Sokhumi Says Tbilisi Opposition to Re-opening Sokhumi Airport “Neglects Realities on the Ground”
The “Foreign Ministry” of occupied Abkhazia released a statement on July 30, criticizing Tbilisi’s opposition to possible opening of the Sokhumi airport for international flights.
The Ministry also noted that “Georgia’s transport administration will use all the levers at disposal, including international mechanisms, to observe the ICAO and international standards.”
“It is apparent that in this particular case, we are dealing with conceptual confusion, when the interstate relations of Abkhazia with other countries are portrayed to the international community as the control exerted by Russia on “the occupied territories,” the Foreign Ministry of occupied Abkhazia said in a statement on July 30.
“In the context of this statement [of the Georgian Foreign Ministry], it is important to focus attention not on the worn out propaganda cliché used by the Georgian side, but on how stubbornly Georgian politicians are trying to resolve the problem which goes beyond the limits of their own national territory, simultaneously neglecting the present political realities in the region,” it said.
The Foreign Ministry of occupied Abkhazia stressed that “the Georgian side’s actions openly violate the right to freedom of movement guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” and “called on the Georgian government to cease the purposeful policy of isolating the Republic of Abkhazia.”
A day later, on July 27, the Georgian Civil Aviation Agency (GCAA) released a statement, noting that “no international flights can be conducted to the Sokhumi airport without Georgia’s consent and its oversight on the safety of flights.”
The Sokhumi airport remains closed since 1993. The airport has not been certified by the Georgian aviation authority while the Law of Georgia on Occupied Territories adopted in 2008 bans international flights to and from Abkhazia.
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