Another Technical meeting of IPRM held in Ergneti
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Tuesday, September 3
Another Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) meeting was held in Ergneti on September 2, and lasted for four hours. During the meeting, among several topics, closure of the entrance of Akhalgori was discussed. The Ossetian side did not confirm this information, according to IrakliAntadze, Deputy Director of the Analytical Department of the State Security Services.
According to Antadze, Georgian side once again confirmed that they do not plan removing or relocating thepolice checkpoint.
“This technical meeting was a continuation of the meeting held in Chorchana a few days ago. During the meeting, focus once again was on the ongoing events in the village of Chorchana, in Khashuri municipality… we had an exchange of views which, in my opinion, proceeded in a constructive atmosphere despite the differences betweenour positions,” noted Antadze.
As Antadze said, during the meeting, it was noted that specific steps need to be taken to de-escalate the situation on the ground. “In this context, we agreed to hold another meeting in the near future to continue our discussions on the situation near Chorchana,” stressed Antadze.
He also mentioned that the meeting was held in a constructive environment, and there was no tension nor escalations. “Although there are differences in our views, they themselves have expressed a willingness to continue the dialogue in this format,” said Antadze.
As Antadze said, the next IPRM meeting was agreed in advance to be held on October 2 and as of now, no signspoint at the participants not to attending this meeting, “so we do believe that the next meeting will be held on October 2.”
According to Antadze, the technical meeting represents one of the mechanisms of the IPRM format, like the hotline.
Regarding the issue of the fallendrone on the Georgia-controlled territory, according to Antadze, Georgian side presented the drone as a material evidence and allowed the meeting participants to see for themselves that there were no bullet marks on it, proving that it wasn’t shot down.“We gave this drone to the EU Monitoring Mission,”noted Antadze.
Few days ago, on August 29, the 95th meeting of the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanismin Ergneti failed. De-facto government of Tskhinvali imposed an ultimatum on the Georgian central government and demanded the withdrawal of the Georgian police checkpoint near the village of Chorchana, the demand was not fulfilled, as Georgian authorities said that the checkpoint was on the Georgian controlled territory.
