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Submitted by georgiamedia on Fri, 22/01/2010 - 16:16
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Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionEstonia’s president delivered a tough message to Georgia’s Mikheil Saakashvili yesterday – advising him to look to the long term when it comes to reunifying the country.
Yesterday, reports the Georgian Messenger, President Ilves said:
“It would not be fruitful to waste energy on problems that cannot be resolved in the near future. Georgia needs to show strategic patience and commitment to the successful construction of its country. Many countries, including Georgia’s allies, know that unfairness is always temporary. There is always a chance to change the situation. Georgia will have a chance. Just stay alert to seize the moment.”
The Estonian president’s remarks seem to echo those of the wider EU and also reflect what is meant to be the emerging official strategy of Georgia itself. But what is troubling is that all Saakashvili’s recent comments – including the speech he delivered in Estonia yesterday – suggest he has no personal commitment to a strategy of “strategic patience”.
In his lecture in Estonia – carried live on Georgian television – Saakashvili launched into another hyperbolic attack on Russia: comparing it to Nazi Germany and claiming it was dominating the global communication networks and the policy of western governments towards Georgia. He also said that Russia “will ... fight a new war” with Georgia.
You can download video (flv format) of Mikheil Saakashvili's speech, which was delivered in English, here (torrent file - the preferred way, see bottom of the page for alternative download).
The serious messages, for instance about the ethnic cleansing of occupied territories and the continued cultural and economic attacks on the Georgian population in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as the massive and continuing regional refugee crisis, get lost in the bombast and the prediction of the certainty of a new war.
Just a week after Freedom House declared Georgia was not an “elective democracy” and on the day Human Rights Watch condemned his government for human rights abuses, the Georgian president claimed his country had undergone a “radical democratic transformation”: again suggesting a failure to take responsibility for what is really happening in Georgia.
Yesterday, in Tbilisi, representatives of the United States government met with the Georgian authorities to discuss the development of the Georgian authorities’ new strategy towards the breakaway territories.
It is clear that the US side is very keen for the Georgian authorities to move in the direction which has long been suggested by figures such as Irakli Alasania of building “people to people” contacts with those living in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. But it also seems clear that the Georgian regime is finding it difficult to commit to this approach.
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[...] the Georgian International Media Centre report, the speech itself was a typical piece of Saakashvili hyperbolae: so over the top that Georgia’s real grievances were lost in the comparisons between Russia [...]
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[...] and literal senses! But the president’s love of political excess is hardly at issue – even senior Georgian officials barely bother to deny that it was Georgian armed forces who began what became the August war of 2008, merely saying that [...]
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