SSG: Occupation forces erected illegal installations near Chorchana
By Nika Gamtsemlidze
Wednesday, January 15
The State Security Service of Georgia (SSG) reports that as a result of provocative activities near the village of Chorchana in Khashuri municipality, the occupation forces erected illegal installations on the territory controlled by the central government.
According to them, this process is part of the illegal activities that the occupation forces have been carrying out throughout the occupation line since 2011.
The agency said that they are consulting with international partners to hold the next Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism meeting as soon as possible to raise the issue of dismantling illegal installations.
“The hotline operates daily. All international mechanisms at our disposal are in place. International partners have repeatedly stated a consolidated position on developments in the village of Chorchana,” reads the report of SSG.
According to the Speaker of the Parliament of Georgia, “stretching wire fences and provocations, which we see every day, are in contradiction with international law. The Russian Federation will have to say no to the occupation and fulfill its obligations.”
The situation near the village of Chorchani in Khashuri municipality has escalated since late August 2019, when the occupation regime demanded from the Georgian authorities to remove the legally opened police checkpoint.
In late August, occupation forces once again started installing wire fences in the Gugutiantkari village of the Gori municipality. Despite the huge international outcry, the forces were able to cut through the land of two families living in the village, making it impossible for them to access their own properties.
While Russian officials look at this process cynically and say that the process of so-called borderization is a “myth,” hundreds of Georgian villages are being divided in the middle of the country.
The ongoing “creeping occupation” has left people without homes, and even managed to swallow numerous villages like Ditsi, Dvani, and Adzvi. The process started after the Russia-Georgian War, which was fought between Georgia, Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of so-called South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The war took place in August of 2008 following a period of worsening relations between the two countries.
The illegal process of ‘borderization’ represents a huge problem for those living near the so-called border. After the war of 2008, Georgian and Russian authorities signed a six-point ceasefire agreement. As the agreement mandates, Russian armed forces should have been “pulled back on the line, preceding the start of hostilities.” But after more than 10 years since the war, occupation forces continue the process of borderization.
