In connection with the joint declaration issued following the 10th trilateral meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, held on June 8 in Istanbul, we declare the following.
The adopted declaration contains a well-established set of theses on regional security issues and, year after year, reproduces general formulations that fail to reflect contemporary geopolitical realities. In particular, the final document reaffirmed "the exceptional importance of restoring Georgia's territorial integrity and sovereignty within its internationally recognized borders." We have to remind the participants of this trilateral mechanism that such calls are completely devoid of legal basis and absolutely ignore irrefutable historical facts.
It is impossible to "restore" something that never existed within the borders of independent Georgia. The Republic of Abkhazia legitimately seceded from the Georgian SSR even before the collapse of the USSR, in strict accordance with the Soviet legislation in effect at the time - in particular, the USSR Law of April 3, 1990, "On the Procedure for Resolving Issues Related to the Secession of a Union Republic from the USSR," which enshrined the right of autonomous entities to independently determine their state and legal status.
Furthermore, Georgia's highest authorities unilaterally destroyed the unified legal framework formed during the Soviet period. By declaring itself the legal successor to the Democratic Republic of Georgia of 1918–1921 and invalidating the 1978 Constitution of the Georgian SSR, Georgia legally annulled all Union legal acts and state structures, thereby effectively terminating state and legal relations with the Abkhazian ASSR.
By declaring all Soviet-era institutions illegal, the Georgian side deprived itself of any legal basis for claiming the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia, which was not part of the pre-Soviet Georgian Republic. Under these circumstances, the subsequent state-building of the Republic of Abkhazia was carried out on completely legal, sovereign principles and in full accordance with the will of the Abkhazian people.
The document's provision on "combatting crimes against cultural and historical heritage" requires separate consideration. We recall that in October 1992, troops of the Georgian State Council deliberately and barbarically burned the Abkhazian State Archives and the Abkhazian Institute of Language, Literature, and History (ABNII) in Sukhum. Unique collections, ancient manuscripts, and documents that formed the core of the cultural and historical heritage of the Abkhazian ethnic group were irrevocably destroyed. This was a deliberate act of cultural genocide, which Georgia still attempts to conceal and for which it has not been held accountable.
We once again remind the parties to this trilateral mechanism that regional security cannot be built on behind-the-scenes agreements that ignore the will of a regional state, whose international legal capacity is recognized by a number of UN member states.
The formation of a sustainable architecture of security and economic cooperation in the South Caucasus, based on real mechanisms rather than declarative approaches, is possible only with the full and equal participation of the Republic of Abkhazia.
However, Georgia's position directly impedes the achievement of this goal. Georgian Foreign Minister Maka Bochorishvili's statements following the meeting once again reproduced well-known, destructive terminology associated with the "occupation" of the Republic of Abkhazia. While resolutely rejecting such speculation, we emphasize that the Russian military contingent is present on the territory of the Republic of Abkhazia on an absolutely legal basis, in strict accordance with existing bilateral interstate agreement, and serves as the only reliable guarantor of peace and security in the region.
A decisive step towards ensuring real security in the South Caucasus must be a change in Georgia's course towards constructive participation in the International Discussions on Security and Stability in the Transcaucasia (IDS) and the signing of a legally binding document on the non-use of military force against the Republic of Abkhazia.