Saakashvili Vows to Reclaim 2 Provinces
Mikhail Saakashvili, President of Georgia, vowed to take back the two provinces taken from Georgia by Russia, on Sunday. Saakashvili said he would reclaim Abkhazia and South Ossetia with the help “of the rest of the world” minus Russia.
The bold statements come at a time when the European Union is busy trying to convince Russia to withdraw to prewar positions.
Moscow promises to withdraw weeks ago already, but has failed to do so nonetheless. Georgia and the West are still waiting for Russian forces to leave Georgian territory; and that weeks after the war ended.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy will go to Moscow on Monday, as the leader of an EU delegation, to convince the Russians to comply with the cease-fire terms they agreed to. This terms included a Russian withdrawal from Georgia.
The Russians, however, say that the forces left behind in South Ossetia are ‘peacekeepers’ meant to protect the civilian population - many of whom with Russian passports thanks to a year-long effort by the Russians to Russianilize the Georgian province - against Georgian violence.
“Our territorial integrity will be restored, I am more convinced of this than ever,” Saakashvili said in a televised appearance. “This will not be an easy process, but now this is a process between an irate Russia and the rest of the world.”
“Our goal is the return of our territory and the peaceful unification of Georgia,” he said.
In order to do so, Saakashvili needs the active support of the West. Although the United States has supported him in recent weeks, Europe has failed to put any real pressure on Moscow, however. As such, it seems likely that it will be difficult for the Georgian president to do what he promised earlier today.
To make matters even worse for Georgia, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said earlier that ‘the EU did not plan to impose sanctions against Russia.’ This even though the U.S. is trying to punish and isolate Moscow by diplomatic means.
At the same time, however, European officials continue to call on Medvedev and Putin to respect Georgian independence and authority within its own borders.
Knowing that Europe is a shark without teeth, however, the two Russian leaders have decided to ignore all their demands, or better; requests. Russian forces remain in Georgia, some of which deep in Georgian territory. They are even in the Black Sea port of Poti; as is known from history, the Russians are very fond of harbors at this sea.
What does he expect the Western nations to do? Send soldiers just to help him "claim" those regions? Now it’s one thing to try to rightfully hold on to territorial integrity but quite another to expect others to line up for your fight while risking a faceoff with Russia.
I feel bad for Georgians but Georgia just doesn’t have what it takes to fight Russia. Saakashvili needs a reality check.
I also don’t see allies sending soldiers to Israel or Turkey to help them combat terrorism. Both get cooperation from allies, but they bear the grunt of fighting for their territorial integrity themselves.
The issue of territorial integrity throughout the ex-Soviet republics is a bogus phenomenon . All territories, including that of Russia, now encompassing regions that were forcefully incorporated within this or that SSR should be regarded by the West as null and void as far as so-called international law is concerned. At this stage my personal opinion is that if Russia is striking back at the West for its Kosovo blunder, the West should strike back with recognition of Chechnya as a question of self-determination.
Of course this will never happen. The irony however in all this is that the West, having denounced the brutality of Stalin and condemned the evil way the Soviet Kremlin ruled over her citizens, all of a sudden decided to keep quite about the injustices that certain ethnic groups were faced by unjustly being forced to live within hostile "sovereign" States, still today the West is touting the inalienability of bogus borders.
Today’s mess is what you get for such inept politics.