The incident in the Georgian village of Koda is a direct continuation of the provocation and escalation of tension policy launched by Tbilisi at the end of August 2019 by setting up an illegal post near the South Ossetian village of Uista (Tsnelis).
During these three months, Georgia demonstrated to South Ossetia and the entire international community the whole set of cliches and tactical steps with which, in theory, the armed confrontation begins.
This is putting up a system of posts along the STATE border, pulling together power units, seizing dominant heights, firing at a quadcopter of the General Prosecutor's Office of South Ossetia, shooting in the direction of the state border, attempts to infiltrate South Ossetian territory by armed groups and even using the EU Observer Mission as an element that can provoke Tskhinval to inadequate behavior.
And so, on November 5, the first wounded appeared. And these wounded are citizens of Georgia itself, who suffered from their own security forces. It must be emphasized that the leadership of South Ossetia and personally President Anatoly Bibilov, and Foreign Minister Dmitry Medoev, as well as Presidential Plenipotentiary for the Post-Conflict Settlement Murat Dzhioev, representatives of South Ossetian special services have repeatedly warned the wide international community personally that the Georgian policy of provocations could end in tragedy. Their voice, unfortunately, was not heard, but the shootout at Koda proved their rightness: Georgia is not able to conduct an adequate, balanced, reasonable, and essentially European neighborhood policy in relation to South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The first blood of the “Tsnelis crisis” confirms the full rightness of the South Ossetian side, which unsuccessfully proved to both the EU Observer Mission, the OSCE and other international organizations that the post of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia near the South Ossetian village of Uista is, first of all, a threat to the Georgian population itself! Unfortunately, this is exactly what has happened.
It is hoped that the situation in Koda will receive a proper assessment by the international community, and the main reason for the escalation of tension - the post of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia near our village will be finally removed.
Georgia’s European partners, instead of calling on the South Ossetian side to open the Razdaekhaen and Sinagur checkpoints, it would be better to ensure that the Georgian side removes the illegal police checkpoint from the territory of South Ossetia, (which caused the state border of South Ossetia to be completely closed) most would solve all the difficult questions.
Igor Chochiev, an expert
