Posted on 07/28/2006 11:13:33 AM PDT by sergey1973
PRAGUE, July 28, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has ordered the Abkhaz government in exile to move from Tbilisi to the Kodori Gorge. The move is a bold step toward restoring central control over the breakaway province.
The Kodori Gorge, a remote mountain valley in the northeast of Abkhazia, is the only part of the province still controlled by the Georgian authorities. Most of Abkhazia has been ruled independently of Tbilisi since achieving de facto independence in 1993.
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
Russia should cease all supporting Separatists against its Christian neighbors while simultaneously fighting Islamic Separatists-Jihadists just next door in it's own North Caucasus (Chechnya and elsewhere). I hope that some form of civilized partnership between Russia and Georgia will be restored with or without Putin and two Christian neighbors can become a barrier against spreading of Jihad in North Caucasus and the rest of Eurasia. I doubt it will be achieved under Putin, but Putin is not forever and I hope for smarter heads prevailing in Russia to start supporting Georgia that should be a natural Russian ally as a Christian and civil power.
Georgia/Abkhazia/Russia/Caucasus PING !
Putin is such a contemptible hypocrite.
BTW, I'm not especially knowledgeable about the background, and therefore don't have a firm opinion about whether these provinces should be reigned in, semi-autonomous, fully autonomous, or fully independent. It's just the intolerable hypocrisy of Putin: Doing one thing wrt to Chechnya, and interfering with his neighbors to effect the exact opposite result next door. After all, the tradition of semi-autonomy was just as long (or short) and just as strong (or weak) with respect to Chechnya as wrt to Abkhazia.
Mostly agreed. Generaly my (and common sense) position is that political borders should not be redrawn except in very special circumstances.
I fully against granting any independence to Muslim Chechnya because Muslim Chechnya surely will become a base for the international Jihadists to spread Jihad elsewhere as it did in the interim between 1st and second Chechen wars (late 1990's).
I'm also against Russian support to Abkhazia separatists. This is a clear and unfriendly act toward Russian neighbor. Russia and Georgia should be natural allies as both countries have Eastern Orthodox Christian roots and as the counterweight to spreading Jihad in Caucasus.
I would have supported granting independence to Armenia against Turkish empire at the end of WWI as a Christian ally of the Western Civilization.
I could be accused of hypocrisy too -:))), but I think double standards are normal when we are talking about civilizational struggle.
May God bless them and keep them from harm.
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