The bloody crimes committed in 1920 against the Ossetian people have no statute of limitations and cannot be forgotten, just as there can be no forgiveness for these crimes against humanity.
This is stated in the appeal of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of South Ossetia to Russia Znaur Gassiev to the diplomatic missions of foreign states accredited in Russia and to the Georgian Interests Section at the Embassy of Switzerland.
In his appeal, the Фmbassador called for taking into account the tragic date for the people of Ossetia - the 105th anniversary of the genocide of Ossetians committed by the Georgian government in 1918-1920 of the 20th century.
Gassiev рhas noted that on June 20, 2020, every family in Ossetia commemorats this sad date in memory of the civilian population of South Ossetia, relatives and friends who died at the hands of the Georgian punishers.
"Many years have passed since then, but the pain of suffering has not subsided to this day. In 1918, preparations began in Georgia for a punitive operation involving the armed forces of the new "democratic" government against the South Ossetians. The Nazi rhetoric of the new Georgian authorities is well reflected in the periodical press of that period," the diplomat has noted.
He has reminded that the general offensive of the Georgian punitive forces on Ossetia began on June 12, 1920. By June 20, the Ossetian political leadership had already been destroyed.
"Early in the morning of the same day, the Georgian punitive forces shot 13 communards – the ordinary residents of Tskhinval, whose only crime was that they were Ossetians. With the capture of the capital of South Ossetia, Tskhinval, the total extermination of the peaceful Ossetian population began. The bloody punitive operation of the Georgian regular army led to the death of thousands of civilians - both at the hands of the Georgian military and from hunger, cold and disease while crossing the passes of the Greater Caucasus to North Ossetia," the appeal says.
The document also provides statistics - about 50 thousand people lost their homes, property and were forced to leave South Ossetia, saving their lives.
The Ambassador has emphasized that the scale of the genocide is evidenced by the documentary materials of the special commission, which worked with the participation of the Georgian representatives, among others.
"In total, 5,279 people were killed by the Georgian punitive troops, including 1,375 women and 1,844 children. That is, every third person killed was a child! In general, 20% of the Ossetian population of South Ossetia was exterminated," Gassiev has noted in his appeal.
In 1944, he continued, the Georgians had a new opportunity to seize the Ossetian lands - the Georgian authorities, with the support of the influential Georgian lobby in the Kremlin, expanded the borders of the Georgian Soviet Republic to the approaches to Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia.
By the voluntaristic decision of the Bolsheviks, the northern slope of the Cross Pass, with all the Ossetian lands, was transferred to the Soviet Georgia and is still under occupation.
Thus, a significant part of the Central Caucasian original territories of historical Ossetia ended up as part of the Georgian SSR. In parallel with territorial seizures, cultural expansion was carried out, and after it, the assimilation of the indigenous Ossetian population.
"As a result of this policy, today we have devastated territories, free of the Ossetian element, the loss of the historical part of Alania is obvious. The well-known events of 1937-1938 also did not pass without a trace for South Ossetia. As a result of the bloody "planned" repressions of the late 1930s, the best representatives of the Ossetian people were destroyed. Under the guise of fighting the enemies of the Soviet power, the entire Ossetian intelligentsia was slaughtered, those who resisted the Georgian punitive forces in 1920 and led the rebels were shot or sent to camps," the Ambassador has emphasized.
Gassiev has added, in 1938, South Ossetia was forced to adopt a different script from North Ossetia based on the Georgian script.
In 1944, the Ossetian schools were closed in South Ossetia, and in 1951, office work was transferred to the Georgian language. Thus, for the first time, the Georgian authorities managed to divide a single people along educational and cultural lines.
This policy continued until 1990, when South Ossetia left Georgia and formed the independent state.
In the late 1980s, on the eve of the collapse of the USSR, the spirit of fascism reawakened in the Georgian SSR, and ultra-radical politicians began to gain popularity in the Georgian society, promoting the uniqueness and "chosenness" of the Georgian people.
Accordingly, the slogan "Georgia for Georgians!" became the main expression of the old national idea of the Georgian neo-Nazis and their governments in the late 20th - early 21st centuries. All foreigners were declared guests on the Georgian soil, and the most fascist characters called for forcibly limiting the birth rate in the non-Georgian families.
"Seventy years after the 1920 genocide, history repeated itself. After the collapse of the USSR, the people of South Ossetia did not want to live in the same state with their former executioners and determined their future in unity with Russia, together with their brothers in North Ossetia. In 1989, the Georgian neo-Nazis, like their forefathers in 1920, demanded to submit to their will, otherwise, they promised to "sweep the Ossetians like garbage" from the Georgian soil," Gassiev has noted.
As it turned out later, these plans concerned not only Ossetians, but also Russians, Abkhazians, Armenians, Greeks, Azerbaijanis, Meskhetian Turks and all other representatives of national minorities living in Georgia at that time.
Gassiev has also reminded that November 23, 1989 is a special date in the modern history of South Ossetia.
On this day, Tbilisi organized a multi-thousand "intimidation march" on Tskhinval, organized by the leaders of the Georgian nationalist movement.
"In 1989-1992, Georgia carried out its first armed aggression since 1920 and attempted to conquer South Ossetia by military force. The total number of victims was more than 2,000 killed, more than 3,500 wounded and more than 120 people missing. The number of burned villages was 117. The amount of material damage inflicted was more than 516 billion rubles. This is about 17 billion USD in 2005 prices. More than 20,000 refugees from South Ossetia and more than 100,000 Ossetian refugees from the interior regions of Georgia, where mass ethnic cleansing and brutal reprisals against Ossetians were also carried out, were registered on the territory of North Ossetia and the Russian Federation," the diplomat listed.
He also reminded that in August 2004, already under the leadership of the new Fuhrer Saakashvili, Georgia unleashed a new war, throwing regular units with heavy equipment and artillery into South Ossetia.
The enemy did not get through, but with the help of the Western partners, with the participation of NATO countries, Saakashvili began to prepare for revenge.
The culmination of the aggressive actions of the Georgian neo-fascism was the attack of the Georgian army on South Ossetia in August 2008, which launched a full-scale punitive operation called "Open Field" with the sole purpose of completely destroying the Ossetian population, freeing South Ossetia from the Ossetian element, and reaching the strategically important Ruck Tunnel.
"The result is well known. The Georgian neo-Nazism has not passed even in our days. In 2008, it crashed against the iron will and unity of the people of South Ossetia, the ineradicable desire to be masters of their land, their future. Ossetia stood firm and won, having gone through incredible trials with honor, at the cost of colossal self-sacrifice, proving to the whole world its inalienable right to freedom and a dignified future,” the document says.
The recognition of the state independence of the Republic of South Ossetia by the Russian Federation in August 2008 excluded predatory aspirations and aggressive relapse on the part of Georgia, restored historical justice, which allowed the re-creation of the state of the Alans in the Caucasus and made the processes of state building irreversible, the Ambassador emphasized.
In memory of the victims of the genocide, mourning events are being held in the Republic on June 19-20, and wreaths will be laid at the monument to the 13 Communards in Tskhinval.
"The current government of Georgia, as the successor of the Georgian government of 1918-1920, which committed genocide against the peaceful Ossetian population in South Ossetia, must be condemned and held accountable under international law. The current government of Georgia must also be condemned and held accountable under international law as the successor of the Bolshevik Georgia and the accomplice to the crimes committed against the peaceful population of South Ossetia in the post-communist period - 1989-2008. There is no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity!" Gassiev has concluded.
