APPEAL OF THE PARLIAMENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH OSSETIA TO THE STATE DUMA OF THE FEDERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

The military-political situation in the Caucasus has been exacerbated lately. Under the pretext of the operation against the forces of international terrorism in Pankisi Gorge it is planned to deploy the NATO troops in the territory of Georgia.

Georgia ahs repeatedly tried to incline the international community to the use of military means for settlement of the problem created by her. Statement by the President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze on readiness to resort the forces against South Ossetia and Abkhazia, voiced on 28 February 2002, is another evidence of the aforementioned.

Not once the South Ossetia has become the subject of Georgia’s military aggression. The barefaced attacks to the complete annihilation of the People of South Ossetia were committed in 1989-1992. In those circumstances our people, defending their right to existence and freedom and based on the Union legislation valid by that time, announced the independence of South Ossetia. Then the Russian Federation strongly condemned the genocide of our people and achieved the cease-fire on the South Ossetian earth. However, the further developments have showed that Georgia still continues its aggression against South Ossetia even after the end of war.

Having recognized even its fault in unleashing the war against South Ossetian People Georgia did not make any practical steps for compensating the damage and did nothing for improving the grave situation of people. More than 10 years South Ossetia is experiencing physical independence from Georgia and exists based on its own capacity and Russia’s assistance.

Historical experience approved the credibility of the choice of Ossetian people, who voluntarily joined Russia in 1774. Being the part of the unified Ossetian nation, separated with the state border after dissolution of the USSR, southern Ossetians consider themselves as the citizens of Russia. More then half of the population of South Ossetia is the citizen of the Russian Federation. The Russian language, together with the Ossetian one, is the official state language of the Republic of South Ossetia. South Ossetia considers itself as a part of Russian culture and Russian national space.

Given the real threat of a new aggression against South Ossetia from the Georgian side, based on historical ties with Russia and on the will of people expressed at the Referendum in January 1992, the Parliament of the Republic of South Ossetia submits its appeal to the State Duma of the Russian federation and asks for recognizing the independence of the Republic of South Ossetia, unifying South Ossetia into the Russian federation and deploying on the territory of South Ossetia the Russian troops, in order to protect the thousands of the citizens of the Russian Federation.

Adopted by the Parliament of the Republic of South Ossetia

Tskhinval, 1 March 2002

(Conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Documents 1989-2006 (Supplement to “Kavkazskie Sborniki”, edition #1). Collected and commented by M. A. Volkhonski, B. A. Zakharov, N. Y. Silaev. – Moscow, 2008, p. 222-223/in Russian)