TSKHINVALI, August 5 (Itar-Tass) —— Independence and international recognition are the main achievements of South Ossetia, while its current goal is construction, South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity said in an interview with the Netherlands magazine, Vrij Nederland. The interview was posted on the presidential website on Friday.
“Independence and international recognition are our biggest achievements. The 18 years of blockade, the constant state of war and the events of August 2008 had a hard impact on our people and country. For the past three years our people have had a totally different, peaceful life and have pursued totally different tasks – preservation of peace, creation and construction,” he said.
The South Ossetian administration “will continue the current course, promote further recognition of the republic’ s independence, maintain domestic and external stability and develop relations with other countries, primarily Russia as the strategic partner and ally,” he said.
Peace and security of the republic are being ensured “thanks to the Russian recognition of independent South Ossetia and the bilateral agreements on the deployment of the Russian fourth base and border guards on the territory of South Ossetia,” Kokoity said. “Thanks to that our people, who had to protect their fatherland with arms for years, can live a peaceful live now.”
Kokoity thanked Russia for the assistance and said that South Ossetia would develop relations with the international community and tell the world the truth about the events of August 2008 and the earlier period.
“The world and Europe do not know the cause of the conflict and many details of our relationship with Georgia,” he said.
Kokoity said he was amazed when he “learned at meetings with representatives of European organizations after August 2008 that they did not know about the peace initiatives we had been putting forward since 2001 and Georgia ignored.”
“So, it is our duty to tell the world public the whole truth about those events and to express our concern about the processes underway in Georgia,” he said.
“We will try to warn the international community about the mistakes, which were made before August 2008 and caused by the policy of double standards,” Kokoity concluded.