The leader of Abkhazian separatist regime Alexandre Ankvabi met with Geneva Co-chairs - EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the crisis in Georgia Philippe Lefort, Representative of UN Secretary General Anti Turunen and Special Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office for the South Caucasus Pádraig Murphy. 

As “Apsnipress” reported, the Co-chairmen noted that it is very important for them to have possibility of working out such key issues, within the frameworks of the Geneva talks, as the non-use of force is.

“It is very important for us. Russia has already submitted a document on the nonuse of force. There are reports that Georgia is preparing its proposal regarding this issue. Some messages that we can develop a common document are seen. We look for ways for satisfying all the parties” – Anti Turunen said.   

The Diplomats expressed hope that they will be able to continue their contacts till the political aspects will be settled.

“It must be continued, so that not to have negotiations prevented by provocations” – UN representative said.

Ankvab noted that the Geneva Co-chairs should discuss and work on this issue more with Georgian side, which, according to Ankvab, is still trying to destabilize situation in Abkhazia, especially in Gali region. 

According to “Apsnipress”, the Co-chairs offered to have the next talks in the frameworks of the Incidents prevention and response mechanisms meetings in Zugdidi, but the leader of the separatist regime refused. 

During the meeting, Ankvab spoke about decision made regarding the EU observer mission head Andrzej Tishkevich too. As it is known, Tishkevich was announced as “persona non-grata” in Sokhumi.  

Ankvabi noted, - “I am going to continue having such a reaction on behavior of international diplomats. We are not going to have contact with those people, who do not want to meet even the basic rules of ethics” – he said.

The Co-chairs of Geneva talks met with, so-called, Foreign Affairs Minister Viachislav Chirikba too, who said that in Gali, Abkhazian side stops participating in the traditional meetings of the Incidents prevention and response mechanisms till the head of EU Monitoring Mission in Georgia, Andrzej Tishkevich will not be changed.  

“We will not compromise, as we have already expressed our position clearly” – Chirikba said.

In conversation with “Apsnipress”, he talked about Abkhazian plans in the next round of Geneva talks too and said that they plan to hear definition of the term “occupation” from the Georgian side:

“With a request of Abkhazian and South Ossetian sides, the informational session on the occupation topic will be held. We want to hear, what the term “occupation” means according to the international law, as Georgians and Americans insist that Abkhazia and South Ossetia are occupied countries. We want to understand how such claims may be based on international standards. In addition, we initiated to discuss issue of Georgian neutral passports, which Georgia is trying to obtrude to other countries too. EU visa-regime policy issues will be considered there too. It is known that Europeans and Americans do not give visas to residents of Abkhazia, as in case of having Abkhazian, as well as, Russian passports. We are going to talk about it” – Chirikba said.      

internet.ge