Georgian Parliament official: OSCE no longer discusses Georgia’s occupied territories, focuses on media and protest allegations

Maia Bitadze, Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Environment Protection and Natural Resources Committee, on Thursday claimed that the OSCE, an organisation established to promote security and cooperation in Europe, was no longer discussing the issue of so-called borderisation or the situation in Georgia’s Russian-occupied regions, instead focusing on alleged restrictions on media freedom and demonstrations in the country.

In her interview with Imedi TV, Bitadze responded to the US Congressman Joe Wilson’s resolution, which called for non-recognition of the Georgian 2024 parliamentary elections, which the OSCE assessed as held elections.

“Even the “Moscow Mechanism” is distortedly interpreted in this resolution. The Georgian citizens see this, and so do our colleagues in the OSCE member states, the post-Soviet bloc states, and representatives of the European Union member states. The OSCE, which was established to promote security and cooperation in Europe, is no longer discussing what is happening in Georgia’s occupied territories, the process of so-called borderisation, or the worsening situation in the country’s occupied regions. Instead, it is discussing claims that media freedom is supposedly being restricted in Georgia and that demonstrations are supposedly being banned.”, Bitadze said.

“It was very significant that we heard the head of the Dutch delegation’s assessment of the observation mission on the elections held in Armenia and Moldova, but ultimately the Hague Declaration condemned the elections held in Georgia two years ago and called into question the conclusions made by the OSCE observation mission”, she continued.

Bitadze added that these developments represented a clear attempt to weaken the OSCE and undermine its role.

“The OSCE was the last bastion for our radicals and their lobbyists, who are placing their own delegation in an embarrassing position. The scale of the organisation’s instrumentalisation was such that we clearly saw and heard regret behind the scenes over the use of double standards towards Georgia”, she concluded.