Demonstrators today seized the seats of the parliament, government and presidential administration in Sukhumi, the capital of Georgia’s separatist region of Abkhazia. The opposition demands the resignation of President Aslan Bžanija, but he refused. This was reported by the Interfax agency. According to her, the opposition has given the president more time to think, but if he does not resign, she wants to come for him. Meanwhile, negotiations continue.
“The president, prime minister, heads of ministries and offices remain in their positions and will continue to work,” Bžanija told his supporters. “Do not succumb to provocations! I will stay in Abkhazia and work as before,” he declared.
According to her surroundings, Bžanija is about to leave Sukhumi for her native village Tamyš. After the meeting with the negotiators, the president took time to think about whether to resign. Meanwhile, the opposition, who control the complex of government buildings, removed a plaque with the president’s name and surname from the door of his office, the Russian agency added.
Interfax previously wrote that the president is in a complex of buildings in downtown Sukhumi that house the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Secret Service. The opposition proposed two options as a starting point: after Bžanij’s resignation, Vice President Badra Gunba from Bžanij’s team or Parliament Speaker Laša Ašuba could take over the president’s powers.
“Bžanija, in agony, tries to keep herself in the chair by all means,” he wrote opposition news channel Respublica and accused the head of state of feeding Moscow with disinformation that opposition activists were preparing to attack Russian soldiers in Abkhazia. “Bigger nonsense cannot be invented. Russia is our strategic partner. No one in Abkhazia would even think of a similar provocation against the only guarantor of our security,” Respublica wrote, adding that people are protesting exclusively against Bzhaniya’s greed.
Protests were already sparked at the beginning of the week by a bill ratifying an agreement with Moscow that would allow Russian citizens and companies to buy land and real estate in Abkhazia. The opposition describes the agreement as an attempt by Bžanij’s regime to enrich itself. Parliament was supposed to ratify the deal today, but after protests, the president’s office promised to cancel the proposal.
The agreement, signed on October 30 in Moscow, would allow Russian citizens and companies to buy land and real estate in Abkhazia, whose mountains and Black Sea beaches are a popular tourist destination for them. The agreement promised preferential treatment and tax exemptions. The sale of residential property to foreigners was banned in Abkhazia in 1995, AFP reported.
The riots broke out on Monday when the Abkhaz parliament began debating a draft law to ratify the deal. Protesters blocked bridges leading to Sukhumi on Tuesday night in response to the arrest of opponents of the proposed law. Police clashed with protesters at one of the bridges.
The Ministry of Health later specified the number of injured to 13, of which three had to be hospitalized, but their lives are not in danger.
Moscow advised Russian citizens to refrain from traveling to Abkhazia and called for the situation to be resolved “exclusively through peaceful political means”. There are now around 8,000 Russian tourists in Abkhazia, Interfax reported. The Russian embassy advised Russians to avoid places where crowds of people congregate.
Abkhazia is a region of approximately 245,000 people that remained largely under separatist control after the war ended in 1993. The rest of Abkhazia was lost to Georgia in the 2008 war with Russia, after which Moscow officially recognized the separatist region as an independent state, along with South Ossetia. Tbilisi considers these territories occupied, Russia has its military garrisons in both provinces.
Source: www.tyden.cz
