens, repeatedly bombed our territory, and finally invaded in 2008.
As I speak, these forces still occupy 20% of Georgian territory, in blatant violation of international law and of the August 12th cease-fire agreement brokered thanks to the efforts of my good friend, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was acting then as President of the European Union.
As I speak, Georgia still counts up to 500,000 IDP's and refugees who cannot return home because some people animated by an old imperialist mentality decided to welcome the 21st century by organizing ethnic cleansing campaigns and building a new Berlin Wall in my country.
How did we respond to these aggressions?
We fully implemented the ceasefire agreement and went beyond our obligations, without even once using as a pretext Russia's refusal to comply.
Last August, the head of the European Union Monitoring Mission, Hansjörg Haber, publicly praised Georgian restraint and our engagement strategy as "constructive unilateralism".
When tanks and missiles are standing at 50 kilometers of a capital, governments usually play the card of the besieged nation, proclaim that freedom is a luxury they cannot afford and start to crackdown their opposition and close their society.
We did exactly the contrary.
We are, Ladies and gentlemen, building a democracy at a gunpoint.
In front of the Iron Curtain than the occupation forces have built around the region of Abkhazia, in the small seaside town of Anaklia, a new tourism resort is being built as we speak, with beautiful hotels and sand beaches.
Some suggest that we should stop and wait until the situation is resolved and only then start building when the ground is less shaky.
Our philosophy is the complete opposite - we are constructing buildings not because they are on a strong ground but because building them will eventually make the ground stronger.
In Anaklia, a new phase of development started in 2005 after the place had been destroyed by the conflict already twice, in 1993 and 1998.
In 2008, it once again witnessed total destruction.
And few weeks after, the constructions started again.
A great poet and a famous Russian dissident, Alexander Galich, one of these 8 heroes that demonstrated on the Red Square in 68 against the invasion of Prague, wrote about Georgia:
"Прекрасная и гордая страна! / Ты отвечаешь шуткой на злословье."
Translation: "Splendid and proud country / You respond to mud-slinging by a smile"
Last time I visited Anaklia I saw a row of discotheques as lively as you can see anywhere in Europe, where young people danced just like they would do in Ibiza or Saint-Tropez.
The only difference was that after the last disco on the beech there is a wall that the occupying army has erected.
Let me ask you: what is more absurd than a New Berlin Wall on a sandy beech?
Ladies and gentlemen,
In short, we understand that peace is in our supreme interest and we are convinced there is no alternative to peace.
By jeopardizing peace, we would place at risk everything we have achieved and everything we want to achieve in the coming years.
And so I came here to announce a new step in our policy of constructive unilateralism.
I am here to take an initiative that, I hope and with your help, will defuse the tensions and allow serious negotiations to start.
Before coming, I reflected a lot and also consulted with our European and American allies.
The Georgian government already considers itself bound by the August 12th ceasefire agreement and has always understood that this ceasefire clearly prohibits the use of force.
But-in order to prove that Georgia is definitively committed to a peaceful resolution of its conflict with the Russian Federation-we take today the unilateral initiative to declare that Georgia will never use force to restore its territorial integrity and sovereignty, that it will only resort to peaceful means in its quest for de-occupation and reunification.
Even if the Russian Federation refuses to withdraw its occupation forces, even if its proxy militias multiply their human rights violations, Georgia will only retain the right to self-defense in the case of new attacks and invasion of the 80% of the Georgian territory that remains under control of the Georgian government.
I will address the relevant letters to the Secretary General of the United Nations, the Secretary General of the OSCE, and the leadership of the European Union, stating clearly that we commit ourselves not to use force in order to reunite our illegally divided country, neither against the occupation forces, nor against their proxies, even though the UN Charter could allow us to do so.
My pledge here, in front of you, constitutes a unilateral declaration of a state under international law.
This initiative, Ladies and gentlemen, is far from an easy one for a country that is partially occupied and that counts 500 000 IDPs and refugees.
It continues and expands our policy of "constructive unilateralism."
I am, ladies and gentlemen, ready for a deep and comprehensive dialogue with my Russian counterpart.
We will of course continue to participate in the Geneva talks, hoping that our pledge today will persuade the Russian Federation to stop blocking these discussions.
But we need the political dialogue to start as well.
And for this to occur, the international community must make clear to the Russian leaders that the situation today is totally irregular and unsustainable.
In order to push them to discuss a compromise, its is essential to clearly state the reality of the situation on the ground.
This is why we are asking that the Russian military buildup within the international borders of Georgia be qualified as an illegal occupation of a sovereign territory. Many European nations, as well as the United States, already have done so.
Equally, the brutal campaigns that have expelled hundreds of thousands of Georgian citizens from the occupied territories should be qualified as illegal acts of ethnic cleansing.
If we fail to denounce this ethnic cleansing, why would the occupiers ever even consider allowing them to return to their homes and villages?
Ladies and gentlemen, if the first victim of war is always the truth, the truth is always the most solid foundation of peace.
Our constructive unilateralism and the pledge I have just made will not have the expected impact if our European friends do not speak out the truth-if you do not speak out the truth."
I came here today, humbly, to tell you that we depend on you.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Our region has known too many wars in recent History. It is time, to paraphrase Hugo once again, to replace canons with roundtables.
Our region has had its own Warsaw, its own Coventry, its own Oradour-Sur-Glane, and it is time to build on our common rejection of war and destruction.
It is time to say that we must never have another Grozny- a regional capital of 400 000 inhabitants that has been totally wiped out from the surface of the globe.
It is time to say that we must never see again people expelled from their homes or deported on the basis of their nationality, their faith or their origins, as it happened in my own country as well as in other countries of the region.
I am ready to work with the Russian leadership so that this does not happen ever again, so that the consequences of war are reversed and the conditions for peace are established.
Walls like the one dividing Georgia will not be brought down by bombs, but by the commitment of citizens to build a free, united country-and by the commitment of the world community to enforce international law.
It is noticeable that, despite enormous pressure and multiple threats from Moscow, not a single former Soviet republic has recognized the dismemberment of Georgia.
It shows-to the great surprise and fury of some people-that the old times are definitely over.
It shows that the former captive nations of Soviet times have become strong, independent states that determine their own policies.
No one, in short, is going back to the USSR.
Ladies and gentlemen, our region has made its choice.
A war has been launched to stop this movement, but tanks cannot reverse the sense of History and it is time for the long and dolorous hangover of imperialism to end, peacefully.
I call, therefore, on the Russian leaders to make the choice of the future.
They could play such a major positive role in the ongoing transformation of our common region, accepting other countries as partners and not vassals.
We all want-I personally want-Russia as a partner and not as an enemy.
Nobody has a greater stake than us in seeing Russia turn into a country that truly operates within the concert of nations, respects international law, and-this is often connected-upholds basic human rights.
This is why I wholeheartedly support the efforts of European and American leaders to strengthen their relationship with Russia.
Our conflict has done nothing to harden feelings between our two peoples: I want to tell the Russian people that they will always be welcome in Georgia, as partners, as tourists, as students, as businessmen, as journalists or simply as friends. Not as occupation forces.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to end this speech with a quote from the President of the first Georgian Republic, Noe Zhordania.
As you might know, Georgia was the first European social-democratic republic ever proclaimed in 1918.
A few days before the Red Army invaded his Georgia, Zhordania explained our European choice:
"What do we take from the cultural bow of European nations? Only 2000 years old national culture, democratic system and natural wealth."
Today, another Georgian President addresses you, with the same message of love for the European ideas and values.
It is rare that a nation is given twice in History the same opportunity.
I came here today to tell you that we will seize this opportunity and do whatever we can to achieve our European destiny.
Stichworte: Georgien, Abchasien, Süd-Ossetien, Russland, Krieg-2008, Sprache: englisch, Archiv: #
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