Davit Jalaghania. (Interpressnews.)
TBILISI, DFWatch–Two government spokespersons in Georgia Tuesday sought to downplay the significance of a news report that the Georgian breakaway regions will take part in the Olympics as independent nations.
Georgia was planning to send a note of protest after the Russian Olympic committee’s decision was reported, but it emerged on Monday that Tbilisi is reluctant to make such a move and has decided to handle the issue differently.
Davit Jalaghania, Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister, said that Abkhazia and South Ossetia aren’t named separately on any official website related to the International Olympic Committee, the IOC, but that they were named in a list published by the organization that accredits journalists for the event, the European association of sports magazines; which he called ‘an error’.
Correcting the error must be up to the Olympic committee, he argued, as Georgia’s Olympic committee made a decision that Georgian sportsmen will also participate in the Sochi 2014 Olympics.
“They must be interested in this and I am sure they are interested. They must correct this error,” he said. “As far as I know, an appropriate demand is already sent in order to correct this.”
Jalaghania remarked that if needed, every government body is ready to send separate complaints about this issue, but he thinks it is more logical if the Olympic committee solves it.
Zurab Abashidze, PM’s representative for Russian relations, said that ‘Georgia has a firm guarantee that either Abkhazia or so-called South Ossetia will not participate in the Sochi Olympic games.’
He said that Georgia doesn’t even consider this a theoretical possibility.
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