President of Georgia: Only one side – Russia – should be held accountable | Europe and Europeans: news and analysis | DV
The war in Ukraine that broke out in Georgia, triggered by painful memories of the events of 2008, when the Russian army invaded Georgian territory. Defeat in a five-day war with the widespread loss of Tbilisi’s control over the outer regions – South Ossetia and Abkhazia, where to this day the presence of Russian troops. DW talked to Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili about what the war in Ukraine means for Georgia, why NATO and the EU are so important for Tbilisi, and whether Georgians are afraid that their country may become a victim of Russian aggression.
DW: If at present in Ukraine they are talking about admissibility, then Georgia is in a situation of observation, since part of the Georgian territory, in general, is occupied…
Salome Zurabishvili: Not “as a whole”, but truly occupied, and for each of the two occupied parts of the residential compounds.
– How does this fact change the attitude in Georgia to the Ukrainian events? Is there a feeling that Georgia will soon disappear in place of Ukraine?
– There is a feeling of solidarity. There is a feeling that we have a similar history with the Ukrainians – in the days of both the Russian Empire and the Soviet “empire”, and now. After all, our peoples went through the same thing. We translate that we have already occupied and that we already have this experience.
Salome Zurabishvili
Therefore, the possibility of mass infiltration in Georgia is not fear, but solidarity. Georgia is now truly identifying itself as a victim of the takeover and is looking forward to Ukraine’s resistance, to that unity, with items providing assistance to its partners in Europe and the US. We look at it with interest.
– You often call the West for more support and more display in Georgia. Did you also have military support in this remark – provision of opportunities, training of military personnel?
– We always have the opportunity to get more defensive weapons, because defense is the only thing left for us. But we had quite a lot of joint research with NATO – the last one was just two months ago. There were exercises of great importance when quite a few Georgian soldiers were with the Germans in Afghanistan. indeed, it is considered that Georgia is really successful in the integration test. So we really need a faster and more reliable path to maximum security with the EU, this is where we see complete security for ourselves. This security cannot be achieved by military means, because we can never win a war with Russia.
– Georgia has filed an official application to join the European Union. What will be the significance of joining the EU for the country?
“Now this is a path that has become a reality. The war in Ukraine showed European leaders that the path that was envisaged in the past, that is, the long-term perspective of the EU and NATO countries, did not provide information about the countries. ed.) that they really deserve after all the years.
Therefore, one of the latest cases of a sudden outbreak of aggression (from Russia) Red.) is to accept them. What we see now is a very important signal that we received from the Union of the Union. And for us, this is the right response to Russian aggression in the case of Ukraine and the outbreak of such aggression in our case or in the case of Moldova. So we are all very optimistic in that sense.
– Germany has already stated that it supports Georgia in its aspiration to become a member of the EU, but in the past Berlin there was no increase in the speed of Georgia’s connection with the EU. Should Germany and other European countries actively support Tbilisi?
– In my opinion, yes. But I am very encouraged that this position is now changing. Therefore, I am more interested in today’s support than in the analysis of what happened in the past. It is noteworthy that Germany has changed its vision of both Europe and by supporting Ukraine, directly supporting. This gives us hope. France has changed in the same way – this is a country that has not attracted much attention to the consideration of the issue (Georgia and Ukraine – Red.) in the struct structure. I think I’ve charted my way as to what the new approach should be.
– You didn’t say that if European crimes were more active and acted faster, then some of the events that we witnessed could have been prevented?
– I don’t like to shift the load Yes, European countries and the United States of America could do more, could be more vigilant, could understand more clearly what the nature of Russia is. But they are farther from it than we are. They don’t have the same experience. But all this does not change the fact that only one party, Russia, is responsible.
We cannot place the responsibility for proliferation equally on those who wanted, everything was otherwise willing, to believe that Russia can change. It is in the very nature of democracies to want others to be just like them, then others just need to be helped with countless changes. Unfortunately, this does not happen.
– Is Georgia ready to join the European Union? There were some questions in the country about the lack of a high level of law, about certain problems with a high level …
– We do not meet all the requirements for diseases in the European Union, and I do not think that anyone will say that we need to stop on the path of reform or that we should not increase their pace. But I think that we have done quite a lot, and frankly, I do not consider Georgia an undesirable country in terms of the whole European Union – especially with our history and development conditions. But I think that we have achieved much more if we are inside the EU, and not stay outside, where after some time we will lose the support of the population. And I think the new processes have pushed us to be even more suitable (EU rejections – Red.).
– What are the moods of people in Georgia now? Are they afraid of what is happening now in Ukraine? Is there a sense that Georgia might also be vulnerable to Russian propaganda and that this could be a means of influencing the mood of the people in the country?
– I think there are expectations about what Russia can do, because it has clearly shown that it can do everything and said that there are no internal restrictions on what it can do. So yes, people are worried. I would not say this feeling of fear, because we have already gone through a lot of this.
As for Russian propaganda… Yes, such formations are being undertaken, but Georgia has lived in the conditions of Soviet propaganda for 70 years, remaining resistant to it. Due to our lack of experience with 100%, suppressed and distorted information exposure, in the past we have had better fake news and propaganda masters in some other countries.
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