South Ossetia will mark the centenary of the Ossetian genocide committed by the government of the independent Georgian Democratic Republic in 1919-1920, said Foreign Minister of South Ossetia Dmitry Medoev.
"From the beginning of the XX century to the beginning of the XXI century, the Georgian authorities permanently organized ethnic cleansing against Ossetians, forcibly moved them from place to place, in large quantities expelled from the ancestral territories, accompanying these actions with murders. This is what Russian President Vladimir Putin recently called genocide against Ossetians, commenting on the state of anti-Russian hysteria in Georgia," Medoyev reminded in an interview with RIA Novosti.
He said that “next year, the whole of Ossetia will mark the tragic date in modern history - 100 years since the brutal genocide of Ossetians by the so-called government of “democratic Georgia”.
"Then, in 1919-1920, more than five thousand civilians were killed, about 40 thousand were forced to leave their homes as a result of the violent actions of the Georgian punishers. In South Ossetia, nothing is forgotten, no matter how many years have passed since those events. Genocide crimes do not have a statute of limitations, "he concluded.
On June 8, 1920, the South Ossetians came out in defense of national interests. The proclamation of Soviet power was the formal reason for the start of large-scale punitive operations in South Ossetia and the physical extermination of the Ossetians. On June 7, 1920, the head of the Georgian punitive expedition, Colonel Chkheidze, asked for the goodwill of the Georgian government to burn the villages of South Ossetia. Of course, the favor was received. Starting from June 17, 1920, Georgian troops burned down almost all villages, massacred the population, sparing neither children, nor women, nor old men. F.I. Makharadze wrote about these events: “We will not stop at describing the horrors and wildness that were committed by Georgian troops and guards under the command of the executioner Dzhugeli over the population of South Ossetia. They did not distinguish between old and young, women and men, armed and unarmed. Georgian executioners behaved like beasts and savages. They were killing all indiscriminately, destroying, burning everything in their path. "
The Ossetians who survived the slaughter moved to North Ossetia. Approximately 50,000 people (75% of the population) headed north through mountain passes. Much of the refugees died on the way from hunger, cold and diseases.
The fact of the genocide committed by Georgia against the South Ossetians from 1918 to 1920 requires a thorough revision, not only because the people of South Ossetia suffered irrecoverable losses, but also because history repeated itself in 1989-1992. Because there is no limit to the militant ignorance of the Georgian politicians.
Even during the period of Soviet power, Georgia tried to suppress the Ossetian national-cultural identity. In the 40s-50s, the Ossetian schools were transformed into Georgian, the Latin alphabet used by the Ossetians was replaced by the Georgian. This is real ethnocultural discrimination. The next act of violating the rights of Ossetians was the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the GSSR dated November 8, 1988 on the introduction of the office work exclusively in Georgian language throughout the territory of Georgia (including South Ossetia).Since 90% of the intellectuals and agricultural workers of South Ossetia were educated in Russia, of course, they did not possess Georgian writing, so they had to leave their homeland.
