South Ossetian President Anatoly Bibilov instructed his ambassador for post-conflict settlement Murat Dzhioev to raise the issue of the Ossetian people’s genocide in 1920 at the Geneva discussions on security in Transcaucasia
"For the Ossetian people, recognition of the genocide is not a political move, but recognition of the tragedy. Our main message is to bring to the international community the idea that the political elite of Georgia has always been bloodthirsty with respect to Ossetians," Bibilov said at a meeting of the commission for perpetuating the memory of the 1920 year. genocide
"Our task is not to force Georgia to recognize, but to bring to the international community the presence of this fact. The whole world should know that for a century the genocide of the Ossetian people was hushed up. To hide the crimes of Georgia against Ossetians as a nation – the genocide was presented as a class struggle," said President of South Ossetia.
He added that "the genocide of the Ossetian people has stopped after the recognition of the independence of South Ossetia by Russia."
In July 2019, it was reported that the South Ossetian parliament sent an appeal to the leadership and parliament of Russia on the recognition of the genocide of South Ossetians in 1920 by Georgian nationalists.
"In June 1920, the government of Georgia, which declared independence, sent troops to suppress South Ossetia, which declared its right to self-determination and join the Soviet Russia. Georgian troops destroyed most of the settlements of South Ossetia," the document said.
The authors of the appeal noted that the Georgian army, armed and equipped with the support of the occupying forces of Germany, and then the British troops that replaced them, carried out the mass extermination of the Ossetian civilian population, the victims of which became several thousand people.
The appeal has also noted that the number of Ossetian population losses in 1920, according to various estimates, ranged from 8% to 25% of its total population.
In September 2019, the State Duma in response to the appeal of the South Ossetian Parliament announced the creation of a working group on the recognition of the South Ossetian genocide. The document notes that the formal reason for the Georgian aggression was the order of the South Ossetian Revolutionary Committee of June 8, 1920 on the proclamation of Soviet power and the country's accession to Soviet Russia. On June 12, 1920, the Georgian army launched a punitive operation against South Ossetians. Georgian troops burned almost all Ossetian villages from Tskhinval to the northern village of Ruk.
According to historical data, as a result of the genocide in 1920, 5279 Ossetians died, one in three of them is a child (1844). Another 15 thousand Ossetians died during the exile from cold, hunger and various diseases. In total, 21,000 people were exterminated during the genocide, more than 100 Ossetian villages were burned. More than 50 thousand people became refugees, crossing the passes to the North Caucasus.
International discussions on security and stability in Transcaucasia are held in Geneva since 2008 with the participation of Russia, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and the United States through the mediation of special representatives of the UN, EU and OSCE. The Geneva discussions remain the only dialogue platform between Tskhinval, Sukhum and Tbilisi. The next round of discussions is scheduled for March 31 - April 1.
