Karasin Says Tatunashvili-Otkhozoria List May Interrupt Local Incident Mechanisms
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Friday, October 12
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gregory Karasin says that the elaboration of the Otkhozoria-Tatunashvili list by the Georgian parliament, which names the people who have violated the rights of Georgian citizens in the occupied territories of Georgia since 1990s, may interrupt the activities of the Gali and Ergneti Incident Prevention and Response Mechanisms, the local formats addressing situation in and near Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).
“By the provocative intentions of Georgians - Otkhozoria-Tatunashvili's sanction list that include some officials of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - this mechanism has unfortunately been hampered.
“All participants, including co-chairs of the Geneva Discussions, are now facing a very alarming situation, as the stubbornness of the Georgian side may disrupt this extremely important mechanism. We have called on the co-chairs to promote the search for a compromise. They promised to take such steps," Karasin said.
The government of Georgia put 33 individuals in the list in June 2018, in the wake of the brutal murder of Georgian citizen Archil Tatunashvili in the breakaway Tskhinvali.
De facto Tskhinvali government says that they will also draft such a list and will name the Georgian citizens who have violated the rights of Ossetians.
Tskhinvali and Abkhazia de facto leadership refused to participate in the recent local prevention mechanism meetings as they “protested the list.”
The central Georgian government says that more people may be added to the list and the people will face problems if they decide to enter Georgia or some other foreign states.
