Stalinist language in the Abkhaz government: opinion
Political rhetoric in Abkhazia
Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia has become one of the most publicly criticized departments. At the end of January, in response to the cancellation of the next round of Georgian-Abkhazian talks, it did not let the co-chairs of the Geneva discussions, who were planning to meet with officials, into the republic. And this week, Foreign Minister of Abkhazia Inal Ardzinba went a step farther: at a joint briefing with the chairman of the State Security Service, Ardzinba said that the authorities intend to fight anti-Russian sentiments in Abkhaz society.
Anti-Russian sentiment in Abkhazia?
Said Gezerdava, an Abkhazian lawyer, a member of the State Commission for Constitutional Reform, gives his assessment of the current activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
“In what capacity does the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia act today? From the point of view of the distribution of powers in the bureaucracy, I can’t find an answer.
But literary parallels arise. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia resembles the Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’ in the was it turns everything upside down. What does the leadership of the Foreign Ministry call anti-Russian sentiments’? A pro-Abkhazian civil position for the preservation of sovereignty against the sale of land, real estate, and the energy system?
Think about the statement of the head of the Foreign Ministry — this department, together with the state security service, is going to take tough measures within the framework of the law in response to these so-called ‘anti-Russian sentiments’. The Abkhaz Foreign Ministry not only knows a lot about such ‘moods’, but also actively employs totalitarian language. Similar terminology – ‘anti-Soviet sentiments’ – was used during the Stalinist repressions. Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago describes how the Special Meeting of the NKVD relied on the the infamous article 58 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR of 1922, that is, ‘nurturing anti-Soviet sentiments’.
And what ‘moods’ are being spread by the Abkhaz Foreign Ministry itself today?
It allows itself to ignore the principle of state sovereignty, playing a prominent role in the signing of the treaty on Pitsunda;
promotes the idea of lowering the sovereign status of Abkhazia by joining the Union State;
keeps silent about Lavrov’s statement that the Russian Foreign Ministry supports building relations between Abkhazia and Georgia on the basis of Georgian projects (not agreed with Abkhazia).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia allows itself to make statements that contradict constitutional freedoms — freedom of thought, speech and belief.
For the first time we hear direct threats against society from the heads of central government bodies.
Do you know how the Abkhazian Criminal Code defines discrimination? As ‘a violation of the rights, freedoms and legitimate interests of a person and a citizen, depending on their […] beliefs, membership in public associations or any social groups’ (Article 131).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia allows itself without conscience to promote Stalinism, referring to the figure of the dictator, and to revive the language of the totalitarian, repressive past. Interestingly, in the name of what we should betray the memory of the victims of repression? Are you saying that some political fantasies can cost them their lives? Can a cynical style of government that tries to mobilize the masses by appealing to totalitarian idols and their ideas be compatible with our historical memory, not to mention our Constitution?
I do not know of other similar examples of lobbying for a non-Abkhaz agenda in our recent history.”
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