EU membership has no value for Georgia without Russian-occupied regions, Speaker Papuashvili

Georgia's EU membership would have no value without (the currently Russian occupied) Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said on Monday, accusing the opposition of promoting a foreign-orchestrated campaign to separate European integration from the country's territorial integrity.

“EU membership has no value for Georgia without Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region. Everyone should remember this,” Papuashvili told journalists.

Papuashvili was responding to recent remarks by Nika Gvaramia, a leader of the Coalition for Change, who said Georgians and Abkhazians currently regard each other as enemies and that their relationship could not be transformed simply through appeals to mutual love.

Papuashvili claimed Gvaramia's comments were part of a broader campaign advocating Georgia's integration into the EU without Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region.

He also criticised Gvaramia's comparison of the Abkhazia conflict with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying Gvaramia had suggested that Armenia's decision to move beyond the “trauma” of Karabakh had opened the way for closer relations with Brussels.

Papuashvili further noted similar messages were being directed at Ukraine and Moldova in relation to their respective territorial conflicts. He described the alleged campaign as being “directly orchestrated from abroad”.

Papuashvili further claimed that the narrative promoted by Gvaramia ultimately amounted to surrendering Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region to Russia. He said such a campaign would not gain support among Georgians.