President Aslan Abashidze, speaking before a Council of Europe Congress, earlier this summer in Strasbourg, France, focused on the circumstances that had led two peoples, Georgians and Abkhazian, who had lived together in peace and mutual respect, to enter into a fratricidal war.

The Adjarian President appealed to political leaders to help his country to find a new form of common strategic interest, which would enable them to re-establish peace and democracy in this geo-politically significant country, and especially to help bring a peaceful settlement to the Abkhazian dispute, which had already claimed hundreds of thousands of victims.

“The Abkhazian crisis resulted from an extremely centralized system of government,” Abashidze said. The Adjarian leader described possible solutions, “The conflict was first local and then regional and this is why a body like the Congress can play a vital role in bringing an end to the tragedy. It is crucial to organize the return of refugees and rebuild the country, particularly its communication and energy supply networks.”

President Abashidze also called for the lifting of the economic sanctions affecting the country, saying “no recovery would be possible unless the economic and social situation of the population improved.”