Political crisis continues in Abkhazia, opposition demands president Aslan Bzhania to resign
Abkhazia’s opposition demands president to resign
In Abkhazia, the opposition, having failed to achieve the resignation of the minister of internal affairs, is now demanding president to resign. In Sukhum on November 4, two rallies were held at once – one opposition and one pro-government.
Up to a thousand oppositionists gathered for their rally on Teatralnaya Square. A hundred meters from this place, closer to the presidential administration, surrounded by police, approximately the same number of supporters of the incumbent President Aslan Bzhania gathered.
At the opposition rally, protesters demanded the resignation of the Minister of Internal Affairs. They sent their representatives to the meeting with president Bzhania with a resolution, however, the meeting did not result in any concrete steps.
Then the protesters changed their requirements. Now they are demanding the resignation of President Aslan Bzhania because they believe that he failed to cope with the duties of the head of state.
Two days before that, president Bzhania returned Minister of Internal Affairs Dmitry Dbar, who had been permanently removed from his post due to an incident on the Sukhum embankment on September 30, back to his office.
On September 30 which marked an anniversary of the victory in the Georgian-Abkhaz war in the early 1990s. MP Garry Kokaya and several of his fellow villagers, veterans of the Georgian-Abkhaz war, were severely beaten by special forces for firing a pistol into the air to celebrate.
Kokaya is one of the main critics of Aslan Bzhania so the incident immediately became political. The Prosecutor General’s Office, which was investigating this scandalous case, launched a criminal cases against two Deputy Ministers of Internal Affairs Rash Tsvizhba and Dadyn Chachkhaliya, but found no corpus delicti in the actions of the Minister.
At the same time, Prosecutor General Adgur Agrba recommended that the president dismiss the minister. The president remained silent for more than two weeks after that, trying to resolve the conflict by means of “people’s diplomacy” but failed. In the end, he reinstated Dmitry Dbar in his post, after which the minister himself apologized in absentia to the injured veterans. On the same day, in anticipation of the protest actions, the entire area around the presidential palace was surrounded by metal barriers welded to each other.
The fears were not unfounded. Having failed to achieve the minister’s resignation, the injured veterans from the village of Adzyubzhy declared themselves above the law. They retained the right to continue to act as they see fit. The leader of the veteran Aruaa veteran organisation Timur Gulia said that the organization relinquishes responsibility for the further development of events.
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