The Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Head of the Parliamentary Delegation to OSCE PA, Nikoloz Samkharadze delivered a speech at the OSCE PA annual session, criticizing the amendments introduced to the OSCE PA Resolution on “The Role of the OSCE in the Current Security Architecture: A Parliamentary Perspective”.

“Just a couple of days ago, when I got registered for the debates, I intended to speak about the security in the Black Sea region, however, the recent developments in the first and third Committees modified my plans. Yesterday, by introducing some amendments to otherwise balanced and effective resolutions, Georgia was exposed to a groundless attack: first of all, out of up to twenty elections forthcoming in the OSCE area in 2024, and 8 elections upcoming for autumn, Georgia’s case was for some reason outlined, putting the fair and dignified elections in Georgia under doubt, and thus, 4 months prior, we witnessed the deliberate attempt to discredit the elections in Georgia. The introduced amendment also implied that the OSCE PA observation missions were ineffective and insufficiently productive. This fact, at least, gives no positive assessment of the activity of the organization. At that, yet another amendment underlined the existing polarization in Georgia and criticized our government for this lingering fact”, - he stated.

According to him, despite that the political polarization poses a far acuter challenge for many OSCE PA countries, this fact is never accentuated, pointing fingers only at Georgia.

“I perceive it as a targeted attack to my country, nothing to speak about numerous accusations that allegedly a new law on Transparency restricts freedom of speech and assembly, which is an appalling lie. France and Canada, also being the OSCE member states, adopted similar laws in the last month but I witnessed none of them mentioned in the resolutions, which pushes me to believe that it was also a deliberate separation of Georgia”.

As he noted, despite all aspects, all these amendments do not stand as acute for the country as that concerning the Georgia-Russia conflict.

“If I was not a witness of this process, I would presume that this amendment and its formulation derived from the Russian Duma and its members but later, I recalled that Russians are not attend here. The formulation of the text in the form introduced to the paragraph about the occupation of Georgian territories by Russia exactly mirrors the texts flowed by Russia for the last 16 years at Geneva Talks that allegedly Russia is not a conflicting side and I cite the extract from the amendment - “Tbilisi-controlled Georgia, Abkhazia and Ossetia controlled by Tbilisi shall be reconciled”, - N. Samkharadze stressed.

Per his statement, the paragraph provides that there are three sides to the conflict - a strangely construed term - Tbilisi-controlled Georgia, Abkhazia and Ossetia.

“I was naively presuming that this organization would recognize only one Georgia - within its internationally recognized borders and believed that I was representing this very organization for the last 4 years. Now, as it seems, the Assembly supposes that there is a Tbilisi-controlled Georgia (absolutely unacceptable term), on the one hand, Abkhazia and Ossetia on the other hand. All these speculations, softly speaking, are heartbreaking. The amendment also prescribes that Russia tries to solve the conflict through various channels, which is pure disinformation and implies the “preservation of a destructive nature” of Russia in Geneva format”.

According to his assessments, all aforementioned is alarming providing that OSCE is a co-chair of Geneva Talks (the representatives of which authored these amendments), is a Geneva format member and a strategic partner to Georgia.

“Introduction of the amendment in hereof wording to the resolution contradicts the territorial integrity of Georgia and the USA-stated policy. It is as well odd that the proposal of Georgia to introduce the occupation of our country into the amendment reflecting the noxious activities of Russia was declined. Due to such a drastic violation of the national interests of Georgia, we are voting against the final declaration. I am well aware that our vote is not cast - we are a small nation, represented by a small delegation, which can be easily overcome. However, we are openly stating that these amendments are not fact-based but biased. It is highly appalling that in this very case, these amendments are to benefit of Russia, however, our intention is intact and we are further protecting our country”, - he stated.