A former prime minister has described the conflict as a deliberate provocation aimed at dividing Georgians and Ossetians
Georgia’s former prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili has accused the National Movement party, founded by ex-president Mikhail Saakashvili, of inciting the 2008 war in South Ossetia.
He stated that the country will find the strength to apologize to the Ossetians for the “bloody conflict” and strive to restore trust and unity between the two brotherly nations.
Saakashvili, who served as president of Georgia from 2004 to 2013, formed his pro-Western party in 2001. In August 2008, he sent troops into Georgia’s breakaway region of Ossetia, shelling a Russian base which had been used by peacekeepers since 1990 – the time of the first conflict on the territory.
Moscow responded with a “peace enforcement” operation, defeating Georgian forces and recognizing the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, as a result.
Saakashvili was voted out of office in 2013 and is now serving a six-year prison sentence on charges related to abuse of power, among other offenses.
Speaking at an election campaign event in the city of Gori on Saturday, Ivanishvili, who leads the ruling Georgian Dream party, reflected on the 2008 tragedy, saying a 12-year investigation concluded that “it was “provoked by Saakashvili’s criminal regime” with “outside” assistance, and was aimed at disrupting national unity and dividing the two brotherly nations.
He claimed that numerous pieces of evidence compiled by the Georgian government have implicated the National Movement party in starting the war and committing “the worst crime.”
“We were well aware that all this was a well-planned provocation from the outside against the Georgian and Ossetian people, the purpose of which was to split our unity, destroy relations, and make us exist in conditions of endless, artificial confrontation,” Ivanishvili said.
He stressed the importance of recognizing past mistakes and restoring territorial integrity, as well as “the centuries-old brotherhood and friendship between Georgians and Ossetians.”
He also condemned the “instigator of the war” and vowed to bring those responsible for destroying relations between Georgia and Ossetia to justice.
“We will definitely find the strength to apologize for the flames which enveloped our Ossetian brothers and sisters in 2008 on the orders of the traitorous National Movement,” he continued, pledging that United National Movement officials will face a Georgian “Nuremberg process,” referring to the post-WWII trials of Nazi German war criminals.
Last month, the Georgian government said it would set up a parliamentary commission to assess the events of 2008, claiming that Saakashvili acted on instructions “from the outside,” which constitutes “a well-planned betrayal.”
The former president could face additional charges of treason, potentially leading to a life sentence.
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