Georgian president denies new youth camp is military base

Channel 1, Tbilisi
26 May 07

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has denied reports that a newly
established youth camp was a military base.
Speaking at the opening ceremony for the Patriotic Youth Camp in the
village of Ganmukhuri, near the border of the self-declared republic
of Abkhazia on 26 May, Saakashvili said: "I would like to address
those high-ranking diplomats who said that this camp of peace and
friendship was a military base and military infrastructure… Here
they are looking from binoculars and see that there is nothing
military here."
Saakashvili said that the camp was open to people of all
ethnicities. "I would like to tell everybody that this is not a camp
for ethnic Georgians [only]. Unlike some politicos, Georgians do not
think in ethnic terms. Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Jews, Greeks,
Ossetians, Tskhinvali Ossetians will come and rest here. And,
certainly, we are inviting the Abkhaz from Sukhumi, Gagra, Ochamchire
and Gudauta. The reason is that I want them to see that Georgia,
their homeland, is a multiethnic country, composed of people of a
variety of faiths."
Saakashvili added: "Ethnic Abkhaz have a unique chance to preserve
their identity and self-awareness within the multiethnic, democratic
and pluralistic Georgia which will be a guarantor of their autonomous
development and the preservation of their self-government and
uniqueness."