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Interview of Vice Speaker of So. Ossetian Parliament Dzitsoity

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  • Interview of Vice Speaker of So. Ossetian Parliament Dzitsoity

    Regnum, Russia
    May 20 2006

    Khaindrava usually gets unmasked himself: Interview of Vice Speaker
    of South Ossetian Parliament Yuri Dzitsoity
    Read it in Russian

    REGNUM: Mr. Dzitsoity, when asked how Georgia will react to the South
    Ossetian parliament's declaration on the genocide of South Ossetians
    in 1989-1992 and its political-legal assessment, Georgian State
    Minister for Conflict Settlement Georgy Khaindrava said that he does
    not know any such body as the parliament of South Ossetian in the
    territory of Georgia. How would you comment on this statement?

    I always say that one should not ask analysts to help to unmask
    Khaindrava. One should just let him speak out. He usually gets
    unmasked himself. And what do you expect from a man who was one of
    the ideologists of the Georgian Fascism, a man who was one of the
    first ardent supporters of Zviad Gamsakhurdia (first president of
    Georgia, who started the Georgian-Ossetian conflict - REGNUM). Hence,
    in terms of morality his hands are in blood up to the elbows.
    Naturally, he looks at South Ossetia and does not see it point-blank.
    But, on the other hand, he is right - there is actually no South
    Ossetia in Georgia, there is no parliament of South Ossetia in
    Georgia. South Ossetia is not Georgia - I absolutely agree with
    Khaindrava here. South Ossetia is an independent state, consequently,
    its parliament is the parliament of an independent state.

    REGNUM: Why doesn't Georgia react to such grave charges?

    In fact, we did not expect Georgia to plead guilty of the genocide of
    the Ossetian people. Georgia is not homogenous though: there has been
    emotional reaction by Shevardnadze, who qualified the actions against
    the Ossetian people as genocide. There has been prosecutor Razmadze,
    who initiated a criminal action against Gamsakhurdia. One of the
    charges was exactly the Ossetian genocide. That is, in Georgia too
    there are sensible people. On the other hand, we don't expect the
    present Georgian authorities to give an objective assessment of what
    happened. As I have already said many of the present-day Georgian
    leaders were took part in those events, that is, in the genocide of
    the Ossetian people. They can't punish themselves, can they?

    REGNUM: Do you expect any reaction from the international community?
    For example, the head of the OSCE mission Roy Reeve just said that he
    has given relevant documents to the OSCE president...

    I thank him very much. In this light, I should note that not
    everybody has recognized the Armenian Genocide yet. It took place 91
    years ago, but neither Turkey nor many other states have officially
    recognized it to date. The point is that we take the declaration on
    the genocide and its political-legal assessment as a basis of our
    relations with Georgia. Our position is that in the 20th century
    Georgia committed two horrible genocides against the Ossetian people.
    That's why, when the international community urges us to go back to
    Georgia, we say we can't do that. All that happened is enough for the
    Ossetian people to open its eyes and to see, mildly speaking, an
    opponent in the Georgian authorities.

    REGNUM: Do you see parallel between the genocides of Armenians and
    Ossetians?

    As a matter of principle, we can draw such a parallel. On the other
    hand, there can't be precise analogues in history. The situation was
    different, the times were different, the scales are different. 1,000
    people were annihilated in South Ossetia in the 90s: among them were
    Russians and Georgians, but 98% of them were Ossetians. With the
    total population of South Ossetia being 98,000, this is 1% and, with
    Ossetians making up 68% of the total population, this is already 6%.
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