Georgia denies the statement on opening the railway through Abkhazia

On September 6 the government of Georgia made refuted the allegations  of Security Council Secretary, Arthur Baghdasaryan, that official Tbilisi agreed to restore railway communication through Abkhazia, reports Civil.ge.

"The authorities of Georgia had  previously expressed an interest in this topic, and now  are ready to discuss the initiative. However, this does not mean that a decision has been made," reads the statement.

Before the October parliamentary elections in 2012, the  Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, in the frameworks of his election campaign, expressed its readiness to restore the railway through Abkhazia. As part of his visit to Armenia in January this year, he also said that he considered it possible to restore rail service between Georgia and Russia over the separatist Abkhazia, and  added that the issue is not  simply to solve because of the problem of relations with Russia, and  "not so simple relationship" with "our brothers and Abkhazia." Last,  Ivanishvili told about the problem in March , when he said that the government is cautious about the restoration of the railway.

"We confirm that the Georgian government is considering restoration of the railway, and believes that it may be interesting, but before  there is a long way to go. In particular , it is necessary to find out a lot of political and technical issues,  and to make debates to form public opinion," reads  the  statement.

"At this stage the Georgian authorities have not taken a formal decision on the restoration of the rail link via Abkhazia, and it is too early to make some preliminary statements," said the Georgian government .

At the same time,  the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Maia Pandzhikidze, who  accompanies the Prime Minister Ivanishvili during his visit to Latvia, also made comments. She stated that the disseminated information  about  some permit or agreement is "not true."

Special Representative of the Prime Minister for Relations with Russia, Zurab Abashidze, who leads the bilateral talks on economic issues with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Grigory Karasin , said: "We do not talk to Russia about the opening of the railway through Abkhazia."

"In the format of my dialogue with Mr. Karasin this issue was not considered at all," he said. "However, if there is  any initiative  on the part of Russia, we are willing to listen to how they perceive the restoration of the railway; we do not say that we would never talk , we can talk about it if it  is based on the principles of territorial integrity of Georgia."

Giga Bokeria, a Secretary of the National Security Council , a close ally of President Saakashvili,  said the strategic interest of the sovereignty and economy of Georgia is the current project of  the railway Baku -Tbilisi –Kars, and opening of the railway through Abkhazia may be connected with a "serious risk ".

"And if our partner is the Russian Federation, we should be careful , especially because it all goes through the occupied territories," said the Bokeria.  " The implementation of such a project would be possible if to  say briefly,  it is part of the package, which  regulates de-occupation of Georgia."

"I hope that the Georgian authorities will not allow a fundamental error that would damage the interests of our country," he  added.—0—