Sign of Cracks in Truce
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| Abashidze shows defiance again. |
On March 22 President Saakashvili gave the Adjarian leadership two days to allow his representatives to fulfill their duties, otherwise threatened to re-impose economic sanctions on restive region.
President’s two representatives to Adjara were appointed to monitor strategic port of Batumi and Sarpi customs, as envisaged by the agreement brokered between President Saakashvili and Adjarian leader Aslan Abashidze on March 18.
A deal defused, at least for a while, tensions between Tbilisi and Batumi, which escalated after armed supporters of Abashidze, barred President Saakashvili from entering Adjara on March 14.
“The agreement has been reached and provisions should be fulfilled. Otherwise, I think, everybody could see that the central authorities are able for adequate, but peaceful, measures to address the problem,” Mikheil Saakashvili told reporters, referring to three-day long economic sanctions against Adjara.
“If someone is searching for a way not to implement the agreement, it’s up to him,” Saakashvili added.
Aslan Abashidze said that he wants to appoint his representatives to another Georgian port of Poti and Vale customs checkpoint, which is another border post with Turkey outside Adjara.
However, the central authorities rejected Adjarian leader’s demands as “ridiculous.”
“Abashidze should not be talking to us in this way. It’s ridiculous for him to talk about appointing representatives…He should not compare himself to the President. He is just the head of an Autonomous Region,” Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania told reporters on March 22, while commenting on Abashidze’s demands.
Georgia has two ports – Batumi and Poti (the third is in Sukhumi, which is under breakaway Abkhazia’s control) – and two border checkpoints with Turkey – Sarpi in Adjara and Vale, outside Adjara. The port of Batumi and Sarpi customs checkpoint are two major cash rich areas in the Adjarian Autonomy, which are out of the central authorities’ control. Saakashvili seeks for control over these strategic facilities in order to monitor tax collection there.
Observers say that Abashidze’s regime, which refused to transfer taxes to the central budget for past decade, largely stands on incomes from these two cash rich facilities.
Abashidze set other conditions to the central authorities as well. He wants Tbilisi to unfreeze accounts of the Batumi-based Maritime Bank. The Adjarian authorities made all the financial transactions exclusively via the Maritime Bank. General Prosecutor’s Office demanded to freeze the bank’s accounts after it was accused of alleged money laundering.
As a result of March 18 deal Abashidze also agreed to lift the state of emergency in the region, to hold free and fair elections, to release political prisoners and disarm paramilitary forces in the region.
But state of emergency is still in force and there were no independent reports so far from the region regarding the disarmament of the paramilitary forces.
Political analysts, who described deal between Abashidze and Saakashvili as “a temporary truce” suggest that tensions in Adjara would further re-escalate after March 28 elections.
The Central Election Commission’s (CEC) March 22 refusal to prolong voter registration process in the region, as requested by the Adjarian authorities, has already caused a protest of Batumi.
The CEC Chairman Zurab Tchiaberashvili alleged that if given more time for voter registration, which aimed at compilation of voter lists, the procedure may arise involving over-inflated voter lists in Adjara; thus increasing possibility of ballot fraud in the region.
The first serious wave of war of words between Tbilisi and Batumi grew into the recent crisis. Observers foresee that March 18 agreement between the sides does not provide firm guarantees to avoid another crisis in the new future.