The Red Cross exhuming mass graves near Gori and Kaspi. May, 2017 (the International Committee of the Red Cross)
There are over 2,000 people whose fate is still unaccounted for from Georgia’s conflicts in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, making it difficult for families to grieve and move on. While cross border efforts lead by the Red Cross are in full swing to find, exhume, and identify the bodies of the fallen — time is not on their side. [Read more…]
Marat Kulakhmetov (Cominf.org)
Russia appointed Marat Kulakhmetov as ambassador to South Ossetia on 23 May, replacing Elbrus Kargiyev, who had served in the post since Russia officially recognised South Ossetia’s independence in 2008. [Read more…]
Meeting in Tskhinvali (YouTube)
On 17 May, Georgian government officials criticised EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and co-chair of the Geneva Discussions, Herbert Salber, after his recent visit to South Ossetia. Salber had congratulated newly elected president of South Ossetia, Anatoly Bibilov, on his electoral victory during the meeting in Tskhinvali (Tskhinval) on 16 May.
Victory Day in Vake Park, Tbilisi (On.ge)
Victory Day on 9 May, which commemorates ‘the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War’ was widely marked across the whole Caucasus region with public gatherings, wreath-laying, and speeches. In most places, the commemorations included the Immortal Regiment, which is a public march with people holding pictures of war veterans. [Read more…]
Amra, Sukhum/i (Benedikt Harzl)
Benedikt Harzl is an Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation Fellow at the Centre for Transatlantic Relations at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC and Assistant Professor at the Russian East European Eurasian Studies Centre (REEES) at the University of Graz, Austria.
Conflicts over self-determination have been thoroughly studied. There is no shortage of works on the scope and contents of self-determination. Likewise, the thorny issue of what a ‘people’ constitutes has been widely problematised as well. Scholars have also investigated the delicate question of cases in which secession is permissible, with some advocating for ‘remedial secession’ in exceptional circumstances. However, how should the de facto states themselves — the most notorious outcomes of these secessionist conflicts in the South Caucasus — be addressed?
(newsru.com)
Anatoly Bibilov, the speaker of parliament, has won the presidential election in the de facto Republic of South Ossetia. A majority of voters also approved in the 9 April poll, adding ‘the State of Alania’ to South Ossetia’s name.
(Dominik K. Cagara/Archive)
Georgian citizen Kakhaber Kisishvili, 43, was detained twice in March for crossing the de facto border with South Ossetia on 27 March. [Read more…]
Tskhinvali (Zarina Sanakoyeva Facebook)
Supporters of the former president of the de facto Republic of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoyty, are protesting demanding the resignation of the incumbent president, Leonid Tibilov, after Kokoyty was refused registration as a presidential candidate. [Read more…]
South Ossetian military (alaniamil.org)
The Russian government officially disclosed an agreement with the de facto Republic of South Ossetia on 13 March which will lead to some South Ossetian military units becoming the part of the Russian military.
Georgian–Russian border crossing in Verkhny Lars (wikimapia.org)
Archil Sikharulidze is a researcher and co-founder at the Centre for Systemic Political Research (CSPR). He is an editor for the Georgian Journal of Systemic Politics (GJSP) and an invited lecturer at Tbilisi State University.
Discussions over whether or not Georgia should restore diplomatic relations with Russia emerge time and time again. However, arguments on both sides of the divide are naïve, misleading, and ultimately pointless.
