Georgia denies Russia's request to abolish law 'On Occupied Territories'
The Government of Georgia does not intend to abolish the law "On Occupied Territories", but this law may be eased for the Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian families, said the Minister of Justice of Georgia, Thea Tsulukiani, on Wednesday, as reported by Interfax.
"The law 'On Occupied Territories' will be in force as long Georgian territories are occupied, because we need a special legal regime that governs the entry and exit of people on these territories, as well as many other issues," Tsulukiani said on First Georgian Channel. Her remarks were a comment on the wish of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Grigory Karasin, to abolish the law since it prevents the arrival of the Russian delegation in Tbilisi for a session of the PACE in the July.
“Under the current Georgian government, the question of abolishing the law 'On the occupation' was never raised. We only discussed the issue of the easing of this law for mixed Georgian-Abkhazian and Georgian-Ossetian families," Tsulukiani said.
She said that the Georgian authorities are cooperating with de facto Abkhazian and South Ossetian authorities on certain issues. "We have exchanged prisoners and archive materials. Our Abkhazian colleagues have created their own archives, but there are no documents dated before 1990 there. In Tbilisi we may not understand it, but it's a great tragedy, that's why we cooperate with them without any politics," Tsulukiani said.