30Aug08

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GUAM to Announce Official Position on Situation in Georgia

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GUAM is going to make a special statement regarding the recent events in Georgia.

The Council of Foreign Ministers of ‘Organization for Democracy and Economic Development - GUAM’ intends to make a statement on the situation in Georgia, Coordinator on Programs of GUAM Secretariat, Georgi Nazarov, told Trend News Correspondent by telephone on 29 August.

The statement will be adopted within the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the organization member-countries – Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova – who plan to come together during the next session of the UN General Assembly scheduled for mid September in New York.

"Most probably, one of the organization member-countries will make such an initiative," Nazarov said.

Large-scale military operations commenced in the unrecognized South Ossetia republic in the early morning of 8 August. Georgian Army was reported to enter Tskhinvali. Then Russian troops occupied Tskhinvali and forced Georgian Army back to the Georgian territory.

On 12 August, the Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev said that he made a decision to end operations to compel Georgia to peace. And on 26 August, Medvedev signed an order recognizing independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Four post-Soviet republics; Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova, established the GUAM format in 1997 during a summit of presidents of European Union countries in Strasburg. In 1999, Uzbekistan joined the organization but left four years later. In 2006, at the first summit of the organization in Kiev a decision was made to announce GUAM as an international organization with a new name; Organization for Democracy and Economic Development – GUAM.

[Source: Trend News, Baku, Azerbajan, 30Aug08]

The Question of South Ossetia

This document has been published on 02Sep08 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.