Kodori not Endangered – Special Affairs Minister Says

(Tbilisi, January 18, Civil Georgia) – “Kodori gorge is not in danger,” Special Affairs Minister Malkhaz Kakabadze stated on January 18 commenting the terms of protocol signed by the Georgian and Abkhazian sides on January 17.

According to the protocol Georgian army is to be withdrawn from the upper part of Kodori gorge in exchange of Abkhazian side pulling the military hardware out of the lower part of Kodori – the only part of the breakaway Abkhazia controlled by the Georgian government.

Parliamentarians expressed concern regarding the terms of protocol as they are against of 350 Georgian soldiers’ withdrawal dispatched to the gorge in October 2001 to defend Georgian population of Kodori.