Briefing by Foreign Ministry on Wikileaks and on new visa regime with Brazil
By Ernest Petrosyan
Tuesday, September 6
Wikileaks published another dispatch of US Ambassador to Georgia John Bass to the Department of State, where Bass allegedly says that “Tbilisi continues operating airspace for Russian military cargos for Armenia”. "This information is not correct", Kalandadze said.
According to Kalandadze, the Russian Federation applied several times to the Georgian authorities asking for the opening of airspace, but the Georgian side has rejected such demands. The last request was made by the Russian Federation at the end of 2008, according to the Deputy Minister.
"Information from WikiLeaks should be treated cautiously, since we do not know if it is reliable or not. Nevertheless the fact itself is not true. Russia applied to us several times with a request to open our airspace but we rejected it, " Kalandadze said.
Political analyst Ramaz Sakvarelidze also expressed doubt regarding the reliability of Wikileaks information. “I do not think that Georgia is continuing to provide its airspace for military cargo transportation covertly. Besides, even if Bass had told such in his notes, there is not any source mentioned, thus such information cannot be seriously regarded”, Sakvarelidze told The Messenger.
At the briefing, Kalandadze stated that Georgia does not consider the participation of Karabakh’s delegation with the status of observer in Abkhazia’s so-called Presidential election as the official position of Yerevan. She added that the official Yerevan supports Georgian territorial integrity and sovereignty, and does not recognize the independence of Abkhazia or South Ossetia breakaway regions.
“The Georgian Foreign Ministry expresses an interest in all the issues related to the illegal processes taking place in Georgia [breakaway regions]. Yerevan’s position is clear to us and the official Yerevan does not recognize the breakaway regions or any elections held there”, stated Kalandadze at the briefing.
Kalandadze’s statement referred to the attendance of a Nagorno-Karabakh delegation headed by Bako Saakyan, the so-called President of the self-recognized republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, during Abkhazia’s presidential elections held on August 26.
Kalandadze also mentioned the hotel belonging to the former Georgian Embassy in Moscow. According to her it was confiscated in 2006 and will be auctioned off by the Russian Government. “It is an issue between states, and according to the Vienna Convention, we sent the first diplomatic note demanding the return of the building on July 26. The Russian side, however, did not respond, but later declared that at the end of August the building was going to be put up for auction. We assert that this is not only an illegal action, but is a violation of the Vienna Convention”, said Kalandadze at the briefing.
According to Kalandadze the issue is not only a dispute between private entities but must be solved by diplomatic means. Georgia exchanges communications with Russia through the assistance of the Embassy of Switzerland.
Deputy Minister Kalandadze announced some positive news regarding visa-free entry between Brazil and Georgia. Kalandadze stated that an agreement has been signed during the official visit of Georgian Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze in Brazil. As she explained Brazilian citizens have been offered one-year free visa entry to Georgia, and now Brazil has also decided to facilitate the visa regime of Georgia citizens. The visa-free regime will be launched in a month, after the procedures are completed.