Vice Prime Minister of Georgia: “We are parts of the same social fabric with Abkhazia and South Ossetia.” Mrs. Eka Tkeshelashvili, Vice Prime Minister and State Minister for the Reintegration of Georgia, made assessments about Abkhazia and South Ossetia during a meeting carried out at TEPAV.

ANKARA – On Wednesday, November 23, 2011, TEPAV hosted Mrs. Eka Tkeshelashvili, Vice Prime Minister and State Minister for the Reintegration of Georgia. Tkeshelashvili informed the audience of the efforts of the Ministry regarding Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which recently had declared their independence, and assessed Georgia-Russia relations in this context.

Tkeshelashvili, who paid a formal visit to Turkey, spoke during the roundtable meeting organized at TEPAV and moderated by Uğur Ziyal, former ambassador and advisor to the TOBB presidency.

Tkeshelashvili stated that Abkhazia and South Ossetia were under “Russian occupation,” while Georgia wanted to see itself in a democratic, open market economy engaging as a whole with these regions. She said, “We are all part of the same social fabric. We should build it up again.” Maintaining that the problem was multidimensional and complex, she argued that there could be no solution in the region until Russia changed its position. Peace could be build not in the short but in the long term and with political rather than military efforts. She added, “If there are strong diplomatic efforts, we can achieve the solution.”

Sharing details of the strategy of the Georgian government to integrate the Abkhazian and South Ossetian populations with the rest of society, she stressed that integration was of importance for both these regions and for Georgia. She stated that education was another layer of the Ministry’s integration program and emphasized in this context that there were more Abkhazian students studying at Georgian universities compared to previous years and that there were also special programs for Abkhazians to study abroad.