TIME Aug 10 2008

Georgia Wants U.S. to Restrain Russia

Sunday, Aug. 10, 2008

Five days after Georgian troops stormed into South Ossetia to reclaim
control of the tiny breakaway territory, they were in retreat on
Sunday after being battered by Russian forces. But the Russians have
not confined themselves to pushing Georgian forces out of South
Ossetia, and ongoing Russian attacks have hit close to the Georgian
capital and along its coastline. Hundreds of South Ossetians are dead
and thousands have fled their homes, some sheltering in decrepit
schools with no electricity or water. Georgia is a close ally of the
U.S. and has a large troop contingent in Iraq. Its government is
hoping that President Bush and other Western leaders will lean on
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to call off his troops. But that hope
might be in vain, given the limits of Western leverage over Moscow,
and the need for Russian cooperation on Iran. Georgia’s Foreign
Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili spoke to TIME about her country’s
calamitous week and what comes next:

TIME: Didn’t you walk into Russia’s trap? Russia provoked Georgia, and
you responded, and then they launched an all-out attack. Was there no
other way out here?

Tkeshelashvili: We have been forced into this situation. There was
shelling of Georgian villages. We sent a special envoy. We tried to
communicate that all we wanted was negotiations. Then when the Russian
equipment and armed forces started moving into South Ossetia ‘ at that
point we had no other choice but to respond, otherwise we would have
stood by idly watching people die on the ground.

TIME: Why is South Ossetia such a key contest for Russia and Georgia?

Tkeshelashvili: We feared that Russia would do everything possible to
stop any prospect for the success of Georgia joining NATO. That is the
ultimate goal that Russia had, and still has. We are a former Soviet
country which is becoming fully independent and oriented to Western
development. That challenges every notion of the Russian Federation,
that their sphere of influence over former Soviet countries should be
very firm. We are getting closer to Europe, closer to NATO. If we are
successful, then other former Soviet countries will follow that
path. It is not only Georgia that is concerned. It is much bigger.

TIME: So what can the United States and Europe do?

Tkeshelashvili: We are hopeful. Europe and the U.S. have extremely
powerful leverage in persuading Russia that it has to stop its
aggression in Georgia, and it has to find what conditions there are
for genuine lasting, sustaining ceasefire and then security for this
part of the Georgian state. The United Nations and United States has
to stop Russian aggression. If Russia is successful then we are facing
the new world rules of behavior and coexistence of sovereign states.

TIME: That still leaves Georgia wanting full control over South
Ossetia.

Tkeshelashvili: Territories are not the end goal. We want to
consolidate George for development, democracy, and to be part of
Europe and NATO. That is our goal.

TIME: What is your major objection to the South Ossetia and Abkhazia
separatists?

Tkeshelashvili: We have to be clear what these movements are. In South
Ossetia, most of the government officials are active members of the
military and security forces of the Russian Federation. South Ossetia
and Abkhazia were multiethnic communities in which Georgians might
have been in the majority, but there were also large communities of
Greeks, Jews, Ukrainians, and Armenians there. Now both territories
have basically an apartheid regime. They are ethnically cleansed
territories where some remnants of previous ethnic communities are
oppressed with the help from Russia. I just was in the village of
Gori. I saw with my own eyes the level of destruction, a woman dead
among the destroyed buildings. It’s a humanitarian disaster.

TIME: You are recalling all the Georgian soldiers from Iraq. Is this a
big blow to your relationship with the US?

Tkeshelashvili: We are being bombed. Russia is a big state, we are a
small state. So we have to mobilize all the forces we have.

,85 99,1831244,00.html

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress