WAR could erupt in the Caucasus unless Russia and Georgia take affirmative steps to reduce tensions, the Patriarch of Georgia’s Orthodox Church warned last week.In a statement released on April 20, the Catholicos of All Georgia, Patriarch Iliya II stated the border dispute between the two former Soviet republics was in danger of spiralling out of control.
He asked his counterpart, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia to join him in using “the role and authority of our churches to prevent the escalation of tensions and the normalisation of bilateral relations.”
The two countries are at odds over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two northern regions of Georgia that broke away from the authority of the central government in Tbilisi following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Georgia has not relinquished sovereignty over the regions, but has been unable to put down the Moscow-backed secession.
On April 16 Russia announced it would strengthen its economic and cultural ties to the two breakaway regions and provide “complete protection” to Russian citizens resident in the country --- Moscow had previously granted Russian citizenship to residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Tensions are high as Georgian troops have been deployed along the border of Abkhazia. On April 24 an unmanned Georgian reconnaissance drone was shot down, and on the following day Russian Foreign Minister Valery Kenyaykin said his country would respond with force if Georgia invaded. "We will have to protect innocent people if they are made suffer,” he told the Itar-Tass news agency.
Georgia’s pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili responded with a call for assistance from the EU and US. "We demand that Russia stop all actions which breach Georgia's sovereignty," he said in a statement given to the press.
Foreign Minister David Bakradze said Russia had made “yet another extremely dangerous step towards the de facto annexation of integral parts of Georgia's internationally recognised territory.”
He appealed to the "entire international community" to "use all means at their disposal to stop this process of violation of Georgia's state integrity."
Upon taking office in January, President Saakashvili pledged to restore his government’s control over the territories, and pledged to return the Diocese of Sukhumi and Abkhazia from the Russian to the Georgian Orthodox Church.
In his April 20 statement the Georgian Patriarch affirmed his country’s and church’s jurisdiction over the breakaway regions. “The Georgian Orthodox Church calls unacceptable the outbreaks of separatism in any region and thinks that any support to separatism is a source of violence and aggression,” Iliya II said.
“Abkhaz and Ossetian peoples are sons of the Georgian Orthodox Church equally with Georgians, and our care for them is our major duty,” according to a translation of Iliya’s statement made by Itar-Tass.
However, the “current condition of the bilateral relations fails to meet the spirit of neighborliness and fraternity of the two peoples. Both sides have made mistakes in their attempts to normalize interstate relations,” he said.
“Bearing in mind the present tensions, I fear that the bilateral relations may reach a critical limit and plunge into controllable processes,” Iliya warned, urging Russian Patriarch Alexy to join him in brokering a peace between the two countries.
Russia’s support of the breakaway regions along its South Caucasus region has been denounced by Georgia as hypocritical, given Russia’s opposition to an independent Kosovo. Moscow has stopped short of recognizing Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries, analysts believe, for fear of encouraging secessionist groups in Chechnya and other minority regions. However, a weak and fragmented Georgia --- which was turned down for membership in NATO earlier this month due to its political instability --- is in Russia’s strategic interests, they note.
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