The Passport-Based Attack of the Brave Mishiko

The Georgian president is very vigorous. He actually gushes with initiatives which, it is true as the last-years-experience convinces us, will not lead to anything good. Anyway, calm does not grow in the Caucasus.

Recently, the Georgian leaders with pomp said that the so-called “neutral passports” will be issued to Georgian citizens – and residents of independent Abkhazia and Ossetia are classified as such.
If one listens to the State Minister Ekaterina Tkeshelashvili, this proves to be a great boon. In essence, it means: Our citizens will be provided an opportunity to voluntarily get a legal document in lieu of illegitimately issued Russian passports. In order to ensure the maximum attraction of residents of the occupied territories, the document will not bear the Georgian state symbolism and will not certify the citizenship.”

Inter alia, this idea was first voiced as long ago as in July 2010. It was explained by Temur Yakobashvili, the current minister’s predecessor. But the propagandist canard was launched just recently. Alas! Ms. Tkeshelashvili makes clear that there are talks with many states and that, due to such passports, the youth of Abkhazia and South Ossetia will be able to study abroad at the expense of the Georgian presidential foundation, etc. and so on.

The Georgian side says that this is not their invention but the development of an idea which was at one moment proposed by the UNO. Expert Mamuka Areshidze clarified that the say was about the so-called Nansen passports which had been issued after the WWI – they also had not stated nationality. As if accidentally, the esteemed expert explains: Abkhazians and Ossetians need international documents with which they will freely travel worldwide, and the Georgian side offers such documents.

The Georgian foreign ministry has immediately noted that the European Union is studying the initiative… Generally, those Abkhazian and Ossetian residents who will have such passports will easier move to the West. Why not an argument?!

But what is such document – the “neutral passport”? It appears to lack the Georgian symbols but, in the words of Georgia’s representatives, the holders of such documents can – no problem – not only travel through Georgia but also exit to any country worldwide. They plan to issue the “neutral passports” by the end of the current year.

Similar passports were once issued in Kosovo – but we were granted them by the UNO, not the state. Even here, Saakashvili overrides the globe: earlier it came to nobody’s mind to issue the “neutral passports” in a single republic... In Georgia, there is much talk about the Kosovo experience but one somehow forgets that those who exited abroad with similar passports faced actual problems – they were not merely admitted to many countries, and to some countries – for a very brief period of time.

Concerning Abkhazia and South Ossetia, let clarify: in due time, the UNO actually offered to issue special international passports to their residents. The reason was that these people had Soviet passports which expired by 2001. It was Georgia that rejected the UN proposal then!

Well, what follows is clear. The logic of the events was such: residents of Abkhazia and South Ossetia first received Russian passports and then passports of their own, already independent states. Therefore, the idea of the Georgian side to offer them some “neutral citizenship” evokes only bewilderment and laugh. For example, the South Ossetian foreign ministry has explained for ignoramuses: “As of today, the republic of South Ossetia is the independent and recognized state with all attributes of statehood. Its citizens have their own documents identifying the persons – passports of the citizens of the South Ossetian republic which are recognized by Russia and a series of countries. Most residents of our country have, on the legal grounds, the citizenship in the Russian Federation and appropriate documents for exit to other countries.”

South Ossetian expert Dina Alborova believes that the Georgian initiative is the “matters of gone days” and it is too late: “As of today, everything what is offered by Georgia to South Ossetia and Abkhazia is that in due course South Ossetia and Abkhazia offered to Georgia and international community. But time has passed, we have come forward, and Georgia wants to drive us back for us to go by 10-15 years to the past. I personally do not see any need of this.”

Alborova believes that citizens of both South Ossetia and Abkhazia will not merely take “neutral passports”: “In order to get such passport, one will need to reject the Russian passport, i.e. Russian citizenship. Now the question arises: whether will people refuse from the Russian internationally-recognized citizenship for unclear documents which are called neutral passports and what this will give them? A certain unclear neutral passport is issued today, while tomorrow the Georgian government will say the passports have expired, the transition period is allegedly finished, and people, having rejected the Russian citizenship, will become stateless persons again. We account for all these factors.”

The similar reaction has been in Abkhazia. The republic’s prime-minister Sergey Shamba officially said: “Georgia’s proposal is just another populist step which will remain fruitless. Nobody will take these passports here. We have agreed with Russia on the double citizenship; the citizens have both Russian and Abkhazian passports. That’s why we will do without these Georgian passports. This is another crazy notion of the Georgian authorities.”

In our portal’s interview with the prominent Abkhazian political scientist, Natella Akaba formulated her opinion as follows:
“In Abkhazia, this idea is discussed by nobody. All this is both funny and stupid, and is absolutely unnecessary. I am simply curious how one could invent it?!
Once we did not have documents, and we asked the UNO to give some opportunity to our citizens to leave the republic and return if necessary. Then, for God’s sake, the opportunity arose to obtain the Russian citizenship. Thus the problem was solved.

Of course, we do not believe in the offered idea, these passports cannot be “neutral” – this is quite clear. There are hardly any people who will take such passports, even in the Gall’skii district. I think that the idea of neutral passports is a pure politics and also the politics of a very primitive level.”

In fact, citizens of Abkhazia and South Ossetia are interested not in the Georgian initiative behind which Mikhail Saakashvili stays, but in quite concrete things. Well, for instance, the visa-free regime of tours between Russia, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia for the term up to 90 days came into effect on April 15. Now any citizen of the above states will be able to enter Russia, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia not only with the international passports, but using internal documents. Interestingly, Georgia has already called this a “cynical step on the side of Moscow.”

Just another practical plot is like that: the pedestrian bridge across the Psou River which marks the Russian-Abkhazian border has been closed for reconstruction. To avoid problems, fourteen cubicles were opened at the Old Bridge where documents are checked. There will be enough work as over the last seven years, the man flow crossing the border has boosted fourfold. Last year, seven million people crossed the frontier between Russia and Abkhazia; a total of 4350 buses and 1023 minibuses have passed it, and over 100 000 foreign vehicles were put on temporary record.

In Abkhazia, new “initiatives” of the Georgian side will deceive nobody; that is why local people are not interested in fairy tales about learning abroad at the expense of the Georgian presidential foundation. But such theme as Abkhazian citizens entering Russian higher schools evoked the most vivid interest. Abkhazian first vice-premier Leonid Lakerbaya has even staged a special reception to explain how everything will occur.

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