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Compiled by Etuna Tsotniashvili
Thursday, June 4
Tagliavini Commission will meet Georgian officials two months before its report is released
The Commission studying the causes of last August’s war, established by the European Union and chaired by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, will start meeting Georgian officials before releasing its final report, Rezonansi writes. Experts say the Commission’s report will be very important for internal as well as foreign politics. The authorities are very hopeful that the report will be objective.
The Commission should answer two main questions: who was the initiator of the August war and why did it happen? A similar report was released by the Georgian side last year, compiled by a Parliamentary Commission established for the same purpose. This said that Russia started the war and Georgia could not avoid it.
Political analysts say they cannot predict what kind of report Tagliavini and her Commission will present. “It is difficult to say beforehand what kind of report they will release. I think it will be subjective but there will also be some incisive paragraphs, particularly those concerning Russia. I think the EU will avoid criticising Russia severely, but the decisive issue will not be who started the war but what caused the war,” Kakha Gogolashvili, a political analyst, states.
“It is also important to know whether the war was inevitable. It will be interesting to see whether the EU says that Russia’s action was not only disproportionate but a violation of international law, and not only was the conflict illegal but the recognition of the breakaway territories of Georgia,” Gogolashvili states.
Flood victims will not be compensated
Compensation will not be given to the victims of the floods in Kakheti, Akhali Taoba reports. The municipality says it told the Governor of Kakheti two weeks ago that its own estimate put the damage at GEL 6 million, but no one will receive compensations because there is no relevant money in the local budget to pay it.
There was very big flood in Kakheti about 2 weeks ago. Two people died in Telavi as a result of it.
Georgia and Germany discuss cooperation issues
On 28-31 May Deputy Minister of Defence of Georgia Giorgi Muchaidze paid an official visit to the Federal Republic of Germany, Akhali Taoba reports, quoting the Press Centre of the MoD. Negotiations on military-political issues were conducted within the framework of the Bilateral Cooperation Plan drafted earlier between both countries’ Defence Ministries.
The German side was led by First Deputy Head of the Military-Political and Armament Control Department of the Defence Ministry of the Federal Republic, Brigadier General Hans Wierman. In the course of the meeting the parties focused their attention on the basic trends of bilateral cooperation and discussed the future prospects of this. They also addressed the top priorities and plans (Minister’s Vision) of the Georgian Ministry of Defence and considered these alongside the reforms implemented and ongoing in the Georgian Armed Forces. The overall security situation in Georgia following the August War in 2008, the involvement of Germany in international peacekeeping operations and Euro-Atlantic security issues were also discussed.
A meeting was also held with Germany’s Deputy Defence Minister Rudiger Wolf. Toward the end of the visit Giorgi Muchaidze called at the German Armed Forces Military Academy, where he spoke with Georgian students and Academy representatives.
The Commission studying the causes of last August’s war, established by the European Union and chaired by Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini, will start meeting Georgian officials before releasing its final report, Rezonansi writes. Experts say the Commission’s report will be very important for internal as well as foreign politics. The authorities are very hopeful that the report will be objective.
The Commission should answer two main questions: who was the initiator of the August war and why did it happen? A similar report was released by the Georgian side last year, compiled by a Parliamentary Commission established for the same purpose. This said that Russia started the war and Georgia could not avoid it.
Political analysts say they cannot predict what kind of report Tagliavini and her Commission will present. “It is difficult to say beforehand what kind of report they will release. I think it will be subjective but there will also be some incisive paragraphs, particularly those concerning Russia. I think the EU will avoid criticising Russia severely, but the decisive issue will not be who started the war but what caused the war,” Kakha Gogolashvili, a political analyst, states.
“It is also important to know whether the war was inevitable. It will be interesting to see whether the EU says that Russia’s action was not only disproportionate but a violation of international law, and not only was the conflict illegal but the recognition of the breakaway territories of Georgia,” Gogolashvili states.
Flood victims will not be compensated
Compensation will not be given to the victims of the floods in Kakheti, Akhali Taoba reports. The municipality says it told the Governor of Kakheti two weeks ago that its own estimate put the damage at GEL 6 million, but no one will receive compensations because there is no relevant money in the local budget to pay it.
There was very big flood in Kakheti about 2 weeks ago. Two people died in Telavi as a result of it.
Georgia and Germany discuss cooperation issues
On 28-31 May Deputy Minister of Defence of Georgia Giorgi Muchaidze paid an official visit to the Federal Republic of Germany, Akhali Taoba reports, quoting the Press Centre of the MoD. Negotiations on military-political issues were conducted within the framework of the Bilateral Cooperation Plan drafted earlier between both countries’ Defence Ministries.
The German side was led by First Deputy Head of the Military-Political and Armament Control Department of the Defence Ministry of the Federal Republic, Brigadier General Hans Wierman. In the course of the meeting the parties focused their attention on the basic trends of bilateral cooperation and discussed the future prospects of this. They also addressed the top priorities and plans (Minister’s Vision) of the Georgian Ministry of Defence and considered these alongside the reforms implemented and ongoing in the Georgian Armed Forces. The overall security situation in Georgia following the August War in 2008, the involvement of Germany in international peacekeeping operations and Euro-Atlantic security issues were also discussed.
A meeting was also held with Germany’s Deputy Defence Minister Rudiger Wolf. Toward the end of the visit Giorgi Muchaidze called at the German Armed Forces Military Academy, where he spoke with Georgian students and Academy representatives.