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Do you think The Hague court will recognise that ethnic cleansing took place on Georgia’s breakaway territories?

Thursday, January 28
“No, I don't think so.”
Eva, 26, student

“This is a very difficult question because I am not very good at these issues: let’s hope that everything will be alright. We just need to wait and see.”
Sandro, 31, engineer

“I think the Hague court will not recognise that ethnic cleansing took place on Georgia’s breakaway territories.”
Nino, 45, housewife

“Well of course it must not do so, because there was no genocide. It was genocide when Hitler killed six million Jews and when the Turks killed the Armenians. It is very bad that someone was killed but that is life and it is impossible that no one will die in a war. So I think this is just PR from our President, who wants to turn into zombies the majority of the Georgian population.”
Vanda, 35, journalist

“Well actually I am not familiar with the Hague court, I mean I don't know what that court calls ethnic cleansing. There was a terrible war in Georgia in the 21st century which almost destroyed our country and left thousands of families homeless. So I think any court should recognise this as ethnic cleansing.”
Vazha, 67, pensioner

“There is one thing I always wonder about this country - why do we rely on the European viewpoint? I mean we are perfectly capable of understanding what is going on around us ourselves. There was a war in Georgia. Russia tried to occupy us and left people homeless. It doesn’t matter why this happened. The result is terrible and it’s unfortunate that nothing can be done to improve the situation.”
Nino, 35, teacher

“I think the Hague court has lots of cases to deal with. They may discuss our problem but no one knows when our turn will come. So we just have to try to help those poor people who have lost their homes ourselves.”
Tamar, 24, musician

“I think that whatever decision is made it will be fair and impartial. If it were up to me, I would confirm that the ethnic cleansing of Georgian people took place in our conflict region.”
Teona, 25, office manager

“It is not so easy to identify if ethnic cleansing by either side really happened or not, I think this will need a lot of investigation and fact checking. Ethnic cleansing cannot be claimed based merely on the claims of Georgia or Russia.”
Lasha, 34, lawyer

“The court should recognize the reality – thousands of Georgians were killed or forced to leave their homes in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the international community should not close its eyes to this.”
Kato, 27, teacher