Georgian Parliament official slams Nika Gvaramia’s remarks on Abkhazia, calls them “anti-Georgian”

Levan Makhashvili, the Chair of the Georgian Parliament’s Committee on European Integration, on Monday said that associating Abkhazia with Karabakh had effectively told the public that Georgia had occupied Abkhazia.

Makhashvili’s remarks came after Gvaramia has argued that nations must overcome historical traumas in order to move forward and develop, warning that traumatic memories can act as an obstacle to progress. Discussing the war in Abkhazia and broader regional issues, Gvaramia expressed admiration for Pashinyan, whom he credited with overcoming historical traumas in a short period of time.

“This is a deliberate campaign against Georgia. First, it is the deliberate falsification of history: by associating Abkhazia with Karabakh, they are effectively telling the public that Georgia occupied Abkhazia, supposedly one of Russia’s regions, and that we are the occupiers, and that Abkhazia is Russia”, Makhashvili noted.

“Second, this is an anti-Georgian and anti-European statement, because it is intended to make society believe that if you want to move towards the West, if you want them to roll out the red carpet for you and shake your hand, you have to forget about Abkhazia and consign it to history”, Makhashvili concluded.