Abkhazia's Foreign Ministry Rejects Georgian Reunification Rhetoric as "Dangerous Dualism"
SUKHUM / AQW'A — Deputy Foreign Minister Odysseus Bigvava issues sharp response to Tbilisi's calls for reconciliation
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Abkhazia has issued a strongly worded statement dismissing recent public declarations by Georgia's political and religious leadership as "false rhetoric," warning that calls for reunification represent a veiled threat to Abkhazian sovereignty rather than a genuine pursuit of peace.
The statement, attributed to Deputy Foreign Minister Odysseus Bigvava, was issued in response to remarks made at ceremonial events in Tbilisi, in which senior Georgian officials and clergy spoke of an impending "unification" and "reconciliation" between the two sides.
Whilst acknowledging that such language "may appear to the outside observer and the international community as a pursuit of peace," the ministry said Abkhazia viewed these declarations "exclusively through the prism of real threats and the historical experience of our people."
The statement drew particular attention to the fate of Adjara, which Sukhum described as a region that had "effectively lost its identity and political agency, disappearing from the political map as an autonomous entity with real rights." Officials warned that any comparable scenario of absorption would be "absolutely unacceptable" for the Republic of Abkhazia.
The ministry outlined three conditions it said would constitute credible proof of Georgian goodwill: an official acknowledgement of responsibility for what it described as "acts of military aggression" against the peoples of Abkhazia and South Ossetia; diplomatic recognition of Abkhazian independence; and the signing of a legally binding agreement guaranteeing the non-resumption of hostilities by Georgia.
In its sharpest passage, the statement accused Tbilisi of what it termed a "dangerous dualism" — pursuing peaceful overtures in public whilst simultaneously modernising its armed forces with "the most advanced Western weaponry." It alleged that military exercises regularly conducted on Georgian territory left "no doubt" that Tbilisi continued to develop plans for a "forcible seizure of Abkhazia and South Ossetia."
"Behind the concept of a 'mythical unification' lies the same revanchist plan for yet another aggression by a five-million-strong state against the small Abkhazian people," the statement read.
The ministry concluded by calling on Georgian political and religious figures to "abandon false rhetoric and illusions."