Abkhazia will no longer negotiate with Georgia until peace treaty is signed

From now on, Abkhazia will no longer participate in multilevel negotiations with Georgia and, following repeated calls of the opposition, President Aslan Bzhania has revised the Foreign Policy Concept, approved in December 2020.

The new presidential decree only excluded one paragraph from the document, but it was this very paragraph that caused fierce debates, protests, and even demands for Bzhania’s resignation.

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Here is the content of the controversial paragraph that President Bzhania excluded from the document:

“The Republic of Abkhazia admits the possibility of creating conditions for the formation of an additional format of multi-level negotiations between Georgia and the Republic of Abkhazia, within the framework of which it will be possible to discuss with Georgia issues of mutual interest, the solution to which is not possible within the framework of the international Geneva discussions”.

Critics say tiered negotiations are impossible at this stage. They argue that Abkhazia should not conduct any negotiations with Georgia before the signing of a peace treaty between Sukhum and Tbilisi, except for the meetings existing within the framework of the Geneva discussions.

• How to build an Abkhaz-Georgian dialogue and should it be built at all – discussions in Abkhazia
  

Therefore, after the announcement of this initial version of the foreign policy concept, the president was faced with severe criticism not only by the opposition but also by the parliament.

Aslan Bzhania, who decided not to confront the parliament and the opposition, invited them to submit their amendments to the approved Concept.

On May 19, 2021, the leading opposition organization Aruaa stated that the president should resign voluntarily, citing the Foreign Policy Concept as one of the reasons for their calls.

Now the paragraph, which caused a wave of outrage among Abkhaz opposition has been removed from the Foreign Policy Concept of the Republic of Abkhazia.

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