CoE official Verbeek condemns so-called parliamentary elections in de facto Abkhazia

President of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, Leendert Verbeek, has condemned so-called parliamentary elections in Georgia’s Russian occupied Abkhazia region.

 

“By organizing these ‘elections’, the so-called “de facto” authorities of Abkhazia, once again, undermined the principle of the territorial integrity of Georgia forcing this region further into isolation, to the detriment of the local population,” he said.

 

Vebeek stated that the Congress has always shown its ‘unrelenting commitment’ to the territorial integrity of member States within its internationally recognised borders.

 

“This principle is all the more important in the current context of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine,” he stated, noting that not only since 24 February “we know that the illegal recognition of territories of other member States can be only one step ahead of further aggression and war.  This is the bitter lesson we have to learn, eventually.”

 

Verbeek stressed that any sort of action undermining the territorial integrity and sovereignty of a member State, will be strongly condemned.