Georgian territories occupied by separatist and Russian forces
Russian-occupied territories in Georgia (Georgian: , romanized: ) are areas of Georgia that have been occupied by Russia since the Russo-Georgian War in 2008. They consist of the regions of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia and the former South Ossetian Autonomous Region of Soviet Georgia (currently divided between several non-autonomous administrative divisions of independent Georgia), whose status is a matter of international dispute.
Since the 2008 war and subsequent Russian military occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the Russian government, along with four other UN member states, considers the territories sovereign independent states: the Republic of Abkhazia and the Republic of South Ossetia. Before Russian occupation, the unrecognized republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia did not completely control their respectively claimed territories. Russian military bases were established in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russia does not allow the European Union Monitoring Mission to enter either Abkhazia or South Ossetia. Russia has signed agreements with the "de facto" civilian administrations of both territories to integrate them militarily and economically into Russia. Russian troops have started the process of demarcation ("borderization") along, and beyond the border between the rest of Georgia and the self-declared Republic of South Ossetia.
Both Abkhazia and South Ossetia are widely recognized as integral parts of Georgia and together represent 20 percent of Georgia's internationally recognized territory. The Georgian "Law on Occupied Territories of Georgia", adopted in 2008, criminalizes and prosecutes entry into Abkhazia and South Ossetia from the Russian side without special permission and allows only economic activity in the two territories that are in accordance with it. Georgia and many other members of the international community including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Australia, Ukraine, Turkey, Japan, the European Union, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe as well as the United Nations have recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia as occupied territories and have condemned the Russian military presence and actions there.
History.
After the Russo-Georgian War, on 26 August 2008, the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed decrees recognizing the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as sovereign states. The Georgian parliament unanimously passed a resolution on 28 August 2008 formally declaring Abkhazia and South Ossetia Russian-occupied territories, and calling Russian troops occupying forces. Russia established diplomatic relations with both Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russian troops were placed in both Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that a military presence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia was necessary to prevent Georgia from regaining control.
Russians gradually withdrew from Georgia proper after the war, but they remained in Perevi. On 12 December 2008, Russian forces withdrew from Perevi. Eight hours later, a 500-strong Russian contingent re-occupied the village, and Georgian police withdrew after the Russians threatened to fire. All Russian troops in Perevi withdrew to South Ossetia on 18 October 2010 and a Georgian Army unit moved in.
In 2009, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili mentioned in several addresses the fact that Russia was staying 40 kilometers away from Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, and aimed weapons at it.
In the province of Racha, the bridge on the road leading to the Mamison Pass on the border with Russia was blown up in June 2009 and Georgian border guards allegedly pulled back several kilometres deeper into the Georgian territory. Mamuka Areshidze, a Caucasus affairs expert, said that the pull back "could have been conditioned with the Georgian authorities willingness to prevent clashes with Russians".
In April 2010, the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament of Georgia appealed to legislative bodies of 31 countries, asking to declare Georgia's two regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia as territories under Russian occupation and to recognize that the massive displacement of civilians from those regions by Russia amounts to ethnic cleansing.
In March 2011, the Russians demanded that the village of Aibga, situated on the Psou River in the northwest part of Abkhazia, be transferred to Russia. During the existence of the Soviet Union, the village was divided into two; the southern part belonged to Georgia and the northern part to Russia. It is claimed that Russia further demanded of land near Lake Ritsa in Gagra District. After the Abkhaz side proved that the southern part of Aibga belonged to the Georgian SSR, the claim on the village was dropped by Russia.
On 11 June 2014, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili generated controversy when he told the BBC News that Russia was "not interested in annexing" Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The opposition United National Movement criticised this statement, accusing Garibashvili of failing to defend state interests on the international arena.
Russia signed "alliance and integration" agreements with Abkhazia in November 2014 and South Ossetia in March 2015. Both treaties formally placed the respective militaries of the breakaway republics under Russian command, while the agreement with South Ossetia also included provisions integrating its economy with that of Russia. The border between Russia and South Ossetia was also effectively dissolved, with customs being integrated. Georgian officials have strenuously condemned the deepening of the occupied territories' economic and military dependence on Russia, calling it "creeping annexation". Georgian officials denounced integration treaties signed between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Abkhaz and South Ossetian counterparts in 2014 and 2015 as attempts to annex the breakaway regions into the Russian Federation.
Georgian Law.
In late October 2008, president Mikheil Saakashvili signed into law legislation on the occupied territories passed by the Parliament of Georgia. The law covers the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and the territory of former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast.
In February 2013, it was reported that the Georgian Government was considering amendments to the law that would decriminalize entry into Abkhazia and South Ossetia from territories other than those controlled by Georgia and make it an administrative offence, subject to financial penalty instead of prison term.
On 16 May 2013, the amendments were made to the law on occupied territories of Georgia. Violating this law first time will entail administrative sanctions, not criminal persecution and imprisonment as it was before. According to the amendments if a person crosses the border illegally for the first time, he/she is fined for GEL 400, while repeated violation is still a criminal offense posing up to 1 year of imprisonment or minimum GEL 800 fine.
In July 2013, reports emerged that the actor Gérard Depardieu would be investigated by Georgian authorities for the violation of law. Georgian Government representative said that "Depardieu visited Abkhazia's capital, Sokhumi, and met with the region's separatist leadership on 1 July without preliminary consultations with Tbilisi."
In February 2014, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia issued a warning to the visitors of the Sochi Winter Olympics that entering Abkhazia from the territory of Russian Federation would violate an international law and that individuals going through the boundaries, uncontrolled by Georgian customs and border control, would be subject to prosecution by the Georgian justice system. The statement was a response to the earlier declaration by the de facto authorities in Sukhumi that they simplified visa rules for tourists seeking to enter Abkhazia during the Winter Olympics via the Psou border crossing point.
On 15 April 2014, after annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, Ukrainian Rada adopted the law "On Ensuring Protection of the Rights and Freedoms of Citizens and Legal Regime on the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine". The Ukrainian law is based on the Georgian law on Occupied Territories.
Overview.
According to the Georgian law titled Law on Occupied Territories of Georgia, the term "the occupied territories and territorial waters" or "The Occupied Territories" covers the territories of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia, Tskhinvali Region (territory of the former South Ossetia Autonomous Region) and waters in the Black Sea located in the aquatic territory of the Black Sea, along Georgia's state border with the Russian Federation, to the South of the Psou river, up to the administrative border at the estuary of the Engury River. The term also covers the air space over the aforementioned territories.
The law restricts free movement and economic activity in the territories. In particular, according to the law, foreign citizens should enter the two breakaway regions only from Georgia. Entry into Abkhazia should be carried out from the Zugdidi District and into South Ossetia from the Gori District.
The legislation also lists special cases in which entry into the breakaway regions will not be regarded as illegal. It stipulates that a special permit on entry into the breakaway regions can be issued if the trip there "... serves Georgia's state interests; peaceful resolution of the conflict; de-occupation or humanitarian purposes". Citizens of foreign countries and persons without citizenship having entered Georgia from Russian side through Abkhazia and South Ossetia, who seek asylum in the country, are not subject to punishment.
Any economic activity (entrepreneurial or non-entrepreneurial) is prohibited, regardless of whether or not it is implemented for receiving profit, income or compensation, if under the laws of Georgia 'On Licences and Permits', 'On Entrepreneurs', 'On Bee-Farming', 'On Museums', 'On Water', 'On Civil Registry', 'On Electronic Communications', the Maritime Code of Georgia or the Civil Code of Georgia, such activity requires a licence, permit, authorization or registration or if, under the Georgian legislation, such activity requires an agreement, but it has not been granted. Any transaction related to real estate property and concluded in violation of the Georgian law is deemed void from the moment of conclusion and does not give rise to any legal consequences. The law's provision covering economic activities is retrospective, going back to 1990.
The law prohibits international air traffic and maritime traffic (except for the cases defined in the UN Convention on Maritime Law of 1982), railway traffic and international automobile transportation of cargo. The law also prohibits the use of national resources and organization of cash transfer.
The law says that the Russian Federation – the state which has carried out military occupation – is fully responsible for the violation of human rights in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Russian Federation, according to the document, is also responsible for compensation of material and moral damage inflicted on Georgian citizens, stateless persons and foreign citizens, who are in Georgia and enter the occupied territories with appropriate permits.
The law also says that "de facto" state agencies and officials operating in the occupied territories are regarded by Georgia as illegal. The law will remain in force until "full restoration of the jurisdiction of Georgia".
Criticisms.
In 2009, the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe asked the European Commission for Democracy Through Law (Venice Commission) for an opinion on the law on occupied territories of Georgia. The Commission's resulting March 2009 report criticised the Georgian law. The law was at odds with UN Security Council resolutions that were binding both on the Russian Federation and on Georgia. The report said that the law raised concerns "with regard to humanitarian access to the conflict affected areas". The terms used in Article 2 contradicted 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Limitation on free migration "may be in contradiction with the Georgian international engagements". The Commission also stressed Georgia's obligation to respect the 1951 Refugee Convention. The commission also criticised the law's lack of clarity, saying that "the text of the law is not clear." In its aspects dealing with private property (Article 5), it might have violated Article 1 of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the principle of proportionality, as well as additionally violating further aspects of the Hague Convention (The Laws and Customs of War on Land). A restriction and criminalisation of economic activities (Article 6) was contrary to the rule of customary international law, and also the IV Geneva Convention. The Commission also recommended "the insertion of a clarifying provision" into the law regarding basic documents issued by illegal authorities concerning the personal status.
In 2012, the European Commission considered that Georgia's "continued application of the law on Occupied Territories" was a concern for the effectiveness of the "engagement strategy" with the breakaway territories, and in 2013 noted that there had been no change to the "restrictive aspects of the law" but that it hoped for a "more relaxed implementation of the Law" from the new government in Georgia.
Russian position.
Russia claims, that "Abkhazia and South Ossetia are not occupied territories, but independent States."
The Russian Federation also holds that