- Eduard Amvrosiyevich, all these years after the war in Abkhazia ended the society is trying to find out whether it was possible to prevent it or not…
- One should bear in mind that the situation was very hard. Former President Zviad Gamsakhurdia’s supports almost each day blew up railroads and bridges, attacked trains.
We had to take some measures. I called Vladislav Adzimba (the head of the Abkhazia’s Supreme Council) and told him that our forces would enter the territory of Abkhazia in order to protect the railroad. When our forces did it, they were attacked by the Abkhaz military. After that Tengiz Kitovani ordered to send a military contingent to the republic. I asked him not to capture Sukhumi but he didn’t listen to me. That’s how the war began. On September 3d, 1992 in Moscow we signed an agreement with Abkhazia and a cease fire was declared. However the Abkhazian party violated this agreement.
- The Abkhazians are saying that the aim of the Georgian contingent was to end Abkhazia’s independence rather than to protect the railroad…
- Abkhazia was an autonomous republic but it was a part of Georgia. I was always a keen supporter of the Abkhazian autonomy, but separatists were so categorical that no compromise was possible.
-What can be dome now, when Russia recognized Abkhazia’s independence?
- The majority of the countries didn’t recognized Abkhazia’s independence. The greatest problem is one of repatriation of the refugees. When we held talks with Ardzimba, I was almost certain that they ready to sign a treaty, to establish a joint state. In the same time it was clear they weren’t allow Georgian refugees to return home. We held talks with Yeltsin and Primakov as mediators but the Abkhazians never agreed to allow Georgian refugees to return to Abkhazia. In the same time we couldn’t sign an agreement on such terms.
The only way to settle the matter is to find a compromise. We lived together many years, I believe we should find a possible way out. Both peoples need it.
Interview by Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to VK
