Decision of the United States to recognize so called Georgia’s neutral travel documents, is a mistake, Deputy Foreign Minister of Abkhazia, Irakly Khintba, said.

Deputy Foreign Minister said that he was not surprised by the statement of Hillary Clinton, but "a little disappointed." Not surprised, because in Abkhazia people got used to unfriendly steps of the U.S. administration and disappointed because the Americans had opportunities to know the opinion of the Abkhaz society.

 

Deputy Foreign Minister Irakly Khintba believes that the decision of the United States to recognize so called Georgia’s neutral travel documents is a mistake. He stated this during a press-conference which was held in Sukhum.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced in Batumi on June 6, that the U.S. would accept the status neutral travel documents issued by Georgia for residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia who would like to visit the USA.

“I would not like to hype up this issue over Abkhazia and South Ossetia, as “only small portion” of Clinton’s speech was dedicated to it. But I deem this decision by the U.S. to recognize so called neutral passports is very erroneous”, Khintba said. “This is yet another strategic miscalculation by Obama administration after they agreed to use term ‘occupied territories’ in reference to Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”

He said that Georgia’s neutral travel documents had nothing to do with reconciliation and conflict resolution. “It will only incite Georgia’s new adventures,” Khintba said.

Irakly Khintba emphasized that the MFA of Abkhazia has a sample of this passport claiming to be neutral. “These are Georgian documents, issued by the Georgian authorities and these documents are part of Georgia’s state strategy on occupied territories. Country code GEO [Georgia] is clearly indicated on these documents,” Khintba said, adding that if a holder of this document would require a consular service while traveling abroad a Georgian diplomatic mission in that particular country would have to provide such services.

In fact, according to Khintba, these documents were in fact an attempt to impose on residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia Georgian passports. “We have a confidence in a choice of our citizens and we hope that they understand how dangerous this proposal by Georgia about neutral documents is. We are sure, that our citizens, who have undergone through bloody war and brutal blockade and who have managed to establish an independent state, will never accept these documents,” he said. And nevertheless, he calls upon Abkhazian citizens to remain vigilant.

“They want to lure you into a trap, which the authorities in Tbilisi have been placing methodically for a long time already. Tbilisi’s goal is obvious – to return us back into Georgia,” Khintba said, addressing the citizens of Abkhazia.

As he said, according to Georgian legislation, this passport is issued only to persons who do not have citizenship of another country. It turns out that those citizens of Abkhazia, who, by mistake, will want or allow themselves to apply for this passport, will refuse from Abkhaz citizenship, from their country. "This is a very important political act that Tbilisi authorities are trying to impose on us. This is the refusal from national identity, rejection of blood suffered statehood. That's what this situation is dangerous about", - said Khintba.

“The Georgian authorities say that the goal of these neutral passports is to de-isolate residents of Abkhazia and to allow Abkhazians to travel around the world. This is cynical lie. If the authorities in Tbilisi care so much about our rights, why they have been stifling us with international blockade?” Why are they trying to chop off any of our external contacts? Why are we isolated, why economic projects, which are offered to Abkhazia from outside are blocked? Why each time when someone wants to communicate with the authorities of Abkhazia, hysteria begins in Tbilisi? Why the law on occupied territories is passed, which is unlawful, and very far from European values, and according to which entering the territory of Abkhazia through the checkpoint Psou is a crime to be punished? What kind of protection of the rights of citizens can then the Georgian authorities speak about? ".

Irakly Khintba is convinced that "they want to force Abkhazia to accept Georgian neutral passports, achieving that the citizens of Abkhazia could not travel by any other document but with the exception of this passport." The Georgian authorities are doing everything to ensure that no country in the world could stamp its visa in our passports. Therefore, they want to force us to give up our identity. But, they will not see this, I believe in our people,"- said Khintba.

Deputy Foreign Minister said that he was not surprised by the statement of Hillary Clinton, but "a little disappointed." Not surprised, because in Abkhazia people got used to unfriendly steps of the U.S. administration and disappointed because the Americans had opportunities to know the opinion of the Abkhaz society. American politicians and researchers have repeatedly visited Abkhazia as well as very large mission of the U.S. government-funded organization - USAID. Khintba is confident that the information which they got here is contrary to the statement made by Clinton.

“I am surprised that Americans don’t understand that the Georgian adventure involving neutral passports is doomed to failure and there is no need to allocate money for continuation of this adventure. We also see that the goal of Obama administration is not to protect rights of Abkhaz citizens, but to make various geopolitical calculations and to indulge whims of its puppets in Tbilisi,” Khintba said.