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Georgia Wants U.S. to Restrain Russia

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  • Georgia Wants U.S. to Restrain Russia

    TIME Aug 10 2008


    Georgia Wants U.S. to Restrain Russia


    Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008


    Five days after Georgian troops stormed into South Ossetia to reclaim
    control of the tiny breakaway territory, they were in retreat on
    Sunday after being battered by Russian forces. But the Russians have
    not confined themselves to pushing Georgian forces out of South
    Ossetia, and ongoing Russian attacks have hit close to the Georgian
    capital and along its coastline. Hundreds of South Ossetians are dead
    and thousands have fled their homes, some sheltering in decrepit
    schools with no electricity or water. Georgia is a close ally of the
    U.S. and has a large troop contingent in Iraq. Its government is
    hoping that President Bush and other Western leaders will lean on
    Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to call off his troops. But that hope
    might be in vain, given the limits of Western leverage over Moscow,
    and the need for Russian cooperation on Iran. Georgia's Foreign
    Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili spoke to TIME about her country's
    calamitous week and what comes next:

    TIME: Didn't you walk into Russia's trap? Russia provoked Georgia, and
    you responded, and then they launched an all-out attack. Was there no
    other way out here?

    Tkeshelashvili: We have been forced into this situation. There was
    shelling of Georgian villages. We sent a special envoy. We tried to
    communicate that all we wanted was negotiations. Then when the Russian
    equipment and armed forces started moving into South Ossetia ' at that
    point we had no other choice but to respond, otherwise we would have
    stood by idly watching people die on the ground.

    TIME: Why is South Ossetia such a key contest for Russia and Georgia?


    Tkeshelashvili: We feared that Russia would do everything possible to
    stop any prospect for the success of Georgia joining NATO. That is the
    ultimate goal that Russia had, and still has. We are a former Soviet
    country which is becoming fully independent and oriented to Western
    development. That challenges every notion of the Russian Federation,
    that their sphere of influence over former Soviet countries should be
    very firm. We are getting closer to Europe, closer to NATO. If we are
    successful, then other former Soviet countries will follow that
    path. It is not only Georgia that is concerned. It is much bigger.

    TIME: So what can the United States and Europe do?


    Tkeshelashvili: We are hopeful. Europe and the U.S. have extremely
    powerful leverage in persuading Russia that it has to stop its
    aggression in Georgia, and it has to find what conditions there are
    for genuine lasting, sustaining ceasefire and then security for this
    part of the Georgian state. The United Nations and United States has
    to stop Russian aggression. If Russia is successful then we are facing
    the new world rules of behavior and coexistence of sovereign states.

    TIME: That still leaves Georgia wanting full control over South
    Ossetia.


    Tkeshelashvili: Territories are not the end goal. We want to
    consolidate George for development, democracy, and to be part of
    Europe and NATO. That is our goal.

    TIME: What is your major objection to the South Ossetia and Abkhazia
    separatists?


    Tkeshelashvili: We have to be clear what these movements are. In South
    Ossetia, most of the government officials are active members of the
    military and security forces of the Russian Federation. South Ossetia
    and Abkhazia were multiethnic communities in which Georgians might
    have been in the majority, but there were also large communities of
    Greeks, Jews, Ukrainians, and Armenians there. Now both territories
    have basically an apartheid regime. They are ethnically cleansed
    territories where some remnants of previous ethnic communities are
    oppressed with the help from Russia. I just was in the village of
    Gori. I saw with my own eyes the level of destruction, a woman dead
    among the destroyed buildings. It's a humanitarian disaster.

    TIME: You are recalling all the Georgian soldiers from Iraq. Is this a
    big blow to your relationship with the US?

    Tkeshelashvili: We are being bombed. Russia is a big state, we are a
    small state. So we have to mobilize all the forces we have.

    http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,85 99,1831244,00.html

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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