Abkhazia criticizes neutral travel documents

The Abkhazian Foreign Ministry has said it is “deeply concerned” about reports in the media that some states have recognized Tbilisi’s status-neutral travel documents, designed in place of passports for residents of breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

According to a statement released by the Ministry, instead of its declared goal to promote engagement with Abkhazia, Georgian policy may create obstacles to the realization of the universal right to freedom of movement. It blamed the neutral passports for “the isolation of Abkhazia".

Georgian Foreign Minister, Grigol Vashadze, addressed the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe on January 25, thanking “several European states, including the Czech Republic [and] Lithuania” for giving “consent to recognize” the documents.

The passports were introduced late last year as part of an engagement strategy with the breakaway regions. According to the Georgian State Ministry for Reintegration, up to fifty of the documents have been issued as of mid-January.

The statement also claims that residents of Abkhazia have Russian and Abkhaz passports which “meet international standards”, but claim that at the initiative of the Georgian government, those Russian passports issued in Abkhazia are denied Schengen visas. It also criticizes the travel documents for specifying their country code as Georgia, accusing Tbilisi of "trying to prevent the international communication of Abkhazia".

The Foreign Ministry claims that international admission of Tbilisi’s neutral travel documents “while ignoring the legitimate documents of Abkhaz residents will be considered as discrimination of the citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia and seen as another attempt to isolate the people of Abkhazia".

The statement goes on to say that "Abkhazia is open to the world and it is the best refutation of the Tbilisi myths about 'Russian occupation', 'gross human rights violations', 'ethnic cleansing' and 'lack of democracy in Abkhazia'".