President Zurabishvili Says New Political Format should be created on Conflict Issues
By Gvantsa Gabekhadze
Wednesday, March 20
Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili says that it is time for a new political format to be created to discuss Georgian conflicts issues, as all of the existing formats have turned out to be useless.
Zurabishvili’s press office made the statement in response to the death of Georgian young man Irakli Kvaratskhelia in the country’s occupied Abkhazia region in unclear circumstances on March 10.
Zurabishvili believes that kidnapping and death of the Georgian citizen is a gross violation of international law and a “crime against our state”.
She thinks that the case should be discussed at all high-level meetings.
“All international formats should be used for pushing forward this issue. The president believes that it is necessary to create a new format that would provide the opportunity of holding a high-level political dialogue. Currently, we only have formats, where technical issues are discussed, and there is no political dialogue”, President’s Press Speaker Khatia Moistsrapishvili said.
Currently, Georgian conflicts issues are discussed within the international Geneva Talks and local Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meetings.
The meeting format between Georgian and Russian envoys Zurab Abashidze and Grigory Karasin is about economic issues.
The de facto authorities of Abkhazia claim that Kvaratskhelia committed suicide, an account which causes doubts in official Tbilisi.
An official conclusion has not been made so far.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry has called the incident “alarming” and vowed that the state will react should the autopsy reveal a different reason for his death.
Kvaratskhelia was buried last week in Senaki, western Georgia.
