On May 19, 2023, Kan Tania, Ambassadors at Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Abkhazia and Vito Grittani took part in the Notizie Oggi program of the major Italian TV Canale Italia.
The topic of the program was a special Russian military operation in Ukraine and a comparative analysis with other conflicts in the post-Soviet space as a whole.
In particular, the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-1993 was touched upon. and the path of the formation of the modern Abkhazian state.
The Abkhazian diplomats Kan Tania and Vito Grittani, who were invited to the program, spoke about the differences between the Georgian-Abkhaz war and the special military operation, why Georgia unleashed the war, and why the people of Abkhazia chose the path of building a sovereign state after the Victory.
“Two referendums were held in Abkhazia in 1994 and in 1999, at which the people unequivocally determined the future fate of the country - the construction of a sovereign, democratic, rule of law state,” Kan Tania emphasized.
Moreover, the diplomats spoke about the purpose for which since 2014 the Abkhazian volunteers have been defending the Donbass.
“Abkhazian volunteers went to defend the people of Donbass because they could not remain indifferent to the systematic discrimination based on ethnicity by the Kyiv authorities. This is the same disrespect for their native language, culture and traditions that Georgians once showed to the Abkhaz,” said Kan Tania.
Vito Grittani spoke about the challenges citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia face in the EU countries:
“At the moment, higher education diplomas, passports and other documents issued in the Republic of Abkhazia are not recognized by the countries of the European Union. In this regard, together with competent lawyers, we prepared an appeal and sent it to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy with a request to organize a working group in order to develop a mechanism that would allow the citizens of Abkhazia to realize the basic human rights of access to education and medicine.”
The studio was also attended by Italian legal experts who visited Donbass as international observers during referendums in the DPR, LPR, Kherson and Zaporozhny regions.
Vito Grittani spoke about the challenges citizens of the Republic of Abkhazia face in the EU countries:
Abkhazian diplomats express their special gratitude to Vito Monaco, the host of the program for providing an important platform for voicing objective information about the Republic of Abkhazia
